Why did you buy a Camry?

[Cosmo]

Well I've had 3 Camrys, this current Gen5 is my third. It was time to replace my Gen4 CSX, and I looked at getting a Lexus ES300. Boy, was there bad service at the dealer... Anyway, after returning home I thought "well an ES300 is pretty much a Camry Azura!", just with a bit better leather and a lot of better build quality. So thus I bought myself a Toyota Camry Azura :) The only thing I really don't like about the car is the styling of the rear, it's too high and it looks like it has one huge a$$. But you know, when you're in it, you don't notice the exterior :) AND I don't have to be worried about it getting stolen

Please share your stories! :D

[Terry]

i used to have a 94 Gen3 Camry I4, and it was about time to change it, it was leaking oil, and stuff needed to be changed every which way

now i wanted a car with a bit more power, with a similar size, i didnt want something that sucked petrol, and i wanted something a bit sporty but wasnt a theft magnet.

also my family has always found the Toyotas we have owned reliable ;), and fairly economical to maintain (service etc).

so the Camry Sportivo V6 seemed to fit that profile fairly well B)

[perthcamry]

Why a Camry… well

I had a bad experience with a Golf, the manual gearbox went just after the 3 year warranty apparently a common thing and that was 10k to get it going properly, I managed to source a second hand one but did not trust the car after that it was heading to money pit territory. Everything was super expensive and hard to source, the battery was the most expensive battery, no one stocked brake lights for it. It had to go…..

Previous to the Golf (had 1 a golf that lasted 3 months and was written off and the airbags and seatbelt pretensioner saved me serious injury and possibly worse) I had a Camry /Apollo SLE

I traded it in still going strong with 285,000kms on it. It had upgraded springs and shocks and a great stereo. The Auto gearbox was perfect, the motor was a little slower than it used to be but still going well. It did chew tyres a little as if it had a body alignment problem. Other than that it was cheap reliable comfortable transport. ;)

Remembering this as much as I love Euro cars , they are unreliable and a money pit. :P

Looked at Astra, Pulsar even Commodore. But Toyotas always seem reliable. I have not really heard of someone complaining of a corolla needing some repairs that are going to break the bank. Parts are easy to come by at wreckers / Japanese import places.

I then decided I wanted to get a Corolla with twin airbags , ABS and cruise (which is aftermarket on a Corolla) for all this on the small car the cost blew out.

I found the Camry Sportivo fitted the bill for 29 K on the road. I have always been a car lover but don’t want to spend all my money on them and the Sportivo does not look to cardigan. B)

Its also a nice statement not to have a Subi or falcadore and have people pleasantly surprised at how good a car it is. :P

[Miklos73]

I bought a series of crappy cars, all would lose their coolant/oil etc, then when I got a good tax refund I bought my dream car - a 1985 Supra. It was my first Toyota, and certainly not my last!

This thing was mega reliable! No loss of colant and oil. I loved this car, I only sold it because I skipped a service and bad things went wrong with it. I had it repaired but it was not to my satisfaction, didn't help that the repairman ripped me off right royally. I also wanted something more economical, and not so sporty looking. ...OK, I will answer the Camry question in a minute!

My brother bought himself a 1994 Camry CSi, and I really liked the look of this car. Contemporary, classy (enough), anonymous and unaudacious - exactly what I wanted in a car. I also found this thing, for a four cylinder automatic, was quite good at taking off!

That settled it, I wanted a Camry, and my next tax return came in, I bought one. Same colour as my brother's car, but not as nice. Paid $6800 for it, and it was 10 years old and had done 193,000 Km's. After I fixed the coolant leakage problem it had, I got good motoring out of her. A year later the gearbox conked out. $1800 and she was back on the road. Yes, I spend a lot of money on my cars, with these Toyota's I find it's worth it to have the reliability.

I still have this car, after 4 years. In September of 2007 I bought another Camry, the MK 4 CSi, which came out in July 1997. Paid $6990, and then some for BS insurance (which doesn't really cover anything at all). I am not happy with this MK4 version, I find it's pretty gutless!

Why did I buy a Camry? Reliability, economy, resale value, and they're anonymous and generic looking. Great cars!

[Topdog]

Because I could....

