Are Camry's Better?

I am a Camry owner and a Camry repairer. I have 219.000 mi and a 2.2l engine. And I have a friend who's 315.000mi Camry's life was cut short by an accident(tragic). I was in a Snap-on sales pitch with about 50 others about a certain tool and the salesmen made the statement 'we all know how awful Camry's are' and everybody laughed. He was serious. My experience is other then seals, gaskets and belts, Camry's, especially the 2.2L, are very low maintenance. And when something does break it usually isn't major, is easy to fix, and fairly inexpensive.

Have I been taken advantage of?

Am I lost in the darkness of my own blinders?

Or are Camry's Better?

Reply to
motoron
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I have had my 2.2 CAMRY Auto since SEPT 1995 It only has 86K Miles on it.

2 weeks ago the first real fault came on it with a Radiator leak. Other than usual maintance thats been it. Mind the Toyota dealer wanted near £300 for a radiator.. I have purchased an after market at £82. But all new other bits from Toyota.

I have a new rad and all parts Hoses etc to change once the weather is a bit kinder.

I am VERY satisfied.

I had 2 - 1600cc MR2s over 8 years. Never touched them but for maintance.

Speak as I find.

WONDERFUL

Johnny UK

Reply to
JM

motoron wrote: I was in a Snap-on sales pitch with about 50

=== I can only imagine he's not selling a lot of special tools. Camry and Toyota overall has a reputation in the industry for extremely reliable vehicles.

Reply to
Daniel

Well, define "awful". If by "awful" they mean "unable to race a V8 Cadillac on the freeway", they're right.

My '96 camry's got 140,000 miles on it, still going strong 10-11 yrs later. Looks good as new. A Ford Ranger my dad got in '86... well, let's just say we won't make that mistake again. In '95, that Ford wouldn't pass smog - needed a new head gasket, I think. Big plume o' smoke on startup. Paint was peeling off too, and the body rusting. Dad gave that truck away to charity.

Michael

Reply to
mrdarrett

Of course Camry's are TPS. Yugo is the car to own if you are looking for low maintenance and repair. Oh I forgot the Yugo has these attributes because all they can do is sit in the last place it was parked because they don't run anymore. No I am wrong it's not the Yugo I was thinking of it's all my friends GM cars.

Reply to
Double Tap

I own a Camry now but the last two GM cars I owned both made over 230,000 with normal maintenance with the exception of the intake on the 97 Bonneville. I am anxious to see how the 2003 Toyota does. Steve

Reply to
Up North

I think routine maintenance is key. My 1995 4 cyl has 175k and except for maintenance parts has not had a component fail. Yes, seals are a weak point, but may be considered a maintenance item. I'm very happy compared to my previous 1986 VW Golf, whose useful life ended around 115k mi.

Reply to
camry-keeper

He obviously meant that Camrys are awful for sales of Snap-on tools. Don't need them, cause they seldom break.

Reply to
username

That's generally true, but some components are essentially designed to fail after ten years - notably the radiators with plastic expansion tanks. Not all will fail at that time, but it's a good idea to replace them at the ten year point. The manufacturers figure that no one can complain about a rad that lasted a decade, and the design saves them money. And alternators can be made to last longer by not using weak, cheap batteries, but they won't usually go much past 200k miles, if that. And if you drive a manual shift Camry, the clutch is going to need replacement before 200k in most cases. That too should be considered routine maintainance.

Reply to
mjc1

"motoron" didst type:

I was in a Snap-on sales pitch with about 50

Of course. Awful for the Snap-on tool business. For the first 100,000 miles or so, the only tool you need is an oil filter wrench and maybe a screwdriver to punch the foil on the oil jug lid. :-)

blah

Reply to
blah

The older, pre-97 Camrys are generally more reliable than the later ones. The newer ones seem to have a lot more problems. For example, the 2007 Camry needs a new transmission because Toyota's Jan 2007 TSB tells them to junk the old one and that it couldn't be fixed on the car. Or the post-02 $500 plastic intake manifold needed repeated replacing for buzzing noises.

You can do your own reading the Toyota TSBs to see the types of problems showing up. But they are not as good as the pre-97 Camrys.

Reply to
johngdole

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