Much has been said on CC about the “parallel universe” feeling one gets in certain faraway lands. Typically, North Americans and Europeans experience this in South America or Australia: a mix of both familiar and totally unfamiliar models from around the world, along with local variants of known marques and/or nameplates, resulting in a bizarre automotive fauna. Japan isn’t quite like that – it’s more like a different planet, really. But there are a few examples of Brazilian- or Argentinian-style known unknowns. We saw the JDM Nissan Maxima recently, for instance. So today, let’s examine the… Camry?
This is not the early ‘90s Camry you know and, presumably, have no particular feelings about. This is the completely different, gen-three (or four, depending how you count these things) “narrow” Camry that never left its native land, while its bulkier namesake continued to conquer various global markets.
That’s the ‘91 Camry you probably remember. This is the XV10 Camry (1991-96), hailed by some as “The Greatest Camry Of All time” and it certainly was a great success in North America. Europe was comparatively less enthralled by the Camry, but any other markets, e.g. Asia-Pacific, the Middle-East and South America, were keen. In Japan, this car was marketed as the Toyota Scepter, as the Camry name was already in use.
The V30 Camry was launched, alongside its Vista sister model, in the summer of 1990 – the height of the Bubble Economy. The whole point of the “narrow” Camry was that it could be in a lower tax band (illustrated by the license plate starting with a “5”), so the majority of Camrys were fitted with engines under 2000cc, to keep within the tax bracket.
Two petrol 4-cyl. options were on the table – a 1.8 and a 2-litre twin cam, as well as a 2-litre turbo-Diesel. But then came the well-named Prominent series, which featured a V6 – also a 2-litre, but soon joined by a naughty, limit-busting 2.5 litre V6.
Oooh, that extra half litre of displacement… That’s almost a pint! Camry, how hedonistic of you! The Prominent was also given the obligatory “pillared hardtop” treatment to make it stand out even more. But that’s not the version I found, so let us leave this flight of fancy and get back to our plainer, and perhaps Janer, standard sedan.
The entire point about the Camry / Vista twins, since the V10 at least, was to provide a FWD alternative to the myriad large-ish RWD saloons peddled by Toyota in those days – the Crowns, Mark IIs and the like. That never really worked in Japan, though. Folks who wanted a front-driver had a number of larger Mitsubishis and Hondas to choose from, but those never exactly flew out the dealerships either. The big saloon game was still very traditionally-oriented in 1990, and remained so throughout the decade.
It won’t have escaped your perspicacity that this Camry is the AWD version – a Toyota attempting to be an Audi 80/90, essentially. It even has a manual transmission, like a real enthusiast’s car should. Interesting to see that the AWD drivetrain was only available on the narrow Camry in the ‘90s, inherited directly from its V20 predecessor. Four-wheel steering was optional on 2WD cars, as well. All the nice toys were reserved for the domestic audience, yet it failed to really move them.
This Camry may not be as wide nor as long as its international namesake, but the amount of cabin space still seems quite acceptable. The absence of the usual white doilies enables us to appreciate the grey mouse-fur interior in its full mind-numbing dullness, at least.
Just like every other car in the range, Toyota devised a logo for the Camry. Inventing these is not easy – to whit, Mazda’s three-emblem flustercuck during the ‘90s – so let’s be charitable and call this a mediocre effort. To me, it looks like a Renault rhombus on its side, sitting atop an empty Chinese takeaway box. Sums up the Camry to a T(87).
The V30 Camry only came in two flavours of four-door. By contrast, the global Camry had a sexy coupé and a cavernous wagon to accompany the sedan. I’m sure Toyota knew their markets and thought this through, but I do wonder if they didn’t hamstring the narrow Camry by only giving it the “Prominent” variant, but nothing else to attract buyers. This did not prevent Toyota from offering the next-gen V40 starting in the summer of 1994, keeping the JDM-only narrow Camry / Vista alive for the remainder of the ‘90s.
