Toyota Camry 2009 News

Australia's first hybrid, a petrol-electric Camry, is set for production in 2010 and work is nearly finished on the extra assembly stations at Altona. But, before the Camry hybrid, Toyota also has a minor tweak for the Camry and Aurion in the third quarter of this year. It's mostly about improved efficiency and value, but there will be changes to the front and rear bodywork. Toyota Thailand gave a hint on the new direction when it unveiled its version of the Camry hybrid last week, although the headlight and tail lamp treatments are sharper and more edgy than the Australian car. The local Camry will get new-style headlamps, most likely projector beams, and will have a new type of tail lamp cluster produced on an all-new production line at Hella Australia in Mentone. The facelift design work has been done at Toyota Style Australia under the direction of Paul Beranger and should be more acceptable to Australian tastes. But Toyota Australia refuses to make any comment on the upcoming updates, or the exact timing of the hybrid Camry. "Yes, there will be an update to the Camry and Aurion this year. But you will have to wait to see what we have," says Toyota spokesman, Mike Breen.

The Carsguide diary has been full for more than a year with the latest and greatest from the 40-plus brands with showrooms in Australia, but June is quiet. And it's not just the winter chill.We're seeing things go quiet as all the big brands concentrate on doing big numbers through one of the two biggest months of the year. They know June is the time to cash-in on end-of-financial-year splurges, boosted this year by the Federal government's 50 per cent investment allowance.June is also the time to take stock and plan for a second-half splurge, with Toyota and Holden planning major back-end action on the Camry and Commodore and everyone from Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen — the MiTo and Golf GTi — promising something good before the end of 2009.We're also moving into the mid-summer launch season in the northern hemisphere, and will be reporting soon on everything from the new Kia Sorento coupe to the Porsche Panamera and BMW's super SUV, the X6.And then there is Great Wall, which is just about to preview the first Chinese utes and cars to be sold in Australia.So it's quiet now but the chill will fade fast in coming months.

Macrow closes gapTim Macrow has closed the gap to British raider Joey Fisher after the latest leg of the Australian Formula 3 championship at Phillip Island. He claimed pole and won the second heat, after Fisher claimed the first, to close the points gap to the series leader to 17. In other action at the Island, David Wall was the GT championship winner in his Porsche GT3 and Brett Holdsworth claimed top points in the Commodore Cup.Ambrose in solid run MARCOS Ambrose continued his top-10 form with another solid run from the 14th starting spot in the latest round of the Sprint Cup on his home track at Charlotte, North Carolina. Ambrose came home tenth in his Toyota Camry, a solid build-up to the giant Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte this weekend, and a result which also kept him in the top 20 in the Nascar championship.Davison on test track ALEX Davison had his first full day of V8 Supercar testing at Queensland Raceway last week and is hopeful of improved form in coming races with Stone Brothers Racing. His Irwin Ford was also lapped by Mark Winterbottom of Ford Performance Racing as the two blue oval factory teams swap information in a bid to drive them forward and end the domination of the TeamVodafone cars of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowdnes.McFarlane returns Andrew McFarlane returned from eight years overseas to blitz the field in the first race in the Australian Motocross round at Toowoomba's Echo Valley. But Jay Marmont still leads the Pro Open championship by13 points while Matt Moss closed the lead to Luke George in the Pro Lites series.ARC wraps up THE Australian Rally Championship will wrap in November following the postponement of the Coffs Harbour event originally set for June. Heavy rainfall over the course for the Daikin Coffs Coast Rally in March forced the organisers to re-schedule the event, although the exact date for the forest racing grand final has still to be set.Lola back in F1 LOLA is returning to Formula One in 2010 in a move which would see it join the proposed US GP team in a cost-capped world championship. The world's largest racing car manufacturer has not bee in F1 for more than a decade, after its last effort collapsed after an appearance at the Australian Grand Prix when funding from a major finance company did not eventuate.Repco route confirmed The route for the return of Repco Rally Australia to the world championship has been confirmed with a 340-kilometre course in the northern rivers region of NSW. The rally will be run from September3-6 and is expected to boost the local economy in the around around Murwillumbah by more than $30 million.Tagliani out ALEX Tagliani was the only high-profile casualty during final qualifying for this year's Indianapolis 500, with the former Champ Car front-runner missing a place in the 33-car field. The lineup for the race on May 24 is set with Helio Castroneves on pole — with Australia's Ryan Briscoe and Will Power in second and ninth starting spots — and Ryan Hunter-Ray at the back of the field.

