2.5 million Toyotas built in Australia
April 28, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
Toyota, Australia’s number one auto-manufacturer, last week built the company’s two-and-a-half millionth car at the Altona manufacturing plant in Melbourne.
Although most manufacturers try their best to make the milestone vehicles something special, in Toyota’s case, it was a white Toyota Camry Grande. The car marks 45 years after Toyota Australia built its first car.
As uninspiring as the Camry may seem, it has been the most successful production model in the Toyota lineup with over 1.3 million units made to date – more than twice that of any other model.
Of the 2.5 million cars manufactured in Australia, more than 26 per cent (650,000) have been exported to overseas markets, mainly to the Middle East.
Although the first million cars took 32 years to make (1963-1992), it only took 12 years to produce the second million, and only four years from there to hit the 2.5 million mark.
2007 was not only the best year for Toyota in terms of actual sales, but the Japanese giant manufactured nearly 150,000 cars – a 35,000 increase over its previous best in 2003. Out of that 150,000, 97,688 were exported, earning Toyota $1.7 billion.
According to the company, since 2002 over $1 billion AUD has been invested in the manufacturing operations at Altona, which employs around 3,500 people. The plant also injects about $1.7 billion into the economy every year.
So far the Big T has built nine models in Australia: Tiara, Crown, Corona, Corolla, Camry, Avalon and Aurion as well as the Holden Nova (based on Corolla) and Apollo (Camry).
Toyota’s Australian operations currently include the four-cylinder Camry and the six cylinder Aurion passenger sedans for domestic and export markets.
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who the hell is smokesignals,u musta hit ur head dude.
driving longtime cars i have,toyota happy inside make me,not sure engines supercharge cause crash shuttle i think.
ah sole! me rikey cororra , it make good cook my dog. superbowl happy time number one!
Andrew M, You make a good point. Toyota are rarely judged best of class among motoring critics yet sell the highest volumn accross just about every segmment. Why? There as boring as a sao biscuit. The reason i think is aussies lack imagination. If its good enough for the Jones’s than it will do me to. Take the Corolla. Anyone who took the time to instead look at the Mazda 3, Hyundai i30, or even the Ford focus could never in their right mind than go with a Corolla! Unless the were truely blinded by the badge. It happens, thats one pretty bloody bright badge man.
Maybe by placing the cars they make in the middle of the pack is what allows Toyota to sell so many cars. Being the best for one reason or another will always engender some kind of compromise that alienates a large proportion of buyers. Take BMW as an example. Great cars in most respects but most reviewers complain that ride on anything but the smoothest roads, a rarity in Australia, is a pain due to the run flats. Throw in a price that is fairly steep and a long list of expensive options and most people, who don’t have the dough, will not even look at it. On the other side of the price scale are the cheap brands from Korea. They are great value, no question, but they still suffer from the same stigma that Toyota suffered from back in the seventies ie not built to last. Probably undeserved now but they will just have to let time pass to prove themselves like Toyota has. By straddling both ends of the scale, Toyota covers a larger area of buyer demographics. Who knows for how long this will remain the case but love them or hate them, they are where they are because they did something right.
Toyota cars are average and attract the average buyer who want to get to A to B which is the majority of people, as you probably know the market is a bell curve. As Andrew said its cars are mid packed (most likely on purpose) attracting middle curved buyers.
To illustrate how many camrys/Aurions, have aftermarket rims, done up in some way as compared to the number commo’s, Falcons etc. The people who choose a Toyota are generally people who are not into cars ala average joe, and given Toyota’s rep as reliable you can see why its high on the pick.
Hi Emya – you make a point that the Aussie lacks imagination. I personally agree with that but ad the average Aussie. No one here talking in detail is really an ‘average’ person they are more fanatical.
Take Holden situation. everyone likes the Euro bit so Holden bring in a few Euro cars, the Vectra, the Astra, the Barina (Corsa based). The Vectra was discontinued due to poor sales, the Astra is doing reasonably well but not totally loved up, the Barina was chopped in favour of the Deawoo. The Vectra was replaced by a Deawoo, again none of these are loved. Seems to me the ‘average’ Australian is indeed difficult to satisfy. Guess they all want mini Commodors and Falcons. Now they buy reliable Corollas that are cheap to repair.
The reason Toyota do well is they have solid cars in range and some do get top of tree and get awards. They then improve or update regularly and still up near top in class. It is this philosophy together with cars that are consistently top of class and they drag other cars in range up that are not top of class as Toyota renowned for solid performers (albeit boring lookers).
So Yaris and Prius gets awards and Corolla does not. Yet with smart marketting and the fact Toyota have 2 other small cars in Yaris and Prius with awards….this tends to push up rest of Toyota’s range.
yep thats right No Name, we who post on this board are enthusiasts and most likely only represent what… 5% population, when we start bagging something e.g. like Toyota, IMO its almost like the classical music lovers bagging the pop music majortiy people and reckon they have no taste in their music because the music lacks substance, beauty in comparison.
Exactly my point Joober Thanks. Whilst on that one how many cars did Australian buy last year? Its simply not worth developing specific cars for a minority market. So Australians have to live with either have to live with cheaper Asian cars (Daewoos) Japanese (OK cars) or slightly more expensive cars (superior ha ha) European cars.
So I take it Anthony C is Tony C ??? Not what I would have expected from him if thats the case! Mr Crawford I guess thats not you?
There’s a market for everything………just like music! Have to be in the mood for it at the time!
Me listening to Leona Lewis from the Big W……..very romantic like him! Then I had ACDC cranked up in the M3 this arvo……and I love my jazz, Ella Fitzgerald is the queen! Cars are the same!
Like the song says from Leona.
” Here I am “
‘Reality’ or should I say- Dingbat: Comparing BMW to Toyota only demonstrates your cranial haemorrhage- BMW represents exclusivity, fine driving cars, Toyota has a (deteriorating) reputation of reliabilty to trade on (which it does succesfully) which of the two badges has more s*x (damn censor) appeal? Supra (my chariot), 1jz, 2jz, 1uz, ae86, Chaser are all legends but none of that was officially sold here. Fact is, Toyota Austrlaia has only offloaded BORING (read: none of these) cars to suckers and made a mint from it. It takes a really ’special’ person to foam over these offerings. Get real. Hooray for mediocrity= It gives perspective to people with a clue.