Spyshots of 2012 Toyota Camry, amerika model

An anonymous reader dropped us a tip that the first clear spyshots of the flagship Camry has surfaced from Thailand. Thanks for the tip!

Note that this shot refers to the flagship Camry and will look significantly different from the one teased by Toyota Motor Corp.'s President Akio Toyota in an Internet video recently. That video refers to the US market global Camry, which is due to be launched sometime this October. Thailand is expected to launch the flagship Camry, the model that we will be getting, sometime in Q1 2012. However note that for this coming model change, the Camry will no longer the imported from Thailand but assembled in Malaysia. So expect our local launch date to be at a slightly later date, maybe 6 months later than Thailand's line-off date. So the period between end-Q2 or early Q3 is our estimate.

Image via Edmund's InsideLine.

Toyota sells two versions of the Camry. One is known internally as the global Camry, a smaller model designed for Japan, North America, Latin America and the Middle East, where it is positioned as a mainstream mid-size sedan, often playing the role of a sales volume champion for Toyota in mature markets that has outgrown a Corolla.

A US market Camry, also known internally as the global Camry

The other model is known as the flagship Camry, a larger, more luxurious model designed to cater mainly to Asian markets like China, Taiwan and ASEAN trade bloc states (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam). In these markets, the larger Camry is sold as a pseudo-luxury model, slotting just below premium brands like Mercedes and BMW. In these markets, a Corolla or a Vios is still the sales volume driver and Camry's role in these market is to cater to value conscious high income buyers. The same car is also sold as the Aurion in Australia, New Zealand and parts of the Middle East. The larger Aurion is fitted with a high capacity 3.5 V6 engine. In these markets, the Aurion V6 is sold alongside a (global) Camry and was originally meant to challenge traditional large RWD sedans like the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore which are hugely popular in Australia as well as the Chevrolet Lumina / Pontiac G8 in the Middle East. But so far, sales of the Aurion have been lackluster.

The larger flagship Camry, commonly found in Asia. It is also our local market Camry.

The Austrlian market Toyota Aurion, which is similar to our local Camry, but with a larger engine.

Both versions of Camry are built on the same Toyota Modular Platform (TMP), also known as the MC chassis.

A Brazilian motoring site Notica Automotivas also posted scanned pages of a Japanese magazine, which it claims to be finalized design of the 2012 Camry.

However I suspect that this is a Camry Hybrid rather than a standard Camry. The grille is similar to that in the current Camry Hybrid sold in Thailand. Also, it looks like there is a faint blue hue at the badge, and I think I spot the "Hybrid Synergy Drive" badge at the rear. Expect the standard Camry to carry a similar design, but with a different, more conservative (still lots of chrome) grille, more conservative front bumper and different rear tail lense cluster.

According to scans, the new Camry will be 10mm longer, 5mm wider. Although wheelbase remain unchanged, rear legroom is increased by 15mm.