Toyota is a brand that has built its reputation on making the most sensible and reliable transport vehicles. In the automotive landscape, the cars they make are like appliances that just never break, and you can always rely on them. They have made a few performance cars in the past and most recently created a new line of performance cars dedicated to those who want pure driving thrill. But within that time, Toyota decided to take one of its sensible commuter cars and inject some excitement into it. The result was a sporty four-door sedan with almost no compromise.
UPDATE: 2026/09/08 19:53 EST BY MARTIN P. WAINAINA
We’ve added more details on this car’s last-of-an-era status and a closer look at the compromises that came with its performance-focused setup
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Toyota Has Built Its Reputation On Sensible Cars
For over half a century, Toyota’s primary goal has been focused on making the best and most sensible cars on the planet. Every vehicle rolling off their assembly lines was designed to prioritize ease of ownership, efficiency, build quality, and extreme longevity above all else. While competitors periodically experimented with high-strung powertrains or overly complex electronics, Toyota has perfected the art of conservative engineering. Their cars didn’t push boundaries for the sake of novelty; they refined proven mechanical components until failure was an anomaly. This relentless focus on durability and dependability turned the brand into a default choice for millions of buyers worldwide, establishing a reputation that few manufacturers could ever hope to replicate.
Toyota Has Provided Reliable Family Transport For Decades
That reputation was built on the backs of a few legendary nameplates that redefined practical transportation across the globe for multiple generations. The Corolla became the best-selling car in automotive history with over 57 million units sold. The full-size Avalon delivered near-luxury comfort and ample interior space for buyers who wanted a quiet, plush cruiser without the pretense or maintenance bills of a European luxury car. Standing firmly in the center of that ecosystem was the Camry.
Since its introduction, the Camry has served as the undisputed benchmark for the American midsize family sedan. It was the standard by which all other commuter cars were judged: It was quiet, comfortable, immensely practical, offered great fuel economy, and was practically immortal. It was the quintessential car for people who just wanted a daily driver that could get them wherever they wanted to go. The engineers at Toyota decided that they wanted to spice up this family sedan, and in traditional Japanese fashion, they did it without compromise.
Toyota Built One Of The Best Modern Sleepers
In recent years, Toyota has undergone a noticeable transformation. Spearheaded by enthusiast leadership at the highest levels of the company, the automaker re-entered the performance realm with serious intent. The global lineup saw the return of iconic sports cars and the birth of rally-bred hot hatches. Nameplates like the GR Supra, the high-revving GR86, and the turbocharged, all-wheel-drive GR Corolla and Yaris proved that Toyota remembered how to build cars that made drivers’ palms sweat and heart rates rise. But this wasn’t the only type of performance car Toyota was planning to make.
Toyota recognized that while dedicated sports cars are fantastic, not every enthusiast wants to compromise on daily usability, interior space, or long-term ownership and upkeep of their vehicle. Rather than building a completely new performance car from scratch to satisfy this crowd, Toyota’s engineers quietly took one of their most ubiquitous, high-volume front-wheel-drive sedans and transformed it into a legitimate performance sleeper. This is the type of car that could swallow a week’s worth of groceries and child seats while comfortably keeping up with sports cars on a twisty road.
The Toyota Camry TRD Was A 301-HP Sedan No One Expected
When the eighth-generation Toyota Camry (XV70) arrived in 2018, it was quite a handsome and, dare I say, sporty-looking vehicle with sharper lines and a lower stance than any version before it. But when the TRD variant arrived in 2020, it looked like a legitimate sports sedan. Toyota got rid of the conservative front fascia, stripped away all of the chrome and equipped it with track-inspired aero and new wheels to make it look a bit aggressive. The Camry TRD got a new front bumper with a prominent front splitter, aggressive side aero skirts, a rear diffuser with functional vents, and noticeable spoiler mounted on the trunk lid.
You could have the TRD in either red, white, silver, or black matched with striking matte-black 19-inch TRD alloy wheels, red brake calipers, cat-back dual exhaust tips, and a striking red pinstripe. Toyota wanted to make sure you noticed that this car was a bit different from the regular Camry. Inside, the red theme continued on the seatbelts, floor mats, embroidered headrests, and contrast stitching throughout the cabin. It communicated instantly that this was no fleet-vehicle commuter; it was a loud, confident departure from traditional Camry design.
It Still Retains the Potent 2GR V6
Underneath that aggressive bodywork sat an engine that enthusiast drivers have respected for years: the naturally aspirated 3.5-liter 2GR-FKS V6. In an era dominated by small-displacement turbocharged four-cylinders, Toyota chose to retain the displacement and mechanical purity of a free-breathing V6. This engine still made 301 hp and 267 lb-ft of torque. This is the same engine and power figures you would find in the regular Camry XLE and XSE trims.
While some may question why TRD didn’t add extra power, the 2GR was already a powerhouse. This same engine powers performance-focused vehicles like the Lexus RC 350 with 311 hp and various Lotus sports cars. So if you wanted a little more power you could. It features Toyota’s D-4S port and direct fuel injection, variable valve timing, and since it’s naturally aspirated, it has instant throttle response capable of spinning the front wheels. Power is still sent to those front wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission.
