Toyota revs up Camry with zero finance

MARKET leader Toyota has become the latest car company to offer zero per cent finance, but only on its Australian-built Camry and Aurion bought before the end of the year.

Nissan and Mitsubishi have also weighed in with discount finance deals on selected models in the past 24 hours as competition becomes cut-throat.

Fresh from pushing the Australian-ness of its locally manufactured vehicles in ‘local pride’ television commercials featuring workers at the Altona plant in Victoria, Toyota today announced a ‘buy Australian’ campaign backed by a zero per cent finance offer.

Toyota executive director sales and marketing Matthew Callachor said zero per cent finance was a way to encourage Australians to rediscover the value and other attributes of cars built by Toyota in Australia.

“It means more Australians than ever will be able to experience the style, driving appeal, advanced features and quality of Toyota cars that are built with passion and pride,” said Mr Callachor.

Unlike Ford and Holden, Toyota has been doing reasonably well with its local Camry and Camry Hybrid, with sales up 22.9 per cent this year thanks to the introduction of a new generation in the first quarter.

From top: Toyota's Matthew Callachor Toyota Aurion.

The V6 Aurion has not been doing quite so well, with sales slipping 14.1 per cent in the first nine months of the year.

The focus on the local manufacturing operation and its products follows a bitter industrial dispute and forced redundancies at the plant earlier this year.

Mr Callachor said Toyota had exported several times more Australian-built Toyota cars than it sells locally.

“Our long-term aim is to shift this balance closer to 50:50,” he said. “We are supporting that objective by reminding local motorists that Camry and Aurion are built by Australians for Australians.”

It is the first time Toyota has gone to zero per cent with its finance offers, which previously bottomed out at 3.9 per cent.

Nissan got the ball rolling with a one per cent comparison rate in July, and its stablemate Renault went one better with a zero rate in Australia.

Holden quickly slammed down a 0.5 per cent offer, and Mitsubishi came up with a 0.9 per cent deal to clear run-out Lancer and to rev up Triton sales in September.

The Mitsubishi offer helped to drive up the company’s sales volumes by 21 per cent last month, promoting Mitsubishi to keep it going this month on run-out Lancer and ASX.

Nissan has returned to the table with its first zero per cent offer, this time on Micra, X-Trail and Navara D40, saying it will continue the deal through to the end of the year.

As well, it has declared that no deposit will be required on these vehicles, but points out that the offer is available “only at participating dealers”.