Recommendation for Camry Replacement

Oh, the Lexus sounds wonderful. Is there a particular year I should consider?

2-3 years old Certified Preowned will have safety features already, warranty is as good as new Toyota, ES350 drives very comfortably

In the ES (which is the one you probably would want), 2016 was the year it started having the “Lexus Safety System Plus” package available, which includes things like radar cruise control, collision-avoidance braking, lane departure monitoring, etc. You’d also most likely want to be sure it has blind spot monitoring that includes “rear cross traffic alert” for backing out of parking spots without getting hit by someone speeding through.

So anything 2016 and newer should fit your bill.

Ordinarily I couldn’t give 3 flips about a CPO program because it’s often a bunch of smoke and mirrors to add a couple thousand to the price. But the Lexus CPO is an exception in my book because of the warranty - it extends the bumper-to-bumper warranty to 6 years from the date of first sale, with unlimited mileage. And scheduled maintenance is included for 2 years - even the stuff that calls for more than just an oil change and tire rotation. Even though I still suspect that a lot of dealerships are pencil-whipping the checklists, that warranty is pretty attractive.

As might be obvious from my comments, I’m shopping for one right now, and I’m finding CPO cars that are competitively priced against other dealerships selling non-CPO cars.

Oh, thank you. I’ve printed your suggestions and am seriously considering test driving a Lexus.

Oh, thank you and to all of you car afficiandos!!!

I very much doubt you got the wrong sized tire. What I’m wondering is if your car came with optional larger wheels, which require lower profile tires. Once you tell us the tire size we can check if there might be a smaller wheel option, which would ride a bit smoother.

Do you have a tire gauge? You need to check the tires first thing in the morning and see if the pressure matches the pressure specified on the sticker on the door jamb. Sometimes tires are overinflated, resulting in a rough ride.

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My daughter owns a 2014 Camry XLE and you are right, it drives like a truck and one of the main reasons is the tires. The OEM tire on this is 215-55/17 and it does not have enough sidewall flex in my opinion. A lower model such as an XL I believe had 16" tires with a taller sidewall and rode smoother.

The second issue with this is that it comes with leather seats and they are rock hard. AS with almost all cars, no matter what make, if they have lumbar support, and yours does, the lumbar support is too high and does NOT support your lumbar but jabs you in the kidneys instead. It seems that everyone used the same company to provide their lumbar support and that company got it wrong.

When I drive my daughters car, I have to use a seat cushion and a separate lumbar support.

I have a 2014 Subaru Legacy and it is even worse than the Camry. Since it is a mid grade model, it does not have the leather seats so I don’t need an additional cushion but I still have to have a separate lumbar support. It came with 215-50/17 tires that have even less sidewall support but I upgraded to 55 series like the Camry has. It helped a little but unfortunately that is as tall as I can go or it interferes with the suspension.

You may find the new Corolla a little more comfortable is you stay closer to the base model and I believe that automatic braking is standard. I rented one not too long ago and I found that feature to be a little annoying in LA freeway traffic as people will pull into the gap between you and the car in front of you and that will activate the auto brakes. Makes for a very jerky ride, but everywhere else, I didn’t have any issues with it. The new Corolla will be pretty close to the size of your old 2005 Camry too.

That’s my primary reason why Camry flew out of the window in my selection process and Honda Accord got in: they have that lumbar support bump to relocated up/down too, but you have to target anything above base trim, base trim seats are not that adjustable and are absolutely awful to my body shape

as for tires profile, it looks like you can not find 60 (spare 65!) any longer and your best option is 55 nowadays, but in fairness, suspension in Accord is more or less compensating for less rubber

A year or so ago, Consumer Reports had an article about best cars for seniors. As I recall, the Subaru Forester was rated highly. As a 70-year old, I pay attention. A fellow about my age also said very positive things about this car. That car seems to have very good outward visibility, and a bit higher than average seat position. Subarus also have close to optimum safety features. You may not really need the AWD (all wheel drive) feature that is endemic to Subarus, but overall they may a good choice.

I though you were shopping for a Tesla? How many cars are you getting? :slightly_smiling_face:

Sorry. I didn’t mention Tesla. A respondent mentioned hybrid. Thanks for taking time to respond.

Tesla’s being looked at for the next buy. This one is replacing the Acura which is starting to show its age and taking up too much time on jack stands in my garage.

Tesla’s many years out barring a write-off accident. :wink:

Thank you. Looking at the tire invoice of 10/16/17, I read that my new tires are different from the original provided with m vehicle and may change its handling or stability characteristics. I want to describe them to you. What do you need to know. 17" base hybrid SE Torque Specs: 80, Mich. Premier A/S , description 215 /55 R17 94H SL BSW. Does this help?

The most important here is “SE”, this is Sport Edition.

This car suspension is specifically tuned to be stiff and provide for better handling under aggressive driving type (as much as full-size family sedan can be considered “sporty”).

If you are still looking at Camry, you should target LE and XLE trims, which are softer.

The SE was on the invoice that listed some of the models this tire is OEM for. She has an XLE and that is the correct tire size for her vehicle, but the OEM was a Turanza. This is a slight upgrade tire.

You have all been such a help. And so very nice.