I am looking to purchase a 2005 Toyota Camary and would like to purchase one with a manual transmission. I know they're a little difficult to find but I have never had an automatic car and I don't wish to start now. Plain and simple, I enjoy driving "stick". My dilemma is that some people have told me that the Camry was really designed to have an automatic transmission and getting one in stick is only asking for trouble. Not sure if I buy that. Any advice from someone with first hand experience....???
With all due respect to your sources,..they are wrong. The Camry manual transmission is an easy car to drive because the engine has good low-down torque which limits the possibility of engine stalls. They are really an excellent car for a stick-shift compared to an engine which lives on revs.
As a manual Camry owner, I whole-heartedly agree. The car's got a really good gearbox and you can't go wrong choosing a manual. The other advantage is that it's less complexity embeded in the car, hence, less things likely to break in wondrous *new* ways. :)
No, really, if you can chase for a manual (mine took me 6 months to find it) by all means do it. It's a good ride and you'll enjoy it.
The other thing, depending on what how many cylinders you get, you'll get better mileage out of it. Mine's a 99 model, and I routinely get
8.3l/100km mixed traffic. If I use BP Ultimate, it drops to 7.3/100km.
I get about 10L/100ks in my '96 4 cyl around town. Out on the hiway it drops to 8/100k. Not as good as yours, but my engine was oil-change abused at one stage by the original owners (2 of) as there is tar residue inside the motor. I haven't tried higher octane fuel. My figs are on std unleaded,...about 92 RON.
Do find yours pulls away from low speed in 3rd gear without any fuss or laboring? I stopped going back to 2nd gear for exiting corners around town after I noticed it would do it in 3rd, with a light throttle, without drama.
If you can shift a 5-speed, do it! I haven't personally had trouble with Toy automatics, but the Supra I bought in Nov needs a new tranny or a rebuild. I have mostly owned 5 speeds and haven't had to do ANYTHING to them but keep them filled up! I have two over 250,000 still on the original clutches!!!
At this point I'm running it on 92 as well. 98 RON is *WAY* to expensive these days. So expensive that if 92RON goes over $1.10 routinely, I'm even considering starting to work at the other location of my employer. Which location's about 4Km away compared to about 40Km away the one where I'm going now.
I'm not sure what are the differences between the cars (weight, power, gearbox ratios). Mine's pretty allright in 3rd, but then there are some really tight round-abouts where I drive so I normally drop it into second if I feel I need to. The other thing is that when/if you have the money, put a few tanks (around 3-4) of 98RON in it. From the first tank you'll notice *LOADS* of responsivness (and loads less $ in your pocket too, but life's like that). The engine is also much quieter. Mine, as soon as I filled, I pulled in the parking lot next to the pump to write down the mileage. While doing it, it took some time and I forgot whether I had the engine on or off, but with the radio on, not loud at all I couldn't hear the damned thing, so I had to turn off the radio just to hear the engine running. Looking back I could've looked at the RPM indicator, but noise or the lack thereof struck me as the first thing. :)
Anyways, back to gears, I found third to cater to most of my needs, but then again - I am using quite a lot of the car's inertia as well so I'm helping it a lot too. I presume you're doing pretty much the same, whether knowingly or not.
Yeah,..roundabouts tend to operate on everyone using brisk acceleration. I use 2nd for most of those.
The other thing is that when/if you have
Once again mines a little noisy at idle. I've resigned myself to the fact it probably wont produce the phenomonal longevity these motors can do.
Too true. I meant corners where you have a clear run at and the car is already doing at least 30kph as you exit. Any slower and 3rd is too tall for a reasonabley speedy exit.
The other thing is that when/if you have the money, put a few tanks (around 3-4) of 98RON in it. From the first tank you'll notice *LOADS* of responsivness (and loads less $ in your pocket too, but life's like that). The engine is also much quieter.
--------------------- This is the first time I've ever heard this. Is is possible your engine has some carbon build up in the cylinders/ heads/ or valves? For the six cylinder, higher octane rating is recommended for "optimum performance", but for the four cylinder, no such indication of any benefit according to the Owner's manual. General consensus of opinon has always been that higher octane ratings in the four cylinder engine are just waste of money with no benefit. That's why I wonder if your engine had enough internal carbon deposits to create a difference for you. Compression ratio on the four is 9.5:1. Generally fuel octane rating is selected based on CR, higher octane burning more slowly to match engine characteristics.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.