[Wixy]

because i am an undaring scared lil prick.

our 1st family car was the 2nd gen sv21 camry. till 2day we have it. it has done 350,000 purchased 2nd hand in 1993 with 20,000kms on the clock. why do we still have it? we dont drive it, but 1 of our relavtives are coming over to settle down from malaysia, and we thought we'd do them a favour and give them our sv21 to drive around. its awesome. nothing wrong with the 89 model but a small engine leakage and powersteering problem. not bad for a 19year old car.

our 2nd family car was the 3rd gen 1996 camry. it works and its the main family car 2date

my car is the 4th gen 02 advantage camry. purchased for $16,000 with only 25,000 on the clock.

if i am rich enough i'll be more daring. if everyone in the world didnt have a specific taste in cars, didn buy cars based upon emotion, we'd all be driving a camry - i assure u.

[mtbrider]

Our latest Camry (of three) is the new model Grande and is the best one we have had. Just went away with the family for a week and the boot took all our stuff including two boogie boards and skim board and still had room left.

Really impressed with the engine. I have yet to see the fuel usage (on the computer) drop below 10.4 litres per 100 klms but she was fully loaded with 4 people and the boot full at 110 kph so I'm still happy enough with it.

Pretty happy with all the Camry's and Corollas I have had so will stick with Toyota whilst they still offer these sorts of cars with good safety and features for the money. There is nothing my Grande does not have compared to my sisters new $75k BMW.

[Mr Slippy]

I have just purchased a brand new 08 model camry sportivo. Previous to this i owned a mazda 3 which i have owned since 05. The mazda 3 was a good car but had no room in it. As a young father of 2 i needed the space and the camry seemed like the best car for me as it was full size but didnt have the extra cylinders and fuel costs to go with it.

It is a great car and i have no intension of seeling it in the future.

[Glyde62]

Really impressed with the engine. I have yet to see the fuel usage (on the computer) drop below 10.4 litres per 100 klms but she was fully loaded with 4 people and the boot full at 110 kph so I'm still happy enough with it.

We did a trip from Brisbane to Roma on Saturday and according to trip computer on my 07 Sportivo average Klm/L was 7.7 at average speed of 120klm

[scotts10kluger]

had 80s landcruiser b 4 petrol 4.5ltr crying for fuel eco didnt need anymore cam next best thing

and yer mate myns done nearly 14000klm and on hwy ussally hovers between 6.5 to 7.2 and steady on 10.5ltrs according to computer and loving every min of it

Edited January 20, 2008 by hot07sportivo

[wishbone]

parents bought 2 of em coz they r reliable as hell never had any serious problems...i can name all the probz tht i have had with my 95 camry...1. Dead Battery ( my fault shld have changed it) 2. flat Tyre (again my fault)..3. Alarm Sys. ( i had deactivated the remote control using the key coz the remote stopped working after awhile...bt some1 accidently pressed the button...so yeah)...cars great its not a sporty car bt great for some1 who doesnt want to spend money...will last forever if taken care of...

Edited January 20, 2008 by wishbone

[akuma]

because uncle worked at toyota and i received 20% discount of new vechiles, also rollas being too small for me and my sister already owns one.

[mtbrider]

Looks like the fuel economy is getting better with a few more k's on the clock (still only just over a 1000k's) with computer dropping to 9l/100k.

Hopefully will get to the figures you guys are getting.

[m_luke]

Looks like the fuel economy is getting better with a few more k's on the clock (still only just over a 1000k's) with computer dropping to 9l/100k.

Hopefully will get to the figures you guys are getting.

Sorry to say this, but you'll need to go a lot further than that - looking at over 20,000k for fuel economy to be really noticeable and over 40,000k for the engine to be really freed up enough to feel the true amount of power that the engine has got.

-m_luke

[jps137]

We chose our Camry a Gen 5.5 based on boot size as we had one baby and another on the way. I had a BA Falcon from work at the time and the boot was just downright awkward. We had driven and loved the Focus, but when we put the pram in the boot suddenly there was no room for anything else. We bought the Altise Limited and what sealed the deal was the amount of features for the price. The Liberty had been in the running but the price difference was just too great

[Mr Slippy]

Looks like the fuel economy is getting better with a few more k's on the clock (still only just over a 1000k's) with computer dropping to 9l/100k.

Hopefully will get to the figures you guys are getting.

Sorry to say this, but you'll need to go a lot further than that - looking at over 20,000k for fuel economy to be really noticeable and over 40,000k for the engine to be really freed up enough to feel the true amount of power that the engine has got.

-m_luke

So does this mean i should drive it hard for the first 40,000 or wont it make a difference.

[akuma]

Looks like the fuel economy is getting better with a few more k's on the clock (still only just over a 1000k's) with computer dropping to 9l/100k.

