TRD Camry???

This seems like an oxymoron...

It's not just an appearance package. Brakes that are an inch bigger, bigger sway bars, stiffer springs with a 0.6" drop, better tires, added chassis bracing, TRD cat-back exhaust. The reviews say it actually is a pretty fun car to rip around in.

I saw one of those when I was buying my truck. That two tone paint job is awful. There is no smooth transition between the colors. It's as if you can feel where the masking tape was. Ridiculously poor. 

If I had a kid or two and wanted something a little less boring and still "reliable as an anvil" I could see giving that a look.

Thankfully, we don't have children and I don't need a car with 4 seats.

I like them but they have grown a bit too big for my personal liking.  I miss small nimble sedans

Yup, we drove a TRD Camry last year. 

There's also a TRD Avalon.

Toyota made a promo video with drifter Ken Gushi. No, it doesn't drift, they added a handbrake to get it to slide.

Like hanging new curtains in a haunted house...

My wife and I saw one of these the other day. The wing is atrocious, but the car didn't sound bad as it pulled away.

Looks pretty grounded to the ground

Other than the poor decisions about splitting the paint colors, the ones I've seen were pretty good looking. I mean, it's not a sports car but if I was stuck looking for a family car it would be on my test drive list. I think it's got as much HP as my S197. I feel like this is like buying the candy-red washer and dryer, but if you have to buy an appliance, why not buy snazzy?

It does look pretty good. I'd love a wing-delete option. 

I think I'd rather install the TRD bits on a Sport with the 2.0L and 6 speed manual.

And forget to install the wing.

Ninja edit: I must confess that I got the Camry and Accord mixed up. A manual is not available on any Camry trim level. 

While there is obviously some substance to the TRD Camry, I see it the same as 'M' with BMW, 'S' with Audi, 'AMG' with Mercedes.  When those letters first appeared they really meant something, what you were getting was substantially different from the base product.  Over time those sub brands, divisions, even separate tuning houses, got brought more and more into the mainstream building on the true credibility they built up and are now little more than marketing slogans in many cases.  That doesn't mean any of these products are bad or unworthy, but they certainly dilute the original ethos of what they stood for.

I used to work with a guy who had a Camry with the TRD package.  He loved it until a woman pulled out of her driveway in front of him without looking while yakking on her phone... It definitely wasn't slow, although I think the package was mostly suspension, appearance and wheels.  Maybe an ECU flash? 

IMO its tacky.  The performance is respectable for what it is.  A low 14 second car is not slow in my book.  But the exhaust, front and rear treatment, two tone, wing, etc. do not align with 'automatic family sedan that packs a punch'.  I much prefer more understated performance styling that is functional.

Springs, sways, and cat back seems like a pretty minimal approach to performance.  Its no faster in a straight line and marginally faster in corners.  Now, bump power output by 10%, add 1" of wheel width, add a helical LSD, and a manual (think TL TypeS from 15 years ago) and its much more appealing.

Then again, real performance packages cost real money, so nobody would buy that 

Nice color palette Toyota 

Black, Ice White and White. Exciting.

I'm at the point where straight line performance is pretty irrelevant, made more so by electric shopping cars that can do 0-60 in 4 seconds or better.  I find the 'fun spot' for performance is low 14 to high 13 second 1/4 mile times.  Not the specific time, but I find cars that fall into that range tend to be quick enough to be fun driving around, especially the places you can safely use performance, on ramps, boulevard turns etc.  Faster than that and you instantly appear to be a douche bag every time you hit the gas.

Automatic isn't a problem either.  I'm so over people constantly whining about the loss of manuals.  Yes, growing up I thought that the only reason to get an auto was because you were missing the requisite limbs to operate a clutch or shifter, but back then auto's were power and fun sucking misery devices that were always in the wrong gear and there weren't enough of them.  Modern auto's are fun, responsive, reliable and often perform better than a manual.  So I'm OK with that.

The rest of the package is fine, exhaust, spoiler, brakes, lowered etc.  To me it sounds like a fun car, but not a TRD.

If you could do wing delete, I might look at one as a DD.  Sat in one at the dealer but didn't drive it.  I liked the interior.

A wing delete is only a couple bolts and some electrical tape away!  And I know I've seen red and blue ones in the wild, not sure what's up with their website. 

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

While there is obviously some substance to the TRD Camry, I see it the same as 'M' with BMW, 'S' with Audi, 'AMG' with Mercedes.  When those letters first appeared they really meant something, what you were getting was substantially different from the base product.  Over time those sub brands, divisions, even separate tuning houses, got brought more and more into the mainstream building on the true credibility they built up and are now little more than marketing slogans in many cases.  That doesn't mean any of these products are bad or unworthy, but they certainly dilute the original ethos of what they stood for.

All of the above still make the hardcore stuff they started out with, but they've also started offering parts under that branding for the other models, or option packages that have a lighter level of performance upgrade applied and don't meet the bar to get the badge (like the Audi S line and BMW M-sport models). 

My E38 has the "M sport" package, for example, as it has better suspension, the steering wheel from the M cars, different wheels (which are considered an M part) and some other stuff, but doesn't have an M division engine or the level of performance for BMW to be willing to put an M badge on it. 

Historically, TRD was mostly a source of performance parts (like superchargers for Camrys and Tacomas) rather than a series of models like M or AMG. 

M-sport is subtle and clean.

TRD looks like Toyota collaborated with APC

I saw one the other day in a dark red / burgandy.  I really liked it.

In reply to ultraclyde :

Toyota has VERY region specific model trim combinations.  They also basically require a VPN to spoof their website into tricking their online builder to let you build your own.  There was a time where I could not configure a Manual Trans other then a TRD Pro Tacoma in the MW.  In Texas you could get it in all trim levels.  Colors where the same way.  We could get like Red and Black, others got the Tan/orange/blue/white options.  

I guess they think their marketing department is smarter then the consumer.  

In reply to nocones :

That's crazy. I thought it would just be country-specific. Sometimes I like browsing other countries' sites to see what's offered. Like Mazda still sells the B-series pick-ups in Australia and Thailand, but not here or Japan.