i am looking at a 95 toyota camry xle with 170,000 on the clock. the car is very well taken care of only 2 scratches outside and a little wear on the drivers seat. The asking price is 3,500. I drive a 93 toyota pickup and it has been a wonderful truck with 150,000 on the odo. but its a 4 cyl and the camry is 6 cyl. what are some known problems with this car? what are your opinions of this car in general?
If you don’t have any expectations of repair/maintenance free ownership it may work out okay. Basically its a risk as past 9yrs/150k miles a car will keep going and with great luck few problems. However the more likely case past this point is putting money into it and a few major items like transmission, suspension work, more expensive exhaust components…
At this point in the cars life the name Toyota is irrelevant.
Personally I would hang onto your known quantity of a Toyota truck.
With the cost of gas over $3 per gallon, how much more will it cost to run the Camry than your truck, and is it worth it to you? They both have about the same mileage and are about the same age. If you want a car, then it might be worth $100 or so to get it looked at by your favorite mechanic. But you seem to like the truck. Maybe you should stick with it.
the car would be for my wife and 2 kids. we had a 02 taurus that we bought with only 20,000 miles on the odo and had nothing but problems after 40,000 miles. thankfully it was totaled. so now I am really in the market for a toyota. I went to test drive it today and it started and ran like a new car very quiet and smooth got it up to 85 on the highway and not a rattle or wobble or anything …gonna get a carfax report to be sure. but will probably go for it.
I think the price is too high, regardless of the car’s appearance. A 12-year-old car with 170K on the clock is not worth $3,500. At least not to me.
Agree; even good cars eventually wear out. A Camry V6 has 2 timing belts that need regular replacement at a cost of about $600. I believe a Toyota Truck has a timing chain, thus avoiding that expense. The V6 also uses more gas, so you are looking at a significant outlay in the future. A better deal would be a 4cyl. compact such as a Mazda 323, Mazda protege, Toyota Corolla, or Honda Civic with fewer miles on it. As a second car, these babies are great!
Edmunds says that this car is worth about $2200 in my neighborhood. Options will affect the price, and I only included the AM/FM/CD. The condition was “clean”, meaning that it has minor wear and tear. To me that means that there is a lot of life in the tires, everything works, the paint is good, the body is good, and the interior is good. You might look at NADA.com and KBB.com, too. The mileage drops the price about $575. See if you can get the price down. It’s probably about $1500 over what you should pay. Good luck.
I wouldn’t pay more then $1000 dollars. This car is at the end of its designed life. The probability of a major component failure is high, at which point the car will be scraped.
The car may be fine, but it’s overpriced by a bunch IMHO.
Don’t put a lot of faith into a CarFax report. It sounds like you’re assuming a CarFax report will list any mechanical problems that may have been repaired or chronic problems. This is not the case.