The Toyota Camry Coupe was the ‘sports car’ no one asked for

The Toyota Camry isn’t known for its scintillation. Instead, words like 'appliance on wheels', 'conservative' and 'boring' tend to get bandied about a lot, especially when talking about older generations of Toyota’s venerable and ever-green family sedan.

But, for a brief period in the nameplate’s history, in the United States at least, Toyota actually manufactured and sold a two-door version, imaginatively called the Camry Coupe.

The US was – and remains – a hugely important market for Toyota. The Camry remains the best-selling passenger car in the US and has held that position for nigh on two decades.

But in the late 1980s and into the early ’90s, like it had in so many markets, the Toyota Camry had earned a reputation as solid, reliable, and dependable. These are, of course, all very worthwhile traits to have associated with your car, but they came at a cost. Nowhere did the word 'exciting' come to mind when thinking about the Camry.

That all changed in 1991 with the release of the new-third generation XV10 Camry, Toyota casting off (some) of the straight-edge shackles of conservatism. Eschewing the hard edges and boxy dimension of previous generations, the XV10 appeared as an altogether more refined Camry, which, while not exactly curvaceous, certainly looked a whole lot more elegant in profile.

In the US, the XV10 Camry featured a wider body (by “several inches”) than its global counterparts, and that lent the Camry a slightly more imposing presence on America’s roads.

Available in either sedan or station wagon body styles, and with a choice of a 2.2-litre inline-four or 3.0-litre V6, the Camry continued to woo American buyers while earning plaudits from the motoring press.

But, in an out-of-character burst of interesting, in 1993 Toyota unveiled the Camry Coupe, a two-door version of its best-selling mid-sizer.  The rationale was to provide buyers with a sportier choice, but the reality was that, other than losing two doors and 16mm in overall height against the sedan, there was nothing overtly ‘sporty’ about the Camry Coupe.

The Coupe shared many of its components and mechanicals with the sedan, with the same 2.2-litre four or 3.0-litre V6 engine choices, albeit with the option of a five-speed manual transmission to give it some ‘sports car’ credibility.

Dimensionally identical to the sedan (other than the 16mm height reduction), the Camry Coupe did receive some minor cosmetic enhancements that spoke to performance, with bigger 15-inch alloy wheels and the obligatory rear spoiler. Inside, the Camry Coupe shared its cabin with the sedan.

The low-effort attempt at injecting some ‘interest’ into Camry’s US line-up was at its best in 141kW V6 trim with the optional manual transmission, although contemporary reports suggest the Coupe’s suspension had been tuned for comfort, rather than handling, lending the two-door a floaty ride. We’d wager that suited American tastes quite nicely.

Despite Toyota’s best efforts, the Coupe captured only a fraction of Camry’s overall sales that ran into the hundreds of thousands (in 1995 alone, Toyota shifted 326,632 Toyota Camrys) and by 1996, the two-door version was no more.

Instead, in 1997 Toyota released the Camry Solara (pictured, above), both as a coupe and convertible which, while built on Camry’s platform, bore no resemblance to its four-door sibling. It proved altogether more successful, remaining on sale for 10 years and through two generations before Toyota pulled the plug in 2008. There hasn’t been a two-door Camry since.

So, what do you think? Toyota Camry Camry Coupe... yeah or nah? Let us know in the comments below.