Toyota Camry 2005 Facelift

boomsama

bad news is that toyota is thinking of cutting the production of V6 Camrys and making them only 4 cylinders. They think that offering the Avalon as the only V6 could be good.

motownusa

In fact it could be quite the contrary. The 05 Altima will boast a 250 Hp engine, the Accord V6 produce about 240 Hp. Toyota could actually increase Camry's horspower to 230 to 240 for V6 versions. True V6 Camrys only account for 20% of all Camrys sold. But it still translates to almost 90,000 cars a year. I doubt Toyota will concede this market so easily.

6thbeatle

toyota could remedy their power shortcoming relative to the accord by maintaining the current 230hp and simply boosting torque, since honda's V6 produces much less torque than horsepower. this would make the camry feel faster off the line and in everyday driving situations where it's needed most. hp ratings are just for bragging rights on paper.

take for example the BMW 3 series. one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed versions in europe is the diesel engine-powered 3, not for its meagre hp output, but because of its enormous torque--i believe over 280 ft lbs!
it's verrry quick.

boomsama

one thing they could improve on is increase the engine power or get a better V6 down here in aus to compete against those V8s :/

6thbeatle

you're lucky down under to get so many cool V8 powered cars! i wish GM would just bring over cars like those in the Holden line-up intact. the post-op front end and body of the pontiac GTO looked much better as a monaro in my opinion.

boomsama

i like the monaro better

yeah, australia is the land of the V8 supercars, gets annoying that no other brands like toyota/mitsubish can really match their performance. They ought to bring the lexus V8 down here as well.

It would be nice if the next camry had the 3.3L engine with 5 sp auto that the US has down here.

alpha01

I apologize if I'm not reading your post correctly, but I'm not quite sure what you mean.

The Camry 3.3L V6 produces 225hp and 240 lb. ft. at 3600RPM. This is already a substantial 28 foot pound advantage over the Accord 3.0L V6, and this engine, acccording to Car and Driver, has producecd sub-7 second runs to 60 in the Solara (a hair better than the Accord). I think adding more torque to this engine would be playing with fire, as it seems that vehicles whose engines put torque to the pavement exclusively via the front wheels have significant torque steer issues when ratings rise above the 240ish lb. ft. threshold. Witness the 249lb. ft. Altima, for example.

Did you mean Toyota should add more torque to the 3.0L 210hp V6 that is used in the LE and XLE?

~alpha

motownusa

Isn't the Mitsubishi Evo available down under? I know it is being offered in the UK. That car can give the Holden Monaro a run for its money. The Vvti V6 in the Camry is only available for North America. You are right though - Australia a land of wide open space deserves the more potent 3.3L 225 Hp V6 found on the SE model of the Camry.

6thbeatle

yes, i was referring to the 2995cc powerplant. i was thinking a 5 ft/lbs bump in torque could give the V6 midlevel camry that little extra edge over the accord at that price point. not a big deal though. i agree, the toyota V6s are excellent engines, well matched to the chassis of the car.

boomsama

yes, those V6's are nice engines, but we need some more "oomph" in our engines down here to compete in the large car performance sector

The Evo is available down here, but i'm talking big V8s. Somehow, their images just arent the same

boomsama

and... if you had a look at our engines down here, we still have the 1MZ-FE, and the 3MZ-FE (i think thats the US camry engine) in our Kluger (aussie Highlander)

ariesvirgo

I wonder if this is going to be the new '05 Camry:

http://www.toyota.com.tw/vehicle/camry/camry_index.shtm

If so, I am going to trade-in my '03 Accord EXL for one of those.

boomsama

yeah, I posted one of those links before. It may be possible that it might be the '05 Camry. But many have thought that it is possible that they don't have the Avalon in countries like Taiwan, so they need a higher class car there, i.e. Camry. So they're probably making it more "upper" class in design and all.

