Talk:Toyota Camry (XV20)

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Confusion regarding development information based on sources

A number of years ago as an engineering student, I took greater interest in vehicle development. In being one of the highest selling vehicles stateside, I thoroughly researched the Camry history and Toyota development standards and patterns from past to present. I read that the chief engineer for the 1997 model year Camry was appointed in 1991, the same year the XV10 launched. I made the assumption he was referring to when the XV20 Camry program started. By assumption, I'd believed that since the V30 (& XV10 from 1988-89) went into development by the end of 1986 and was touted by Toyota in 1991, as being already development by 1987. By Toyota development standards that I already knew of, XV20 styling would've been completed in 1994. Turns out I was right and it's April 1994 to be exact.

Recently I read otherwise regarding XV20 development length, pointing to a 36 month timetable, with the design freeze occurring 28 months before start of production in 1996. However, Toyota emphasized in the '90s, that their designs never went from an approved design theme to final freeze less than 6 months. By comparison, the 1995 Avalon was designed up to late 1991, arriving in 1994. This has been true of most automakers to date, save for the 1994 Mustang (October 1990 to January 1991) and most Ford design development between 1989-1998 (1997 F-150 was frozen in early 1993). Nissan equally reported spending 29.5 months between design freeze and start of production until the late 1990s/early 2000s, plus an additional 12-15 months with an initial design theme/concept before a freeze.

The problem is, I have to wonder if Toyota is referring to when the XV20 design concept in full-scale was chosen at -36 months to SOP. Then design engineers and Masahiko Kawatsu spent 8 months engineering it for final production approval in April 1994 at -28 months to SOP, meaning the 1991 date of overall XV20 project start date might be correct. The problem is journalists or the individuals they interview, have a tendency to describe development commencement in different ways. Whether it's when planning a new model gets started, when a design theme/concept is chosen, or when a finalized body design is board approved, is what I'm trying to figure out. I am rather struggling with this in other articles. It helps give somewhat a timeline on various models, to give readers an idea of the complete age and background information on a vehicle.Carmaker1 (talk) 08:31, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion moved to Talk:Toyota Camry#Confusion regarding development information based on sources. OSX (talk • contributions) 05:16, 28 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]