1991 Camry wagon - good deal?

I'm looking for a older station wagon for local errands, and I like Toyotas. Someone is selling a 1991 Camry wagon with 190,000 miles, for around $1,000. The owner says it runs well, but it has some rust on the body.

Is this a good deal? I'm looking for a cheap car that will last for a couple of years without needing too much maintenance. Is 190,000 miles too much?

SB

Reply to
skybearer
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Where are you? Location plays a big deal in value. When you say rust, How Much? Did you look underneath? Is the underside rusty?

Do a compression chack on the engine. Pull the plugs, get a compression tester, and crank the motor for a few seconds. Even a motor in fair condition should hold ~100PSI, ~125 is very good. Check the Oil Pressure, with a gauge if you have to.

Brakes work? No shuddering? Squealing? Look at the air filter. Lift up one side of the car in the front and grab the wheel, and try to move it back and forth. If it moves more than about 1/4# then tie rod ends or Rack needs work. Whe was the timing belt replaced. Should have been about

10,000 miles ago, or right about NOW! Is the brake fluid gummy looking or light brown?

How much work are you planning on doing yourself? Can you handle brakes, shocks, and the minor things? Does it have a current sticker?

I'd offer $750 for the car. It may have 50,000 or so left in it; if it has been PROPERLY maintained it may go 100,000 more.

Reply to
Hachiroku

Get all the service records, if possible. And, pay actual $$$ to a real mechanic to have the whole car looked over. Not the dealer, preferably. If you don't know such a mechanic, start asking everyone you know for a referral.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

It's in the Pacific Northwest. Cars around here seem to rack up incredible mileage compared to the Northeast, probably because they don't salt the roads.

I haven't seen the car yet. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether a Camry with 190,000 miles is too much trouble. I'm probably going to take it to the shop for minor things like brakes and oil changes. The question is whether I'm better off spending maybe $2,000 for a 1997 Ford Escort wagon with 100,000 miles, or $1,000 for a Camry with

190,000.

SB

Hachiroku =E3=83=8F=E3=83=81=E3=83=AD=E3=82=AF wrote:

Reply to
skybearer

It's in the Pacific Northwest. Cars around here seem to rack up incredible mileage compared to the Northeast, probably because they don't salt the roads.

I haven't seen the car yet. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether a Camry with 190,000 miles is too much trouble. I'm probably going to take it to the shop for minor things like brakes and oil changes. The question is whether I'm better off spending maybe $2,000 for a 1997 Ford Escort wagon with 100,000 miles, or $1,000 for a Camry with

190,000.

SB

Hachiroku =E3=83=8F=E3=83=81=E3=83=AD=E3=82=AF wrote:

Reply to
skybearer

I would not want to pay that much for a 15-year old car with that mileage. If the car was in good shape, I'd probably consider it but offer less. If I couldn't find anything I liked better for $1K, I might go ahead and buy it. Pay a mechanic you trust to look it over.

You're constrained, though, by the fact that there aren't a whole lot of good, used wagons to choose from. The Camry wagon is a good car but there aren't a lot of them on the market (I tried to buy one earlier this year but it was gone when I arrived, 100K miles for about the price you're looking at). Ditto for say, the Volvo 240 wagon (we've owned those, also a great wagon) and owner loyalty seems to really support the price on those. You might aim for a Taurus wagon of that vintage, you could probably pay less and get one with lower mileage but it might be just as much trouble - or more.

Do you really require a wagon? If you expand your search to include sedans, coupes and even minivans, you'll have more choices. Could you get by with a sedan, a hitch and a cheap and/or foldable trailer?

Reply to
DH

It's in the Pacific Northwest. Cars around here seem to rack up incredible mileage compared to the Northeast, probably because they don't salt the roads.

I haven't seen the car yet. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether a Camry with 190,000 miles is too much trouble. I'm probably going to take it to the shop for minor things like brakes and oil changes. The question is whether I'm better off spending maybe $2,000 for a 1997 Ford Escort wagon with 100,000 miles, or $1,000 for a Camry with

190,000.

SB

Hachiroku =E3=83=8F=E3=83=81=E3=83=AD=E3=82=AF wrote:

Reply to
skybearer

It's in the Pacific Northwest. Cars around here seem to rack up incredible mileage compared to the Northeast, probably because they don't salt the roads.

I haven't seen the car yet. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether a Camry with 190,000 miles is too much trouble. I'm probably going to take it to the shop for minor things like brakes and oil changes. The question is whether I'm better off spending maybe $2,000 for a 1997 Ford Escort wagon with 100,000 miles, or $1,000 for a Camry with

190,000.

SB

Hachiroku =E3=83=8F=E3=83=81=E3=83=AD=E3=82=AF wrote:

Reply to
skybearer

I hadn't considered a Volvo wagon. There are a couple for sale in my area. They seem a little pricier ($1,500 to $1,800 for a 1989 Volvo

240), but it might be worth it.

I want a wagon because we already have a Corolla sedan. Great car - our third Corolla - but too small to carry a bookcase home from a garage sale.

PS. Sorry for the redundant posts. Google was acting funny, so I kept hitting resend.

