Toyota began selling the Camry in North America in 1983replacing the rear-wheel drive Corona. Most US-market Camrys were four-door sedans, although station wagon versions were available since 1987 Through 1996. There was a brief moment in the mid-1990s, however, when it was new Camry coupe appeared in American Toyota showrooms. Few seemed interested in buying those two doors, but Toyota refused to back down completely on the idea of a sports car based on the Camry platform. The result of this persistence was Camry Solaraa sleek looking machine that was available for model years 1999 through 2008. Here is an early Solara, recently found in a car graveyard in Colorado.
The kind of American car buyers who might have wanted a jaunty coupe were moving into truck-like machinery as fast as possible when this car was built, and that process would continue at breakneck speed throughout the 2000s. a Camry Solara convertible in 2000 It helped a little, and Toyota has less and less emphasized the Camry name in Solara marketing materials as the years have gone on, but sales have never been spectacular.
This car is the SE V6 trim level, which had an MSRP of $21,648 (about $38,582 in 2023 dollars). The base SE with four bangers costs $18,938 ($33,752 today).
Those prices were for cars with five-speed manual transmissions, and that’s just what this car has. The automatic was $800 more expensive in the SE ($1,426 now).
The last time Americans could buy a new one Camry three-pedal sedan AND a V6 engine it was early 2001; four-cylinder Camry sedans with manual transmissions were available throughout 2011. It seems that 2002 was the last model year for a Solara with a V6 and five manuals on the floor; The four-cylinder Solaras could be purchased with upshifts through the end of 2008.
Scrap buyers bought most of the front body components of this car.
With an electronic odometer here, I can’t check the final mileage without turning on the ECU (which it is possible, although not easy, landfill). I bet it has passed 200,000 miles.
It’s not one of those Camrys.
Don’t take a wife, two kids, a dog and a Camry sedan. Get a dog and a Camry Solara instead! My parents drove a 1967 Ford Custom two-door sedan AND a 1949 Cadillac Club Coupe when I was a kid, making me living proof that childhood can be survived on just two family car doors…but the rules have changed since then, it seems.
A completely different kind of Camry.
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