Cars - Toyota Aurion

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	Cars - Toyota Aurion

The Toyota Aurion (pronounced or-ree-on) is a large car unveiled at the Melbourne Motor Show 2006, that will be produced by the Toyota Motor Corporation in Australia.

Development up to Aurion

Before the unveiling of the Toyota Aurion at the Melbourne Motor Show 2006, Toyota Motor Corporation Australia had the large car Toyota Avalon being produced at its Altona plant in Melbourne. This car had been produced at the plant from 2000 and had taken much of its basic design and mechanical features at the time from an 8 year old Toyota Avalon model in the United States. The Avalon was built at Altona alongside the Toyota Camry and was offered as a larger, more upmarket offering than the Camry. The original sales predictions were not met with the Toyota Avalon and the car failed to challenge rivals Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, primarily because of the outdated design. Many buyers opted for the Camry V6 with the same engine as the Avalon.

Toyota, realising that buyers wanted something more modern, began working on the Aurion in 2003 when Nick Hogios left Ford Australia and joined Toyota Australia, working in Japan on the design of the Aurion. Nick Hogios became the chief designer of the car.

Paul Beranger was the head of Toyota Styling Australia which was a team that had regular discussions with Toyota Japan to come to decisions about how the car would turn out. Aurion, being the first time that Toyota Australia designed their own car, took Toyota Styling Australia some time to convince Toyota Japan that Toyota Australia could design and make the Aurion. Successful Toyota Styling Australia designs, notably the Sportivo Concept coupe and X-Runner ute helped convince Toyota Japan to allow Toyota Australia to undertake the project.

On Thursday, February 9, 2006, Toyota Australia unveiled the Toyota Aurion alongside the Toyota Aurion Sportivo concept at the Melbourne Motor Show at an official press release.

Toyota dropped the Toyota Avalon tag for their new large car as it has gained a reputation to be an uninspiring car. Toyota, desiring to remove that status, created the Toyota Aurion name to create a fresh start.

The Toyota Aurion means 'tomorrow' in Ancient Greek and Aurora means 'the dawn' in Latin. This gives implications of a completely new car and fits in with Toyota's latest TV advertising campaign, 'Can't wait for tomorrow'.

The standard Toyota Aurion is expected to be on sale at Toyota dealerships by August, 2006. The Toyota Aurion Sportivo is expected to arrive in early 2007.

Design

There are currently two known separate exterior designs for the Toyota Aurion, one with upmarket European style, the standard Toyota Aurion and one with a more aggressive, sport-oriented style, the Sportivo version of the Toyota Aurion. Toyota claims that the Toyota Aurion is designed to Australian tastes.

The exterior centre section of the Toyota Aurion, which are the doors, side windows, windscreen and roof panels are identical to the 6th generation Toyota Camry. This is to reduce costs and result in simplified manufacturing processes. However, the other panels in the Toyota Aurion are unique from the Toyota Camry.

The standard Toyota Aurion features an European exterior style, with understated looks and dashings of chrome around the grille, door handles, along the doors, on the rear part of the boot and above the foglights. This model will have 16-inch alloy wheels. In line with many recent Toyota models, the badge for this Toyota Aurion is at the top of the grille. The standard Toyota Aurion is designed to have an upmarket, luxury exterior style.

The Toyota Aurion Sportivo is currently only a concept, but the concept will have styling similar to the production model. Rather than have an upmarket luxury exterior, the Sportivo model is designed to have an aggressive, more sport-oriented style. This means sport 17-inch alloy wheels, a rear spoiler, different headlight and taillight designs, a sports bodykit, a different grille as well as other different exterior features.

Not much is currently known about the interior design of the Toyota Aurion, as both the standard model of the Toyota Aurion and the Toyota Aurion Sportivo concept that have been on show at the 2006 Melbourne Motor Show have their windows tinted a very dark black.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Toyota Aurion ]

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