The Camry name continued to blossom globally, of course, and eventually Japan caught up with the rest of the wider (har har) world and got the same Camry as anybody else. All the while, the nameplate continued to top the charts in various corners of the globe. It’s still far from being a huge hit in Japan, but as they say, no one is a prophet in their own land. Especially one of them alternate reality ones.
What’s that green box on the ground for?
It’s the device that locks the yellow parking flap in the up position, effectively immobolizing the car, until the owner pays at the box nearby.
I think I saw few this version of JDM Camry running around in Hong Kong when I visited, they had better finish than the North American model. Other thing I noticed are the foldable side mirrors. Toyota did not offer this in North American until mid-2000 model. My friend in Queens, NY had that generation of Camry and got the side mirror broken while parking on street, he called his relative in HK bought one sets for his car. They fitted well but he insisted the color didn’t match exactly.
Didn’t realize they made a narrow body of this generation, it does look a little off from what I’m used to seeing. That front end, however, is immediately and obviously tragic.
“This is not the early ‘90s Camry you know and, presumably, have no particular feelings about”
Au contraire! I learned to drive a manual transmission on a 1990 V20 with that “naughty” 2.5L V6, and went rambling around the desert with a friend in his 1987 (lots of ground clearance). Owned a 1996 XV10 in pristine condition and felt like a million bucks driving it due to the refinement and materials quality. Lots of good feelings about the quality and durability of those cars, and why I have a 2016 now despite it not having the same industry wow factor as the 90s cars.
Is it just me, or is that rear seat cushion really, really low? That’s usually a US automaker trick, to make the interior look roomy in photos and measurements. But the bubble bursts as soon as a passenger sits down and finds their behind on the ground and their knees up in the air.
Since Toyota also had the Corona and Carina in the domestic market, they were not exactly lacking for largish FWD sedans to fill the gap between the Corolla/Sprinter and the RWD Mark II/Chaser/Cresta. The Corona/Carina wasn’t quite the same (there wasn’t an equivalent of the V-6 Prominent, for one), but there was a lot of overlap.
The most logical rationale I can see for the JDM Camry was to give Corolla Stores a bigger, more expensive model to sell, and of course the Vista was the signature model of the Vista sales channel.
To clarify for people puzzled by Toyota’s assorted JDM dealer channels, this Camry was sold through the Corolla channel, its Vista twin was sold through Vista Stores, the Carina was sold through the Auto channel, and the Corona was sold by Toyopet Stores.
I believe the Scepter (JDM equivalent of the wide-body U.S. Camry) became a Vista exclusive, but Corolla Stores also got the Toyota Windom, which was the JDM version of the Lexus ES300. So, If you went to a Corolla Store or Vista Store in late 1991, you could take your choice of the narrow-body V30 or the wide-body VCV10, albeit under different names.
Nice to have two T87 features this morning! 🙂
This car is curiously the same but different. It makes me want to go out and look at that white nineties Camry sedan in my town – and I never thought I’d say that! Just to check out the differences, mind you…..
Errr… Not that I pretend to know much about Camries (sp?) but I have a vague feeling this is what we got here in Europe; until the current model ours were always of the smaller body variety. But I could be wrong, these were and are extremely rare here.
plenty of these JDM Camrys found their way to New Zealand used thousands of them, very few left on the road rust and zero parts back up means you cant fix them if you need new parts to pass inspections and Toyota NZ refuse to acknowledge anything they didnt import either new or used
The Global Camry landed in NZ in late 90 for beta testing then it was seriously mofified for world consumption Toyota really put some effort into those cars the global actually got a different engine than the beta test model, every now and then I see one of those still on the road.
As Bryce said, these V30 narrow-body Camrys used to be very prominent (ha!) here in NZ – probably more so than their wide-body equivalent. The occasional grey one, but mostly appliance white. Still a few here in my rural town, but not the prominent (sorry) feature they were a decade ago.
The only view of a Camry I want is it getting smaller in my mirrors.
Have the N.American 2.0 awd. A deceiving little car that is fast, handles well & will seemingly run forever…..225k & California snogged w/ great numbers. Not a hi mpg car – 23, but fun to drive.