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  According to Paul Pottinger, the Camry is the milky tea and arrowroot biscuit of sedans.

This communiqu? plopped into my inbox this morning...

“Toyota has marked the arrival of the 1.5-millionth Australian-built Camry – a 23-year local production history that includes significant sales to Australian and overseas customers.”

Why is it this occasion, which, we’re told was “recognised at an official ceremony at the company’s Altona manufacturing plant” – a sober event, no doubt – fails to instil feelings of joy or pride at this success of local manufacture.

Can it be because the Camry is a synonym for anodyne, made for buyers to whom the purchase of a car is approached with the same joyless deliberation as they choose a fridge, a washing machine, or their (invariably) coastal holiday? Those for whom Mazda and Honda are just a bit too racy? Indeed, for this crowd Camry is a synonym for car, people whose unvaryingly one-dimensional nature of life is a source of comfort and rejoicing.

The Camry is the milky tea and arrowroot biscuit of sedans (the so-called Sportivo version is milky tea with an artificial sweetener). Seldom has there been a car sales story for which the words “units shifted” is more apt – as in indistinguishable, functional, anonymous, and dull.

Recently Toyota has been shown to be fallible to the tune of 8.5 million recalls and, also in the United States, subject to grim accusations from the highest offices in the land. These issues go to the heart of Toyota’s reputation reliability and safety.

So if there’s a point to this outpouring, it’s this: having long-since expunged from its line-up any car capable of inspiring the least excitement, surely it would now do Toyota more good than harm to go down that road again. Why not develop some of concepts its trots out at motor shows to provide eye candy on its otherwise arid stands?

Oh, for some feeling...