Toyota wants to play a game of “guess the car” with us. Based on the height, width, and the interior from a face-on perspective, it’s most likely the XV80 ninth-gen Camry due for the 2025 model year.
The other possibility is the Corolla, but we’re not exactly holding our breath for such a thing. Not only is the Corolla newer than the Camry in the Japanese automaker’s lineup, but it’s not as big of a seller in the United States market as the larger sibling.
How do they stack up in terms of year-to-date sales from January 2023 through September 2023? As per Toyota’s third-quarter sales report, no fewer than 217,975 examples of the Camry were delivered in the US compared to 165,693 for the Corolla.
This, in turn, means the Camry is the second best-selling ‘Yota in the United States after the RAV4, which clocked 302,831 deliveries in the first three quarters of 2023. In production since 2017 as opposed to 2018 for the Corolla, the Camry rides on the TNGA-K platform of the Crown and Prius.
Speaking of which, the shadowy teaser pic also reveals LED signature lighting inspired by the Avalon’s indirect successor and the Prius. A pair of humongous air intakes can also be seen, as well as two canards at the sides of the front bumper.
Photo: Toyota
Canards? Wait, is Toyota giving us a GR Camry or something of the sorts? It would be incredibly sweet of Toyota, but alas, we simply don’t know at press time. Believed to drop this winter, the all-new Camry isn’t exactly all-new because it features an evolution of the eighth gen’s front-biased platform. The GA-B through GA-K architectures cover everything from subcompacts to full-size crossovers like the Lexus TX and Toyota Century in SUV flavor.
Hearsay suggests the V6 will be dropped for 2025, which may hold water because the Crown packs naturally-aspirated 2.5 and turbocharged 2.4 engines. Both of them hybrid, that is. The 2.5 should return as the standard engine, joined by the 2.4-liter turbo that Toyota also employs in the Tacoma mid-size pickup truck and Land Cruiser 250 series.
The interior will obviously get a major overhaul as well, aligning the ninth-generation Camry to the Crown and Prius. A 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment unit such as the Toyota Audio Multimedia system in the Highlander is doable, along with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster.
LA Auto Show isn’t all that far away, and chances are Toyota will continue teasing us right until media and industry day on November 16. Oh, and one more thing before signing off: expect the all-new Camry to cost a little more than the 2024 model.
Last updated in July 2023, the outgoing Camry is available to configure at $26,420 for the LE trim level or $28,855 for the LE with hybrid oomph. At the other end of the spectrum, the sporty TRD commands a sticker price of $33,485 (sans destination charge). As for the priciest trims available as of October 2023, those are the XLE V6 and XSE V6 at $36,295 and $36,845 from the outset.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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