By EWAN KENNEDY
7 August 2006

Toyota's all-new Camry has just arrived in Australia and there's going to be a big sales push on it. So there should be a lot of Camry trade-ins waiting to be resold. Camry and Vienta have been popular on our used-car market for many years, a situation that certainly shows no sign of changing.

The Toyota Camry and its upmarket brother, the Vienta, are Japanese designed but Australian built. There are plenty of local changes to suit these Toyotas to Australian driving conditions, in particular to rough country roads and harsh temperature conditions.

The Camry and Vienta share the same body, with Vienta being the more lavishly equipped. At one time Camry tended to concentrate on four-cylinder versions and Vienta on sixes, but differences blurred as the years went by. The Vienta was discontinued midway through 2000 to make way for the six-cylinder Toyota Avalon.

Though slightly smaller externally than Falcon and Commodore, these Toyotas have almost as much interior room. The telling factor is rear-seat width, but the good design of the back seat tends to negate this. Try it for yourself.

One major advantage of a front-drive car is substantially increased boot depth because there’s no differential under the back of the car.

These Toyota family cars are both exceptionally pleasant cars to drive, with a smooth, refined feel that most will love. Driving enthusiasts may find the pre-September-2002 model too soft for their needs; the later ones are fine.

Toyota also sold a semi-sporting variant, which is called Touring in the older cars and Sportivo in the newer. Buyers were slow to respond initially, but the pace later picked up and there are a fair few of the semi-sports on offer as used cars these days.

Body types are four-door sedan and five-door station wagon. The wagons sometimes lagged a few months behind sedans in their introduction so there is an overlap of old and new bodies. The load area in the wagon is spoiled by intruding rear-wheel suspension towers and can't carry long-wide loads. This is more noticeable in the pre-2002 wagons than the later ones.

The four-cylinder engine was only a 2.2-litre unit until the launch of the new-model Camry in September 2002. The 2.2-litre is relatively small for a car in this class. Some find its performance marginal, others are more than content with it. Test drive it and see what you think, remembering to take the car to hilly areas, and preferably with a couple of passengers on board to load it up.

The 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine is not only larger, but also a much newer design than the old 2.2, so is the one to buy if your budget has the extra dollars sitting in it.

The V6 3.0-litre Toyota engine not only gives you extra power and torque but also improves the feeling of refinement within the car.

Toyota offers five-speed manual and four-speed automatics in these vehicles. There's a heavy concentration on the automatics, particularly in the V6 models and it may be hard to sell a manual a few years down the track.

Toyota has arguably the most widespread of dealership networks in Australia, largely due to its major presence in the 4WD and light-commercial markets.

Spare parts and servicing are generally reasonably priced and good home mechanics will find these cars are easy to work on.

The Australian heritage of these Aussie-built Toyotas means insurance is generally cheaper than for similar cars imported from Japan.

The new model Camry is purely a four-cylinder model. It will be joined by a six-cylinder variant called the Toyota Aurion towards the end of 2006. Details of the Aurion are still sketchy at this stage, though the body has been shown publicly. Those considering trading in a V6 Camry may care to wait for the Aurion before making their final decision.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Engines should start almost immediately, even when cold, and immediately idle smoothly and quietly.

During the test drive stop and let the engine idle for about a minute, then accelerate the car hard and look for a smoking exhaust.

Automatics are exceptionally smooth so any roughness at other than big throttle openings should be regarded with suspicion.

Manuals aren’t as refined as automatics, but too much noise, accompanied by baulking or crunching during gearchanges, are signs of troubles.

Drive the car at low speed on full steering lock and listen for noises at the universal joints at the front wheels.

Run your hand over the front tyre tread - more resistance one way than the other means uneven tyre wear. That’s often caused by an alignment problem resulting from a crook parker thumping the kerb - though it could also mean the body’s twisted.

Check over the condition of the interior in case the car has had a rough time, though these cars are normally durable.

We haven’t seen any rust in these late-model Camrys, but it’s always wise to do a check of all lower body and mudguard areas.

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