The cost of ownership of new-generation alternative fuel cars has also been highlighted at a high-level meeting last week between 10 carmakers and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.The FCAI wants to fast-track a united front by the industry as it prepares car buyers for the rapid growth of green cars. The chamber's chief executive, Andrew McKellar, says there is an urgent need for infrastructure to be in place for electric cars, new-generation plug-in hybrids, ethanol and alternative fuels."There is a sense of urgency in the industry as we have a number of brands preparing to bring in cars with new fuel technologies," he says. "There is a roll for co-ordination across the industry to ensure that we're pursuing a more pro-active strategy to work with all stakeholders."The approach with electric vehicles needs to be seen as one element of a higher strategy that also relates to environmental and green vehicles."These technologies present an enormous global challenge, he says. "Around the world the challenge of achieving enhanced environmental performance is one of the most pressing priorities the car industry has," McKellar says. "In the case of electric vehicles we have one very practical example of an emerging technology that has accelerated in the past few years."Apart from infrastructure needs, the FCAI's electric vehicle working group will identify the types of vehicles expected to be launched as well as technical and registration requirements of new-generation hybrids and plug-in electric cars.Mitsubishi Australia, which hopes to have its i-MIEV electric car on sale soon, was one of the participants at the FCAI meeting. Spokesperson Lenore Fletcher says it is pleasing to see all parties ‘start to find our voice in terms of acceptance’. "We are coming to grips with the requirements of the new technology," she says.Apart from Mitsubishi, Toyota and Honda will soon introduce new hybrids. In addition to the new Prius, Toyota will introducing the hybrid Camry early next year. And GM-Holden is aiming to have its Volt ‘range-extender’ hybrid on sale here by 2012.Despite their emerging popularity, hybrids are still a small part of the overall car scene. Last year about 5200 hybrid passenger vehicles were sold in a market of more than 1 million.Subaru too has tested the electric current by showing of its plug-in Stella, while Mercedes-Benz hopes to have an electric version of its Smart on sale soon, which will be followed by battery-powered A-Class and B-Class hatches."We must ensure that Australia is ready for this technology," McKellar says.

PETFOOD magnate Tony Quinn scored the biggest success of his motorsport career when he drove to victory in the 2009 Targa Tasmania with his Nissan GT-R. His job was made easier when Jim Richards and Kevin Weeks both crashed out of contention, leaving the VIP Pet Foods boss with an eventual winning margin of six minutes over Jason White in a Lamborghini. Rex Broadbent completed a hat-trick with classic victory in his Porsche 911, while Greg Johnston took the showroom class in a Mitsubishi Evo.FOUR points was the margin between success and failure for Chad Reed in this year's AMA and World Supercross Championship as the superstar Aussie came up just short in the grand final in Las Vegas at the weekend. Reed scored 11 seconds places from 17 starts in the supercross series with his Suzuki, as well as three wins, but it was not enough to stop James Stewart lifting the title with a safe third place in Las Vegas.MARCUS Marshall surprised his V8 Supercar rivals by re-setting the lap record at Winton last weekend in his unsponsored BF Falcon. The speedy young Queenslander did the job in an ex-Triple Eight Ford on the soft Dunlop racing tyres used for the first time at Winton, dropping the benchmark time to 1 minute 22.9813 seconds as he raced to a memorable ninth place on Sunday afternoon.NICK Percat made another clean sweep of the Formula Ford championship races at Winton last weekend, with Chaz Mostert following him home in each of three heats. The weekend result gives Percat a 61-48 break over Mostert, with Mitchell Evans and Scott Pye next in the junior series.MARCOS Ambrose finished just outside of the top 10 in his latest Nascar start at Richmond in Virginia despite contact with the wall early in the event. Finishing 11th, after his benchmark fourth place a week earlier at Talladega, gave him his seventh top-20 result from 10 starts and moved him up to 19th in the Sprint Cup standings with his Toyota Camry.DEAN Canto and Luke Youlden have filled the co-driving seats at Ford Performance Racing for this year's V8 Supercar enduros. It is their second year alongside FPR regulars Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards at Phillip Island and Bathurst, as Nathan Pretty also returns for the long-distance events as a member of Kelly Racing.The pace-setting car in V8 Supercar racing is now driven by a woman. Amber Anderson, a 25-year-old Melbourne lawyer who is trying to build a racing career, has been chosen to drive the Nissan GT-R safety car at several rounds of the series and had her first start at Winton last weekend.SWINE flu meant an early end of the A1GP season which was planned to finish in Mexico City at the end of May. The series ended instead in Britain last weekend, when Team Ireland raced to the championship with Adam Carroll, as Team Australia trailed in eighth after an identical finish in the feature race in the UK by John Martin.THE popular Speed on Tweed historic festival has been revived as part of the program for Repco Rally Australia in September. The course through the streets of Mulwillumbah on the NSW north coast will also be used as a special stage during the running of Australia's event in the World Rally Championship.THE remaining events in the Aussie Racing Cars championship have been re-jigged for the rest of 2009, with a break until the Shannons Nationals meeting at Winton on June 27-28. The baby racers then head to Eastern Creek on August 7-9, Oran Park on August 29-30 and Homebush for the Sydney 500 meeting from December 4-6.The re-scheduled Victorian Open Sprint Kar Championship will be held this weekend at the Hume International Raceway near Seymour. More than 400 of Australia's best racers will compete at an event which was postponed from February 13-15 because of the tragic Victorian bushfires. 