The 301-HP V6 Finally Had A Chassis To Match
While the engine was carried over, the chassis underneath it received a thorough mechanical upgrade. The standard V6 Camry had always been quick in a straight line, but its soft suspension meant substantial body roll and understeer when pushed hard into a corner. TRD solved this by making a few key changes underneath the car.
Engineers added extensive underbody bracing, including thick V-braces behind the rear seats, which drastically increased torsional rigidity. They installed stiffer coil springs that lowered the ride height by 0.6 inches, reducing the car’s center of gravity. Specially tuned shocks and thicker solid anti-roll bars with up to 44% stiffness at the front and 67% at the rear drastically reduced body roll. The brakes were upgraded to larger 12.9-inch front rotors clamped by dual-piston calipers, while the lightweight 19-inch wheels reduced unsprung mass. Finally, a custom TRD cat-back exhaust system gave it a slightly deeper growl under acceleration.
The Camry TRD Is Actually Great To Drive
The result of these chassis tweaks is a driving experience that changes your perception of what a Toyota Camry can do. Turn the wheel, and the front end responds quicker than any Camry. There is less body roll than expected, which allows the driver to carry serious speed through winding back roads and keep up with sports cars where the standard Camry would fall apart.
But what makes the TRD special, however, is that this athleticism doesn’t come at the cost of day-to-day usability. It retains the standard model’s spacious back seat, massive trunk, intuitive infotainment, and excellent fuel efficiency as long as you’re driving sensibly. It remains a quiet, effortless cruiser when you want it to be, but the moment you put your foot down, the exhaust opens up and the chassis responds with a level of agility that feels entirely alien to this nameplate. Above all else, it is still as reliable as any Toyota from this era.
Why The Camry TRD Is An Important Vehicle
The Camry TRD holds a unique place in modern automotive history because it represents a combination of traits that has almost entirely vanished from the market. As automakers shift toward crossovers, SUVs, electrification, and downsized turbocharged engines, a naturally aspirated, high-displacement sporty V6 in a front-wheel-drive sedan chassis is rare. Furthermore, Toyota made the TRD affordable.
When introduced, it was actually priced lower than the luxury-focused XSE V6, which started around $35,000. The TRD had an MSRP of $31,040, making it an incredible value proposition for performance-minded buyers. Toyota only made about 6,000 of these cars per year, so that’s around 30,000+ cars from 2020 to 2024, which makes it a fairly limited-production car. The TRD Camry has maintained surprisingly strong resale values on the second-hand market. Cars with 30,000–50,000 miles are still trading close to MSRP.
This Is The Ultimate Modern Toyota Sleeper
Toyota didn’t suddenly turn the Camry into a sports car killer; in fact, it can only keep up with or beat lightweight sports cars with similar or less power, but the real surprise is in the corners. The Camry may not corner like a Civic Type R, but in the right hands, it can easily keep pace with 300 hp under your right foot.
The TRD team took a car universally recognized for safe, sensible, everyday transportation and turned it into a surprisingly capable sporty sedan. Toyota used this platform to show that with a few tweaks, a bland midsize family sedan can be enjoyable to drive without sacrificing the core features that made it a great family car in the first place. The Camry TRD remains one of the most delightful anomalies of the modern automotive world.
The Camry TRD Came With Some Compromises
For its price, the Camry TRD is a surprisingly complete performance package, but it isn’t without drawbacks. The biggest is baked into the layout itself: putting 301 hp through the front wheels of a 3,500-plus-pound sedan was always going to challenge traction, and independent testing found the front end could struggle for grip, with understeer remaining noticeable when pushed hard. Car and Driver measured a 61/39 front-to-rear weight split, which helps explain some of that behavior.
Then there’s the everyday penalty for all that extra chassis hardware. The firmer suspension improved control but transmitted far more of the road into the cabin, with some reviewers finding the ride close to too harsh for comfortable daily commuting. The unchanged eight-speed automatic didn’t help either. Its tall gearing could leave the V6 below its sweet spot on winding roads, while aggressive corner exits could expose the transmission’s reluctance to deliver the right gear at the right moment.
The Camry TRD Was One Of The Last Of Its Kind
The writing was already on the wall when Toyota launched the Camry TRD. Naturally aspirated V6 sedans were becoming harder to justify as automakers chased better fuel economy, tighter emissions targets, and greater electrification. The Camry’s next redesign made that transition impossible to ignore. Rather than carry the V6 into another generation, Toyota rebuilt the ninth-generation car around a hybrid-only powertrain, making the 2025 Camry exclusively hybrid with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder and Toyota’s fifth-generation hybrid system.
That move made 2024 the final year of the V6 Camry. Toyota’s complete shift to an exclusively hybrid Camry effectively ended the 3.5-liter V6’s run in the nameplate for good. In hindsight, that makes the 2020–2024 Camry TRD much more than an unusual performance trim. It represents the absolute final chapter of pure, gasoline-only performance for one of America’s most familiar sedans, and that only adds to its appeal.
Sources: Toyota