6thbeatle

that's a sweet looking camry if that's what it be. look pretty upscale with the chrome bits and judging from the upsweep rear edge of the rear door, it shore look like a camry to these eyes!

lok888

It is a better looking Carmy. As the 2004 model already came out, I think this may be the 2005 facelift with some cosmetic change. It is pretty much like what they did on '00 and '01 model of the previous generation of Camry. And I assume the next Camry (2007) will be here in late 2006. Yes. Most Camry buyers are in management and executive positions in Asian countries. It is well too expensive to get Lexus.

boomsama

in certain countries, lexus are still badged as toyotas

lok888

Maybe I am wrong. I guess Japan is the only country without Lexus.

boomsama

Yes, but all Lexus' are badged as toyotas over there, so they still have that level of luxury

petl

Toyota will soon have vehicles with Lexus badges in Japan (model year 2006 I believe).

boomsama

usually we might be able to look at the Lexus ES for the next camry, but there hasnt been any hints of what the next Lexus ES is going to look like.

bklynguy

This person works at the Georgetown plant and saw a 2005 Camry SE.

http://www.camryman.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1500

alpha01

Outstanding, thank you for that info. Sounds like very attractive updates. And from the mention of "summer" commercials, I think we are going to see the revised Camry earlier than Sept/Oct timeframe. Perhaps added impetus came from Nissan's recently introduced and improved 05 Altima. For me, the Camry faces stiff competition from a formerly unnoticed foe- the Subaru Legacy. The 2005 model of that vehicle looks to be truly outstanding, and has won accolades such as Japan's Car of the Year. (Standard 4 wheel discs, AWD, ABS, and side/side curtains. Very slick looking interior and exterior, and an improved version of Subaru's 2.5L engine. Available 250hp turbo.)

I am very interested to see the mechanical changes to the 2005 Camry- hopefully wider availability of side airbags and curtains, VSC, and a few extra HP will be available for the 4s, and I wonder if the LE/XLE V6s will continue with the 3.0L engine, or move to the 3.3L.

~alpha

PS- Host, is there a reason why the requests to change the name of this forum to "2005 Camry" (from the current incorrect name) by me and others have been ignored?

Kirstie_H

Uh... just because I goofed. I meant to do it, then forgot. It's done now.

dudleyr

Hopefully standard ABS for 2005 - that is the only way I would buy a Camry as it seems impossible to locate a manual tranny with ABS and no sunroof.

lok888

Great info. And the good about this is he allowed to tell many insider information. It is a totally different story for Honda. He gave many details on headlights and tail lights.

alpha01

Is anyone able to understand Toyota's marketing strategies these days? What EXACTLY is a "Standard Camry". The way this Press Release describes it, it sounds like an LE, but cheaper, with no loss of equipment? What? It also sounds like it is still an 04 model, not an 05 just yet. If anyone knows anything, please share.

http://pressroom.toyota.com/photo_library/display_release.html?id- =20040402b

~alpha

alpha01

Apparently, the 2004 Camry (w/o Side Airbags) has been crash tested by NHTSA. The ratings are remarkably different from the Camry's former ratings.

2002 Camry
Frontal Impact:
Driver 5 stars/Passenger 4 stars
Side Impact:
Driver 2 stars/Passenger 5 stars

2003 Camry
Frontal Impact:
Driver 5 stars/Passenger 4 stars
Side Impact:
Driver 3 stars/Passenger 5 stars

2004 Camry
Frontal Impact:
Driver 4 stars/Passenger 4 stars
Side Impact:
Driver 4 stars/Passenger 3 stars

So, for the 2004 model year, in the frontal impact, the driver dummy dropped to 4 stars, despite no engineering changes to the restraint and or frontal structure.

In the side impact, the Driver dummy increase to 4 stars, but the rear passenger dropped AN ENTIRE 2 stars to a 3 star rating. However, I am not aware of any engineering changes to the rear door/and or side beam enginner and construction.

VERY interesting. What gives at NHTSA? I'm not sure why, but the 2004 Camry produced an HIC on the rear dummy that is dangerously high- 999-but I dont believe this is included in the star rating. Odd that the HIC for the rear dummy in the 2002/2003 was in the 470s. (At the time this was not reported on the summary page, but can be still be found on the vehicles detailed and ultra huge PDF file).
~alpha

asaw

http://www.toyotasingapore.com.sg/showroom/camry/

Personally I like the new tail lights better in the Taiwan and Vietnamese Toyota websites. Also the front lights in those sites look more "high class" than the Singapore one.

alpha01

But good attempt at digging up some dirt! The fascia and taillamps do not seem congruous with the description of the 2005 Camry that has been posted by others on different boards ("others" that work at TMMK, and have seen the advertising cars).

~alpha

asaw

So the new tail lights for the 05 Camry are like those as shown on the Taiwanese/Vietnamese web sites? Not according to the posts I've been reading. It's probably more in line with the Singapore site.