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Toyota Camry key to workers' future

Biggest news for Australia is a new Camry model - the Atara, which means crown in Jewish and future in Japanese.

It's the bedrock of Toyota Australia's manufacturing plan downunder for at least the next five years and goes on sale in November following a global reveal - including Melbourne - this morning.

The seventh-generation Camry is typical of every car that's worn the badge, with safe and conservative looks designed not to offend the buyers in more than 100 countries who will be driving it.

It's a little edgier than the current Camry but the real improvements are promised in everything from cabin space and quietness to fuel economy and emissions.

Biggest news for Australia is a new Camry model - the Atara, which means crown in Jewish and future in Japanese - with a bit more funk thanks to a twin-pipe exhaust and other improvements that were not discussed today.

Also still private today are likely pricing, exact production numbers and the planned export program for the car. But Toyota Australia is confident the new Camry will be good enough to boost output at is Altona factory back over 100,000 cars in 2012. That's still short of the all-time record of 126,000 but a major improvement over the 88,000 production forecast for this year.

"We're about to open a new chapter in the history of Toyota. It's a car that does everything better," trumpets Toyota Australia's head of sales and marketing, Dave Buttner. "We've invested heavily. It is a symbol of Toyota."

Camry has been built in Australia for the past 24 years and it has been the country's favourite medium-sized car for the past 17 years. 

Total production has now topped 1.2 million cars and more than 850,000 of those have been shipped overseas.

Buttner says the launch timing for the new Camry is November for the four-cylinder model, the first quarter of 2012 for the Camry hybrid and the second quarter for the V6-powered Aurion. All cars will use engines imported from Japan until a $300 million overhaul of the company's engine factory in Melbourne is complete in the third quarter of next year.

The unveiling today reveals a car with all-new sheetmetal but Toyota Australia is not revealing the car's cabin, which it says has differences from the American interior which is already public.

"There are certain features we would like to leave up our sleeves to excite and titillate you," says Buttner.