DEFENDING champion Damien White anchored the team which won the Bathurst 12-hour showroom enduro at the weekend, sharing a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo with former Bathurst 1000 winner Tony Longhurst and car owner Rod Salmon. Another Evo X was second, crewed by Tony Ricciardello, Glyn Crimp and Stuart Kostera.A seventh straight second place has cost Chad Reed his lead in the World and AMA Supercross championship in the USA. He was runner-up again to James Stewart, this time in Atlanta.CARRERA Cup front-runner David Wall has bagged one of the early co- driving places for the V8 Supercar enduros this year, joining the expanded Falcon team of Paul Cruickshank. Wall is named in the Wilson Security Racing team for Phillip Island and Bathurst but the Cruickshank has not decided yet if he will share a car with Fabian Coulthard or new boy Michael Patrizi.SUPERSTOCK racer Stacey McMahon will ride a Yamaha YZF R6 with backing from Insure My Ride for the 2009 season, starting in the World Superbike supporting races at Phillip Island this weekend. McMahon is returning to racing in the Australian Superbike Series after competing on a 125cc grand prix bike in 2006, although she was badly injured while racing in 2007.MARCOS Ambrose continued the strong start to his first full season in the Sprint Cup with 22nd place in the second race of the 2009 Nascar season. Ambrose qualified 14th in his Toyota Camry and was looking good for a top-20 result until his rear tyres wore badly on the run to the flag and he fell back as Matt Kenseth took a second straight win, this time in California.AUSTRALIA's Ryan Briscoe and Will Power has just begun testing for their first season as Penske Racing team mates in the Indy Racing League. Both are expected to be front runners and Briscoe is tipped as a potential champion in a US open-wheel series which gets serious with the first race in Florida in the opening week of April.

It’s not the one at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, but the one played out under lights at dealerships across the country for almost every day of the year.When the sales top one million vehicles it has to be rated as a good year, even though there were plenty of tests, trials and tribulations on the way to the second-best result in motoring history.The eventual mark was 1,012,164, although that will not be matched in 2009 despite the excitement generated by the newcomers at this year’s Melbourne show.All forecasters are predicting a 10-15 per cent slide in new-car demand, as the global economic meltdown and rising unemployment take the edge off consumer confidence, with a likely result in the 850,000-900,000 range.But there is no questioning the million-car run through 2008, which followed a record in 2007, as Toyota stormed to its sixth straight year as sales leader while the Holden Commodore was Australia’s favourite car for the 13th consecutive year.“This is positive news for the Australian automotive industry,” says the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce’s Murray Collins.“There is little doubt that 2008 was a challenging year, so to achieve one million new vehicle sales is a very good effort.”There were plenty of highlights last year, as Maserati claimed “fastest growing car company” rights, Audi had another boom year, and Mazda, Subaru and Volkswagen also improved their results among the top-10 runners.But Holden and Ford went backwards again, as their big Aussie sixes suffered the worst results on record thanks to fuel prices.Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda were also down from the highs of 2007. Their combined results were actually beaten by Toyota, which topped the charts with 238,983 sales — and also exported more than 100,000 Melbourne-made Camry and Aurion sedans.Brand T is almost certain to be No.1 again in 2009, thanks to its momentum and GM Holden’s decision to concentrate on profits ahead of outright showroom volume.“The next 12 months are expected to be tough for all concerned,” Collins says.“But the industry is looking ahead with confidence after receiving significant support towards the end of 2008.”The $6.2 billion New Car Plan showed the Rudd Government was committed to a sustainable automotive industry. And the Special Purpose Vehicle — the $2 billion floorplan rescue package — was a timely breakthrough by Treasurer Wayne Swan to end the dealer finance crisis.”The story of Australia’s new-car showrooms in 2008 was a win for buyers, as big dollar deals on everything from a $29,990 Holden Commodore to a $9990 Hyundai Getz helped prevent a total meltdown.Big stocks mean the analysts were predicting continued deals through to this month to clear ‘08 vehicles, followed by the arrival of the major newcomers of ‘09.But there will be a penalty, with prices rising off the back of the slide in the Australian dollar through the second half of last year. Greats ‘08 TOP MODELSHolden Commodore 51,093Toyota Corolla 47,901Toyota HiLux 42,956Mazda3 33,755Ford Falcon 31,936Toyota Yaris 26,097Toyota Camry 23,067Mitsubishi Lancer 19,688Toyota Aurion 19,562Nissan Navara 18,574TOP BRANDSToyota 238,983Holden 130,338Ford 104,715Mazda 79,826Mitsubishi 60,692Nissan 59,214Honda 52,571Hyundai 45,409Subaru 38,492Volkswagen 29,875 The 2009 Melbourne International Motor Show... 

It is believed to be the first time the brand has grabbed number one sales spot for a month.