Hopefully will get to the figures you guys are getting.

Sorry to say this, but you'll need to go a lot further than that - looking at over 20,000k for fuel economy to be really noticeable and over 40,000k for the engine to be really freed up enough to feel the true amount of power that the engine has got.

-m_luke

So does this mean i should drive it hard for the first 40,000 or wont it make a difference.

relax and take it easy, you wouldn't want to go too fast on a girl would you

[Mr Slippy]

Not until i get to know her of course.

[Whip Cracker]

Camrys have not really been in our family... we had a 86 Corolla... 88 Corona... Corolla was great, but the Corona was a POS.

My grandparents always had Camrys or Corollas... they had a nice Gen 3 Vienta... a 3.5 actually. I was told by my grandparents that the 4 cylinder engine was one of the most sophisticated engines in the world... and that it's reputation was fantastic.

My grandparents moved down here (from Darwin) with it... we moved down a year later... as I was 16 they were planning on selling it... I woulda bought it, but didn't have the money.

Since then... I've always had it in the back of my head that these were the best cars to get... purely the style, the reliability... the value... cheap costs on repair... all of that...

I have owned a 1994 CSi... and I now own a 95 Touring Series... with various cosmetic mods (I got the mod bug lol).

The rear tail lights look great with the boot centrepiece though!! lol...

[alarum]

I was initially looking at replacing the TR Magna with a later model - looking at TH / TJ.

I had a deposit on a KF Verada but the dealer sold it on me. (Dodgy guy).

And then buttered me up with the Vienta Grande - which I'm glad for, now.

[plesg]

My 98 V6 Grande is my third Camry (One 94 Wide Body "Apollo"), its silky smooth, ultra reliable, fast! when it needs to be, great build quality and ergonomics, apart from servicing doesnt cost me anything in repairs, drives and feels like a much more expensive car! 260 k no rattles no squeeks, Oh did I mention its smooth as? LOL. I feel guilty everyday Ive owned the car that Im driving such a fantastic car for what I paid for it, just hope all the Falcodore drivers dont find out how good they are and start buying them (and other Toyotas) or Ill have to pay more next time. I love this car! why would anyone not buy a Camry.

[f3nr15]

Reliability

Practicality

Comfort

Anonimity

Previously owned a Camry

Baby in the family

Cheap comprehensive insurance - Comprehensive on my MCV20R wagon is over $1000 for the year on a maximum no-claim bonus! Even my wife's MCV36R Azura is nearly half that! Grrr...

[icejagans]

well i bought my avalon because people thought it was underrated (i bought it 2nd hand) so the resale dropped like nothing.

I mean buying a camry of same year would of easily added 2-3K easily.

But main thing is, its ultra reliable.

[X-Power]

long story....

but i make it short;

Came from Europe and 3 of us in the family wanted a car (my dad, mum and me), dad bought him self and mum two camry's. when he bought them they both were in very good nick, his camry had 180000K on clock and my mother's camry had 150000k on clock. *** i hated toyota's back in thoses days, i didnt even bother to sit in them or try any of those. my self, use tho all europian cars, so i wanted something sporty. I found nice Scoupe turbo version and i bought it. anyways in 4 years time my dad mange from 180000 to put 400000K on a clock and he still manage to sell the car. mum's camry mange to get close to 185000. me, i had nothing but troubles. spent 2gs on the scoupe and had to sell it. sold the scoupe and bought my self a calibra turbo, spent 2-3gs on that. sold the calibra bought nissan silviya, again spent another 2-3gs on that. in 4 years time my father and mother did nothing but just puting oil and petrol in the car, me spent close to 8gs on my stupid cars! unluckly my parents had to go over sease and my dad sold his car but mum didnt have time to sell her car. she gave the car to me, so i can sell it. i have the car for one year now and i can tell all of you guys one thing, I LOVE this car! first time in my life didnt spend a cent on a car. bloody camry goes and goes ang goes for ever. never break down, never had any problems with it. i learnt my listen! Toyota is the best i can tell or atleas i know i can get 400000Ks from it :P

can't belive it, came out from factory they only cost $20,000!!!

I'm pretty sure if i can find my dads camry(the one did 400,000Ks) it will still running and have no problem at all.

[mrs.sportivo]

mum needed big family car LOL the end oh wait, then we went to the toyota dealership and bought the 07 model grande. the end :D oh wait LOL we might be selling it soon too (just got ourselves the new sedan civic) =)