SB

DH wrote:

Reply to
skybearer

Nobody can predict how much maintenance a car will need, you can have a mechanic check it out, but he can't see inside the engine or transmission, so a valid inspection is probably just as good, so ask for a new inspection (regardless when it's due). I have 340,000 miles on a 92 ford sedan without any engine or transmission work so 190K wouldn't be a concern me if it runs ok.

As far as the price any good running car is worth $500 to $1000 regardless of make/model/age or miles.

Reply to
bungalow_steve

It's in the Pacific Northwest. Cars around here seem to rack up incredible mileage compared to the Northeast, probably because they don't salt the roads.

I haven't seen the car yet. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether a Camry with 190,000 miles is too much trouble. I'm probably going to take it to the shop for minor things like brakes and oil changes. The question is whether I'm better off spending maybe $2,000 for a 1997 Ford Escort wagon with 100,000 miles, or $1,000 for a Camry with

190,000.

SB

Hachiroku =E3=83=8F=E3=83=81=E3=83=AD=E3=82=AF wrote:

Reply to
skybearer

It's in the Pacific Northwest. Cars around here seem to rack up incredible mileage compared to the Northeast, probably because they don't salt the roads.

I haven't seen the car yet. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether a Camry with 190,000 miles is too much trouble. I'm probably going to take it to the shop for minor things like brakes and oil changes. The question is whether I'm better off spending maybe $2,000 for a 1997 Ford Escort wagon with 100,000 miles, or $1,000 for a Camry with

190,000.

SB

Hachiroku =E3=83=8F=E3=83=81=E3=83=AD=E3=82=AF wrote:

Reply to
skybearer

As I said, we had two and then a 940 sedan. We absolutely loved them. Great practical size, solid as a rock, unbelievable turning radius, great on snow (all ours had limited-slip rear-ends). If I had real deep pockets, I'd buy another and enjoy driving it.

But, when cost is a consideration and all other things being equal (price, condition, etc), I'd buy the Toyota. Volvos aren't exactly unreliable but they're not exactly reliable, either. Lots of little things will fail (like all the power window switches - or maybe it's the motors - and then a few things under the hood, the sunroof will get stuck open and so on and so forth. However, it's all *relatively* inexpensive to repair (better still, if you can do the work yourself, the under-hood area is amazingly uncluttered and easy to work in). The basic powertrain is good for a million miles but everything else will need work.

I had each of the things dragged to the shop on numerous occasions, certain it was going to be declared DOA only to drop by the next day, find the car purring and ready to go accompanied by a *relatively* small bill (free once or twice, $25 every now and then but always under $400). Most recently, I thought the transmission was dead. In fact, I'd taken it to a transmission specialty shop with a good reputation and been told that it required replacement ($1200 and labor), took it to a Volvo dealer and got the real problem - the kickdown cable - repaired for less than $500 (the part was approaching $400 - that's one spendy part but thsi was still less than a replaced transmission). I discussed the car's overall condition, etc, with the mechanic there and agreed to $700 in other work, which promptly went to waste because my daughter racked it up two weeks later.

Now, they were something like 18 and 16 and 13 (the wreck) when we finally "retired" them (by donation because they needed so many little things that it didn't seem worth trying to sell them) but the little repairs did add up. Way better than other vehicles we've had (a VW - what was I thinking?) but not anywhere near the reliability of my Toyotas (well, they're newer - but only one was bought new, the rest were purchased with 5 to 7 years on them and up to 110K miles at time of purchase.

I hear you. Wagons are really practical for all kinds of work. My "solution" when I couldn't find a real wagon was a used Gen 1 Rav4s (FWD, not AWD), which give some of the advantages of a wagon with some of the economy of a Corolla and all of the joy of a Toyota. But they don't date back past 1996 and I doubt you can find one in driveable condition for under $3K

Have you looked at a hatchback? In '91, Mazda still built the 626 hatch. I nearly bought one of those recently and they're less than $1000 for a 190K mile unit.

My TeraNews account wasn't free ($4 setup charge) and it's very unreliable.

Reply to
dh

I never owned a Volvo, but was turned off to them by the experience of a coworker in the late 80s. She had a fairly new one as I recall, and one day she drove into the parking lot in a Cadillac. I asked her if she'd sold the Volvo and bought the Cad, and she replied that it was her mother's car because hers was in the shop for repairs. A few days later she had the Volvo back and I asked what the trouble had been. She said "It was the electronic module....it needed to be replaced." I said that didn't sound too expensive, and she said "No, if you don't think $ 750 is very expensive." Based on inflation in the last 20 years I'd rather not know what such a module would cost today!

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Reply to
mack

Interesting dilema...if I couldn't find a Corolla wagon, I'd be looking for an Escort. They're fairly bulletproof, and definitely an under-rated car! Try to get the Escort for $1200 if the Camry doesn't pan out!

Reply to
Hachiroku

My '92 Corolla Wagon just turned 200,000.

It really is just like new.

Original paint and all....

Reply to
Scott in Florida

I had an 89 Escort that I had from nearly new. What a POS!

If it were me and the Camry was in decent shape, I'd jump at it...

Reply to
Scott in Florida

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