All Cars, All the Time

New Camry a Sellout


Toyota dealers are seeing a fantastic 10 days-to-turn rate (the number of days a vehicle spends on a dealership lot) for the new Camry causing one distributor to quip "Customers are following the car carriers to the dealership."

What is interesting to me is that according to an Automotive News report, the previous Camry was only stocked by dealers as a loss-leader so that they could become eligible for hotter, more profitable models. The cars often sold for below dealer invoice. That seems to be a bit hard to believe given the Camry's amazing sales run. Certainly a good number of Camry's sold for greater than invoice.

Previous sales aside, the new Camry is a winner. I've seen them plying the freeways and I must say that they do look better than the previous generation. If you liken the 2006 Camry to vanilla ice cream, then the 2007 Camry has the little flecks of vanilla bean than make Breyer's ice cream one of the tastiest on the market. I just never get tired of that stuff! I think that the same can be said for American's affection for the Camry. Hopefully the raft of powertrain issues plaguing the early editions has been rectified in present and future production models.

Of more interest is the fact that Toyota is looking to boost capacity for the Camry. Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky plant will begin producing 48,000 hybrid Camrys and that in turn will increase the number of standard Camrys being shipped from Japan. Toyota will also be making use of its investment in Subaru, when Subie's Indiana plant will begin building Camrys at a rate of 100,000 units per year. However, according to sources those Camrys will decrease the number shipped from Japan. We'll see if that's the case of the Camry continues to fly.