Toyota Motor Corp. remade the Camry sedan, its best-selling U.S.
vehicle, to try to liven up the model to maintain its dominance in
a field where competitors have gained market share with more risky
designs.
Most noticeable on the 2015 Camry, which was unveiled to
reporters at the New York International Auto Show Wednesday, was
the new grille, which adopts the spindle design that Toyota uses on
its Lexus luxury brand. It is also slightly longer and wider and
has a more pronounced spoiler and new body lines down its sides.
Inside, Toyota added softer materials to counter the 2014 model's
harder plastic surfaces. The redesigned car will go on sale later
this year.
Toyota last year sold 408,484 Camrys in the U.S., making it the
best-selling car and second-best selling vehicle in the U.S. behind
Ford's F-150 pickup. But the Ford Fusion and Nissan Altima gained
significant ground on them with fresh designs.
Toyota also announced that it has named Monte Kaehr as the chief
engineer for the Camry. He had a big hand in the current overhaul,
but the promotion to chief engineer came just before the release of
the model at the show. Chief engineers are vital positions that
have wide control over the development direction of a model.
The U.S.-based engineer becomes the fifth U.S. engineer to be
put in charge of vehicle programs and points to Toyota's growing
reliance on the U.S. to design and engineer vehicles. The company
has two engineering centers and a design center near Ann Arbor,
Mich., as well as design and sales operations in California.
Engineers in the U.S. already have control over the design of the
Avalon, Sienna, Venza, Tundra, Tacoma and RAV4 electric
vehicle.
This near-remake of the Camry, less than three years after an
earlier overhaul is unusual in the auto industry, which
historically has waited five years or longer between major changes
to body styles.
But it isn't as unusual as it once was as car companies are able
to redesign cars more quickly with the aid of powerful computing
assistance. For instance, Honda Motor Co. made significant changes
to its Civic in less than two years after the model was knocked by
reviewers following its launch.
Write to Mike Ramsey at michael.ramsey@wsj.com
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