A Toyota Camry sedan, seen in the far east of Beijing a couple of years ago. The good Camry was sadly in a pretty sad shape, with fading black paint and lots of cracks and dirt. Even the license plate has seen better times.
The Toyota was made from 2001 until 2006. It was manufactured in Japan, the United States, Australia, and assembled in a whole lot of other countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
The XV Toyota Camry was officially sold in China as an import by Toyota, but only for a short time. Sales started in 2004 and lasted until 2007. By that year, production of the Camry had already ended, so Toyota probably made some last extra batches for the Chinese market. Local production in China of the Camry began in 2006, with the XV40 Aurion at Guangzhou-Toyota.
Toyota only sold the 2.4 liter model in China, rated at 157 hp and 220 Nm. Gearbox was a four-speed automatic, sending horses to the front wheels. There was no manual option. There was just one trim level, and price was 336.800 yuan, which was actually decent for an imported car of this size and power.
The sporty 5-spoke wheels were factory standard.
Happily, the interior was in a much better shape than the exterior! The faux wood and classy beige leather all seem in fine shape. The owner replaced the original radio-CD player with a cheap screen-based infotainment system. These systems were very popular in the early 00’s, they usually played MP3 music and MP4 video, and some even had rudimentary navigation.
The XV30 was a roomy car with a 2720 mm wheelbase, so passengers in the back had lots of space for the legs.
The typical Camry badge with the underlined A. Even though it was priced about right the XV30 Camry didn’t sell very well, mainly due to the lack of a large dealer network at the time. Still, the XV30 started to cement the strong reputation of the Camry in China, a reputation that endures until today, and that alone was worth a lot.
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