See this car? Looks like the new Toyota Camry, right? Well it is and it isn’t. What you’re looking at is the new Daihatsu Altis… but it’s basically the Camry that’s been rebadged as a Daihatsu.
Now fully owned by Toyota, Daihatsu has been selling badge-engineered Camrys in Japan since 2000. This time around, Daihatsu is only selling one version: the 2.5-liter hybrid with two-wheel drive in G spec.
At 3,499,200 yen (a little over $30k), it’s priced the same as the identical Toyota Camry G, which is also only being offered with the one hybrid powertrain choice in the automakers’ home market. Oddly, though, customers in Japan looking for a cheaper version will have to leave the Daihatsu showroom and head for one of Toyota’s, where the cheaper Camry X is offered for 3,294,000 yen ($29k), alongside the G model with the leather package for 4,195,800 yen ($37k).
With the Altis being offered at Daihatsu dealers and the Camry touching down at the same time at Toyopet, Corolla, and Netz dealers, Toyota expects to sell about 2,400 of these sedans domestically each month – which pales in comparison to the 30,000 or so it sells in the US every month.
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