The new Toyota Camry – How far are you willing to compromise for the brand?

The old fashion adage of “Less is More” refers to the fact that sometimes, not going overboard with make-ups and accessories accentuates the natural beauty of a person. This seems to be the guiding principle of UMW when deciding on the spec sheet as well as price of the upcoming new Toyota Camry. Now, you’ve probably read a Gigabyte worth of webpages on how dumb it is for a person to be buying the new Camry. In a nut shell, here’s how things stand compared to the older version:

1) Price increase across all variants (2.0E increase RM7k, 2.0G increase RM5k and 2.4V replaced with 2.5V priced RM8,000 higher)
2) SAME engine and gearbox technology first introduced 12 years ago. Toyota must be laughing all the way to the bank for doing R&D; once then milking it for more than a decade)
3) Still only 2 airbags for the 2.0 variant
4) Worse still is the  omission of key features such Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) in the 2.5V variant and cruise control in the 2.0E variant.
5) No ISOFIX for child seats

In today’s local automotive scene, buyers have a lot more to choose from. A quick comparison of Asian made D segment cars can be seen here:

The Camry is already under spec-ed as it is, especially with Korean fishes swimming in the pond. But that’s not all! At the 2.5V asking price of RM183,000, the Japanese Giant has entered the continental pool which has been steadily making their cars more affordable for Malaysians. Here’s how they stack up:

While it is understandable that the Japanese Yen has indeed gone up and this is probably the main reason for the price increase, I can’t help but wonder if the omission of features such as the VSC would be the straw that would break the camel’s back. I don’t think it would …. no matter what, the Camry will continue to sell because Toyota does not sell on technology. Their entire business model is based on reliability and a proven after sales system. From here, 2nd hand buyers gain confidence in the cars, hence a brand commanding one of the highest 2nd hand value in the market. So, condemn as much as we like, there will still be buyers …. the difference is probably not as much in sales numbers compared to previous incarnations since we now have more options. The sun will continue to rise and set, the moon will still wax and wane and aunties and uncles will still buy a Camry

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