Toyota Camry Sales are Red Hot

Washington DC August 28, 2006; The AIADA newsletter reported that the Camry has been America's best-selling car every year but one since 1997. And today, it is more popular than ever with consumers, reports Automotive News.

Since the March launch of the redesigned model, Toyota has sold 205,615 Camrys, including the still-to-be-redesigned Camry Solara coupe, up 3.1 percent from the March-July period of last year, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

"Customers are following the car carriers to the dealership," says Toby Hynes, president of Gulf States Toyota, which distributes vehicles to 148 Toyota dealerships.

In order to meet growing consumer demand Toyota's Georgetown, K.Y. plant is running overtime and weekend shifts. If Toyota's manufacturing facilities can meet this demand, there is a strong probability that the Camry will be the first car to top sales of 450,000 units since the Chevrolet Impala in 1978.

Prior to the vehicle's redesign, the Camry was the loss-leader for dealers, but now the tides have changed.

"There were years in the not-distant past when you were content to lose a grand a unit on Camry, because you'd make it up on other products," says Fritz Hitchcock, a member of AIADA's Board of Directors and a multi-line dealer in Puente Hills, CA.

"Now we're getting within $500 of sticker, and we can make a buck on them. You'd have to be asleep at the switch not to be selling these."