Camry for student? V6 Economy, tranny Q's!

[simko]

Hey everyone
I posted a while ago that my mom was going to sell her acura 3.2 tl and get a small corolla for herself. She has since decided to keep her car, and told me that I should get something on my own.

Ive been Looking at Corollas, havent checked out any Camry's yet.

As a bit of a background: Im used to large'ish vehicles, my dad drives a 2500 quad cab ram diesel with 8 foot box, which i often drive. My mom has the 4 door acura.

My first impressions of the Corolla were that it was very small, uncomfortable (especially back seats) and sluggggggggggish (but then again im used to 3.2l vs 1.8l).

Was wondering: since i will be looking at Camrys from 2001-2004, is there a certain mileage cap on a car i should be looking at? I was aiming for under 100 000 kilometres (yes i am Canadian). I would be interested in mainly a v6 Camry.

Not sure what transmission to go with either automatic or Standard. I can drive standard but not well, so i would be worried of cooking that tranny. Are the automatic transmissions on these cars sturdy?

I always help maintain vehicles, from tires, plugs, wires , fluids etc. So regular maintenance would not be a hard issue to deal with in my opinion.

I would use this car to commute to and from school, work, in the city and on highway trips between 100-500km each way.

If i havent asked too much, i will add one more question

with a v6 Camry, how much horsepower is to be expected? Is it simple to modify these cars (add strut bar, cold air intake, other goodies to increase power a bit) I would eventually be interested in modifying the car a BIT for a little more juice if needed.

thanks for reading my long, and probably unorganized post, i look forward to all of your inputs.

-Aaron, London Ontario, Canada

[carlo$]

i recommend the i4. not too bad in power and saves fuel. i4 about 160 hp. v6 about 220 hp. i would not bother with doing any upgrades. just drive as is.

good luck.

[secrecyguy]

Originally Posted by simko

Hey everyone
I posted a while ago that my mom was going to sell her acura 3.2 tl and get a small corolla for herself. She has since decided to keep her car, and told me that I should get something on my own.

I wonder why she wants to downgrade? That's good she wants to keep it now.

Originally Posted by simko

Ive been Looking at Corollas, havent checked out any Camry's yet.

As a bit of a background: Im used to large'ish vehicles, my dad drives a 2500 quad cab ram diesel with 8 foot box, which i often drive. My mom has the 4 door acura.

My first impressions of the Corolla were that it was very small, uncomfortable (especially back seats) and sluggggggggggish (but then again im used to 3.2l vs 1.8l)

Than you do not want that car than....

Originally Posted by simko

Was wondering: since i will be looking at Camrys from 2001-2004, is there a certain mileage cap on a car i should be looking at? I was aiming for under 100 000 kilometres (yes i am Canadian). I would be interested in mainly a v6 Camry.

It's a good idea to get a used car that is less than 100,000 miles... oh... wait... you said Km.... hmmm... I wonder what 100,000 miles translate to in Km?

Originally Posted by simko

Not sure what transmission to go with either automatic or Standard. I can drive standard but not well, so i would be worried of cooking that tranny. Are the automatic transmissions on these cars sturdy?

Go for automatic. It's also good if you always drive in traffic jams.

Originally Posted by simko

I always help maintain vehicles, from tires, plugs, wires , fluids etc. So regular maintenance would not be a hard issue to deal with in my opinion.

I would use this car to commute to and from school, work, in the city and on highway trips between 100-500km each way.

If i havent asked too much, i will add one more question

with a v6 Camry, how much horsepower is to be expected? Is it simple to modify these cars (add strut bar, cold air intake, other goodies to increase power a bit) I would eventually be interested in modifying the car a BIT for a little more juice if needed.

In my opinion, I think the V6 is quite powerful as it is. You don't need to modify it any further. If you want a sports car, you might as well get that instead.

If you want to save gas and money, I might go for the i4 instead.

Originally Posted by simko

thanks for reading my long, and probably unorganized post, i look forward to all of your inputs.

-Aaron, London Ontario, Canada

[darksparkz]

The V6 is definitely going to be a great one to get. You wont' have to add aftermarket mods to it as the I4 would need to make it 'feel' more 'peppy'.

But then, on the other hand, that money saved from modifications would just be poured into spending more on gas.

[ucisilentbob]

I could be wrong, but i thought that Toyota doesn't mate a Standard/Manual with their V6 engines. The 04 SE V6 had a standard 3.3L Engine (210hp by current SAE standards, 225hp when it was introduced). The LE V6 had a standard 3.0L Engine (192hp by current SAE standards, 210hp when it was introduced). I don't know if there's a huge benefit in the fuel efficiency. Real life MPG over the life of my car has been 24.247MPG (i'm sorry i'm sure you can convert it to l/g)

[gdanaher]

I think you will find a Corolla with a 1.8 litre will compare favourably in pickup to a similar vintage Camry with a 2.4 litre. Yes, it is smaller but if you are commuting to school, it is going to get you there, give better economy and it will be cheaper to buy initially and to insure.