HERES WHY THE 2025 TOYOTA CAMRY IS STILL A HIT IN THE LAND OF SUVS

Sedan sales have been on a decline ever since people defaulted to crossovers and SUVs as their practical vehicle of choice. Crossovers, in particular, blend the practicality and functionality of a traditional truck-based SUV along with the driving dynamics and ease of use of a sedan. The two-box profile has been chosen in favor of a sedan’s traditional three-box silhouette, but this is also why we argue that more people should consider wagons, too.

Anyway, the rise in popularity of SUVs and crossovers has led to the death of numerous sedans, particularly midsize ones. The most recent casualties include the Mazda 6, while the Subaru Legacy and Nissan Altima have been confirmed to be on their way out, too. But while a good number of midsize sedans remain, one model remains king of the segment—the Toyota Camry .

The 2025 Toyota Camry enters a new generation, and it’s keeping up with the times by going all-in on hybrids. Despite the rise in crossovers and SUVs, the Camry has remained strong. So strong, in fact, that it’s the seventh best-selling car in the United States. As of June 2024, Camry sales stand at 155,242 units—a three percent increase from the same period last year, proving that Camry sales have remained robust. This begs the question, why are sales of the Camry still robust despite the influx of crossovers and SUVs?

The Current Market Situation

To understand why the Camry is still so popular in 2024, we have to take a step back and how the Camry became so popular in the first place. This will give us a bigger picture of why the Camry is in a unique position, but it’s one that faces plenty of threats from ever-increasing crossovers and SUVs hitting the market, as well as electrification.

Available Models Have Aligned With Declining Demand

Even though the midsize segment has declined, a good amount of buyers still prefer a passenger car to a tall crossover or SUV. Essentially, we’ve nearly reached or are about to reach a point where demand versus the available models in the market has stabilized somewhat. The models that remain on the market are just enough to satisfy whatever demand that’s left in the midsize sedan segment.

But even then, there’s no reassurance that this will be the case in the long term. The overall trend for the midsize sedan segment for the past few years is still a slow decline. Its market share in 2016 stood at 13.3 percent but shrank to 11.4 percent in 2021, which is why we’ll soon bid farewell to the Subaru Legacy after the 2025 model year and probably one or two more midsize sedans in the years to come.

The Camrys Dominance Makes It More Resistant

Assuming the slow decline of midsize sedan sales continues, you can guarantee that the Camry will be the last model to be killed. The first models that will face extinction are those whose sales numbers are lower than those of the Camry. Therefore, you can expect the Korean cousins, the Sonata and K5, to have a higher chance of being discontinued, and then the Accord and finally, the Camry. Its sheer dominance in the midsize sales charts reassures that it will be the last midsize sedan to be killed if midsize sedan sales continue to decline.

The History Of The Camry

The Toyota Camry has been the dominant midsize sedan for decades, but its dominance was thanks to a few economic factors at the time of its introduction that went in favor of the Camry, thus making it appealing in a sea of domestic brands that seemed to own the market.

The Camry Came Out At An Opportune Time

Winding back the clock to 1983, you can see why the Toyota Camry was so successful. It was at a time when the country was shaken by the 1972 Oil Crisis, which made large, gas-guzzling American sedans unappealing. Years after that, the EPA was formed, which set emissions and fuel economy standards since then, and by the 1980s, American automakers started to cater to these new market conditions.

However, what they did at the time was they practically made lower horsepower V-8s and other big displacement engines, but not inherently vehicles that were fuel efficient from scratch. That’s where cars like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord started to take off. The Japanese brands were masters at developing a front-wheel drive (FWD) car at a time when the American brands were just adjusting to such a configuration.

The Japanese brands were also still adjusting to the American market’s tastes as well, but the Camry’s advantage as to why it eventually eclipsed the Accord in sales is due to its size advantage over the Honda. Both models were still compact cars at the time, but the Camry's size advantage made it more appealing to American buyers.

It Introduced Something The Americans Lacked

Believe it or not, Japanese cars weren't as desirable as they are today back in the 1970s. When economic and geopolitical conditions in the 1980s favored the fuel efficiency of Japanese cars, there was one trait which the Japanese brands immediately gained a reputation for--durability.

The Japanese brands showed Americans that a car can't just be fuel efficient and well-packaged, but it can also last far longer than anything that the American brands were making at that time. Moreover, the Japanese brands were also known to simplify their cars mechanically, so another advantage was its ease of maintenance.

This simplicity in engineering led to a period when Japanese brands made huge gains in sales and therefore profitability. This was also the same period when Honda decided to manufacture and, eventually, even develop the Accord in the United States. The 1983 Camry, codenamed “V10”, was the same car that was sold in Japan, but two generations later, in the 1990s, the “V30” generation was now limited to Japan, while America and the rest of the world got the first “world-sized” or the midsize Camry, codenamed “XV10”.

By offering two different variations of the Camry, Toyota was able to directly cater to the needs of Japan and the rest of the world, though with development focusing mostly on American tastes. With its right size, strong reliability, ease of maintenance, and appealing driving experience, the Camry catapulted to the sedan sales charts, eventually becoming America's best-selling passenger car from 2001 until today.

Let's Talk About Its Arch Nemesis

But the story of the success of the Camry wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Honda Accord . These two midsize sedans have been fiercely battling each other since the 1980s, and while there are months that the Accord will outsell the Camry, such as in August 2023, the Camry has remained the top-selling sedan every year since 2001.

The Accord's Sporty Advantage

The Honda Accord's main advantage over the Toyota Camry is the very trait that Hondas have been historically known for--sportiness. The days of VTEC and K20s have all helped in giving the Accord a younger audience. We even got versions of highly desirable and sporty Accords in the early days, some of which were made in the United States and sold in Japan.

The Accord even appeared on Car And Driver's 10Best list 38 times already throughout its lifetime, because of its balance of comfort, reliability, and efficiency, but with a dose of sportiness that the Camry doesn't as much--even if the newer Camry generations have become sportier than the models they replaced.

But Here's Why The Camry Still Outsells It

So, if the Honda Accord has the sportiness advantage whilst still being usable and practical, why doesn't it outsell the Camry on a year-to-year basis? Well, apart from merely personal preferences separating the two cars at this point, the Camry often had a lower base price that would attract bargain hunters.

That isn't the case somewhat in 2024 as the Camry goes purely hybrid, but comparing the hybrid versions of both models, the Camry is far cheaper than the Accord. The Camry's broader pricing is also backed up by a slightly stronger dealer footprint--one whose relationship with Toyota is as close as any dealer could possibly dream of.

More importantly, however, the single biggest reason for the sales disparity between the two cars is that Toyota also does corporate and fleet sales, a business model that Honda is not keen on following. As you'll probably notice, Honda does not have a corporate fleet sales page, but Toyota, on the other hand, does. Honda prefers to sell at the retail level, which leads to better profit margins for the brand. However, that doesn't mean you won't see a rental Honda or a Honda being used by corporate offices around the country. While Honda itself doesn't do fleet sales, a small number of dealers provide fleet sales on their own.

2024-09-01T01:05:59Z dg43tfdfdgfd