Toyota tweaks its remaining sedans for 2021 after dropping Yaris

Toyota is tweaking its sedan lineup for 2021, adding an upgraded suite of safety features to the Camry, a new trim level for the Camry and Corolla and optional all-wheel drive to the Avalon as the brand "recommits" to remaining in the once-dominant but dwindling segment.

But one shriveled sedan segment has proved a bridge too far.

The North American run for the Toyota Yaris is ending with the 2020 model. Through the first six months of the year, Toyota sold just 1,098 Yaris sedans in the U.S., down 93 percent from 2019, and 2,610 Yaris hatchbacks, which were introduced last year at the New York auto show, and 21 Yaris liftback imports. The hatchback was a rebadged version of the Mazda2.

Cynthia Tenhouse, vice president for vehicle marketing and communications at Toyota Motor North America, said this week that the Yaris sedan, which received a midcycle freshening in 2018, and the Yaris hatchback were dropped for unspecified homologation safety issues and declining sales.

The deletion means the Corolla, with a base price more than $4,000 higher than that of the Yaris, will be the new entry point for Toyota buyers going forward.

Still, Toyota continues to invest in the rest of its sedan lineup and continues its strategy to remain in the segments where it still owns significant market share with the Corolla, Camry, Prius and Avalon — a strategy similar to how the Tacoma came to dominate the midsize-pickup segment.

"We are making sedans because we are selling them, and we will continue to increase our commitment to sedans even while our competitors continue to walk away from them," Tenhouse told journalists this week. "The car segment still represents a huge piece of the business, and if you look back to 2019, there were more than 4.5 million cars sold in the U.S. And you know, quite honestly, we're happy to take as much of that as we can."

Toyota will use its top-selling midsize sedan to introduce driver-assistance upgrades to its standard Toyota Safety Suite and improve its infotainment offerings.

Called Toyota Safety Sense 2.5+, the new suite expands the current suite's precollision system capabilities by broadening its visual sweep. For example, at intersections, the upgraded system can detect an oncoming vehicle or pedestrian during a left-hand turn and provide a warning and automatic braking under certain conditions. The upgraded precollision system also adds emergency steering assist, helping the driver safely perform emergency maneuvers in their lane to avoid a pedestrian, bicyclist or vehicle ahead of them. An enhancement of the dynamic radar cruise control system assists a driver in safely overtaking slower vehicles in their lane.

Toyota Safety Sense 2.5+ is expected to migrate from the Camry to the rest of Toyota's lineup in coming model years as the product cadence allows.

Inside, the Camry will get a new infotainment touch screen, either 7 inches or 9 inches, depending on the trim level. Toyota also dropped the base L trim from the Camry's lineup, making the LE the new base model for 2021. The front fascia of the Camry LE and XLE trims have been restyled to differentiate them from other models.

Through the first six months of the year, Camry sales are off 29 percent to 125,899.

The compact Corolla will get a limited-edition Apex package for the 2021 model year aimed at driving enthusiasts with an upgraded suspension, styling accents and a sport-tuned exhaust, Just 6,000 Apex packages will be available across Corolla SE and XSE trims, including 120 equipped with what the automaker calls a six-speed "intelligent manual transmission" that adjusts engine revs while changing gears, smoothing out gear changes. The Apex editions also feature dedicated styling, including a black body kit with bronze accents, and a trunk-mounted spoiler.

Toyota will add Android Auto compatibility across the Corolla trim lineup for 2021, as well as a three-month trial to SiriusXM satellite radio and automatic engine shut-off, which shuts off an idling engine after a predetermined period.

Through the first half of the year, Corolla sales are down 28 percent to 109,601.

For 2021, the full-size Toyota Avalon sedan will add optional all-wheel drive to the XLE and Limited trims, which Toyota expects about 20 percent of Avalon buyers will take. Other changes coming to the 2021 Avalon include a new lithium ion battery pack for hybrid models, an available Nightshade edition to the XSE trim, AndroidAuto compatibility across the trim lineup and new USB-C charging ports.

Through the first half of the year, Avalon sales in the U.S. are down 49 percent to 7,563.