The "Japanese reliability" of the Toyota Camry, or why isn't this car loved at all in Europe?

Greetings, dear subscribers and readers of my channel. In this article we will talk about the so-called "Japanese quality" and examine that "Japanese quality" on the example of our popular car - the Toyota Camry.

Why did I decide to write this article?

The fact that on my channel I write about different cars. I write about the French, of course I write about the Koreans, which are very popular among us (Hyundai and Kia have left behind all their competitors by the number of sold cars !) I write about the domestic car industry, not ignoring the Chinese.

By the way, interest in Chinese cars is now huge, as evidenced by the frequency of queries on this topic in Yandex. But that's not what this article is about. When I write about Korean and Chinese cars, of course, these articles get a live response from readers and people are actively writing comments.

Most of these comments are adequate and interesting, people argue about the technical solutions of a particular car, about its pros and cons.

But there are also very strange comments in the style of "all Korean and Chinese cars are of poor quality and disposable crap, and the bodies are made of foil (this statement is especially cute) and true quality, it's only Japanese cars!

Toyota Camry looks though not avant-garde, but modern enough, however, it is immediately visible, that it is not "European".

Toyota Camry looks though not avant-garde, but modern enough, however, it is visible at once, that it is not "European".

But is it really so? Let's analyze this statement by an example of popular car Toyota Camry, and here there is a lot of interesting.

Is Toyota Camry popular in Europe?

In our country, last year it was sold in 34,000 units, leaving behind its nearest competitor the Kia Optima with 25,000 units sold. It would be logical to assume that the Camry is popular in Europe too. But no, almost nobody wants this car there! From 2003 to 2019, it was withdrawn from sales on the European market altogether. The fact is that the Toyota Camry was almost not in demand and barely sold 2,000 to 2,500 cars a year, and last year only 647 Toyota Camry cars were sold in Germany! Why did this happen?

The Camry's impracticality, above all. Big sedans of class D are not so popular with Europeans, people prefer spacious, big "shed" from Audi, Mercedes, BMW. Certainly VW Golf hatchback is very popular.

Last but not least the price plays an important role. Toyota Camry in Germany is offered at the price from 42,000 euros and for this money you can buy Audi A5 or Bechu 5, if to add little, all this can be bought in a station wagon and the same BMW 3 series can be taken in a "shed" variant for the same money. There is nothing to say, simple VW Tiguan will cost 10k cheaper than Camry.

German burghers prefer automobiles of domestic make and sedans of D class are not in much demand

German burghers prefer cars made in Germany, but class D sedans are not in much demand.

The second aspect is that many Germans take a car for 5 years, and then sell it and they don't really care about old tried and tested solutions (the so-called Japanese reliability). It is much more important for them to drive fast and comfortably, getting pleasure from driving, to drive on autobahn and economically to crawl in a traffic jam (a turbo engine and DSG will come in handy here). Toyota Camry offers neither of these.

Well if you also remember a lot of archaic solutions in Camry, what for example a multimedia system with graphics from Dandy of the late nineties - beginning of the milleniums is worth, then reasons of low demand for this car in Europe become clear.

Reasons for Toyota Camry's popularity on the domestic market

So, is the Toyota Camry a bad car and its popularity is not deserved? Certainly not! We don't have Europe and our buyers have different criteria when choosing a car.

It is not certain that the Toyota Camry will be more reliable than the modern Germans and Koreans, but only time will tell, and people will still remember the legends of the Japanese car industry from the past. The Camry will be chosen by the buyer for whom the main thing is reliability and durability, and the driving characteristics and modern options are on the second place.

What do you think about Toyota Camry? Share in comments!

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