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

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 releases 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.

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.

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.