New Toyota Camry Not Risky, Just Right, Bill Fay Says

NEW YORK – Toyota Vice President Bill Fay dismisses suggestions the ’15 Camry sedan, the automaker’s bread-and-butter midsize offering in the U.S., takes its redesign too far and says it is exactly what current owners want.

“We’re not taking a big risk at all,” Fay, general manager of the Toyota division in the U.S., tells WardsAuto shortly after unveiling the new Camry at the New York auto show.

Fay calls the Camry lineup diverse and capable of meeting the needs of a wide swath of customers.

For ’15 the Camry model range includes a new XSE grade mating sportiness and luxuriousness, as well as a hybrid SE variant linking driving performance with fuel-saving technology.

But the redesign also marks the most daring Camry styling to date. The best-selling car in the U.S. gets entirely new sheetmetal with bolder character lines. It’s a little longer and slightly wider, too, giving an aggressive road presence. It adds a number of structural enhancements to button up ride quality, and a new suspension dials up responsiveness.

In short, it’s a big leap for a car known more for bulletproof quality and inoffensive looks than edgy styling and responsive dynamics.

“We made a lot of enhancements customers want to see in their next Camry,” Fay says of a car with 10.6 million sales in its lifetime and 408,484 deliveries last year, according to WardsAuto data. “We see it as an opportunity halfway into the (product) cycle to make significant improvements to the car by listening to our customers.”

The broad redesign, which replaces more than 1,900 parts on the car, also comes just three years into its product cycle. The move mirrors others in the segment making quicker updates to their entries to remain fresh.

Not Toyota, Fay says.

“It’s consumer input,” he says. “They said there’s a lot of good product in the market (and) they’ve been happy with the Camry, but as they want to trade in they’re looking for an emotional car, more safety, technology and a better interior.

“I think we’ve delivered.”

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