2010 Camry Hybrid ?

[dmahku]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying a 2010 Camry Hybrid and I'm curious of the maintenance cost of the hybrid vs the 2010 Camry 4 cylinder.

So that said would it be about the same or would it be a bank breaker ?

I've never owned a hybrid before so I'm in the dark on that area.

[regztfen]

Originally Posted by dmahku

Hi, I'm thinking of buying a 2010 Camry Hybrid and I'm curious of the maintenance cost of the hybrid vs the 2010 Camry 4 cylinder.

So that said would it be about the same or would it be a bank breaker ?

I've never owned a hybrid before so I'm in the dark on that area.

I have a 2009 TCH. I change the oil every 3,000 miles with a free oil change from the dealer, rotate and balance the tires every 6,000 miles and purchased a cabin filter online. I have 37,000 miles on the car is all is fine.

[dmahku]

Originally Posted by regztfen

I have a 2009 TCH. I change the oil every 3,000 miles with a free oil change from the dealer, rotate and balance the tires every 6,000 miles and purchased a cabin filter online. I have 37,000 miles on the car is all is fine.

Hi Thanks for the reply.

the more I look at this car the more I'm thinking of buying it. Thanks you've been a great help

[98CamryLE]

The Camry Hybrid really doesn't require any special maintenance compared to the 4 banger. Every 30,000 miles, the manual requires an inspection of the inverter coolant (The bright pink fluid that is on the driver's side of the gasoline engine)


Other than that, not much else is required. A good difference is that because of the regenerative braking, brake pads and other related components should last a bit longer compared to a non-hybrid Camry.

You can see the recommended maintenance schedule here:

http://smg.toyotapartsandservice.com/index.php

You can compare the schedules between the two versions yourself if you'd like. (The schedule is towards the end of the PDF file)

They are great cars- if you can deal with the small trunk.

[rainbowchaser]

Originally Posted by dmahku

Hi, I'm thinking of buying a 2010 Camry Hybrid and I'm curious of the maintenance cost of the hybrid vs the 2010 Camry 4 cylinder.

So that said would it be about the same or would it be a bank breaker ?

I've never owned a hybrid before so I'm in the dark on that area.

See the other posts regarding OEM tires. They usually need to be replaced between 22-28K miles and are not great even when new. The Michelin Primacy replacements are $ but great tires. I agree with brake wear as mine are less than half worn at 50K miles. I've averaged about 38 MPG. My '08 has lots of rattles that the dealer couldn't fix. Otherwise its been a good economy car with decent performance.

[Pipemajor]

I traded our '07 TCH for a '10 TCH when the factory recall incentives made it pretty painless.

The only problems I had with the '07 were the dash squeak/rattle when cold and a weeping water pump. Both were fixed at the dealer under warranty. The EOM Bridgestone Turanza tires were a pretty poor choice.

The hybrid should achieve better reliability than the conventional ICE Camry since there is less wear 'n tear on the brakes and drivetrain.

The ONLY drawback to the hybrid is the loss of some trunk space and the price premium.

[laphan]

We have no single issue with our 08 TCH (48K miles).

We had to replace out bridgestone turanza at 23K miles. I suggest you to trade that tires with better tires. That turanzas were the worst tires I ever had in my life. Very poor wet and snow traction. Get really noisy at around 8K miles.
You might be able to trade your tires at you local tire shop, especially when your tires has very little miles (normally they can do that if you have less than 500 miles on the odometer).

The only problem with TCH is the dealer, I found most of them doesn't have any good knowledge about it.

[Axxis8203]

Wait until you're out of Hybrid Warranty and Hybrid components start failing:
Inverter $4500
Transaxle $3400
Battery Pack $2800
A/C Compressor $2700

You will not find these parts anywhere but Toyota, and they only come new, Toyota does not currently remanufacture any hybrid components. And there are very few places besides Toyota who will even touch the Hybrid side of this vehicle when something goes wrong. At $75/hr of labor.

Sold my 06 HiHy when i found out how much these components cost when my neighbors' Inverter went on his HiHy at 72K miles with a replacement cost of $7800, thankfully footed by Toyota since it was still under Hybrid Warranty. That's a lot of money to invest in a deprecitating asset.

I'm not trying to scare you away from buying a TCH, my HiHy performed flawlessly while i owned it, just be an informed consumer.

[dmahku]

Originally Posted by Axxis8203

Wait until you're out of Hybrid Warranty and Hybrid components start failing:
Inverter $4500
Transaxle $3400
Battery Pack $2800
A/C Compressor $2700

You will not find these parts anywhere but Toyota, and they only come new, Toyota does not currently remanufacture any hybrid components. And there are very few places besides Toyota who will even touch the Hybrid side of this vehicle when something goes wrong. At $75/hr of labor.

Sold my 06 HiHy when i found out how much these components cost when my neighbors' Inverter went on his HiHy at 72K miles with a replacement cost of $7800, thankfully footed by Toyota since it was still under Hybrid Warranty. That's a lot of money to invest in a deprecitating asset.

I'm not trying to scare you away from buying a TCH, my HiHy performed flawlessly while i owned it, just be an informed consumer.

Thanks for the reply.

After looking into it a bit more I decided to wait on the Hybrid line at lest till replacement parts come down in cost. So I ended up getting a 2010 Lexus ES 350

[Pipemajor]

Originally Posted by Axxis8203

Wait until you're out of Hybrid Warranty and Hybrid components start failing:
Inverter $4500
Transaxle $3400
Battery Pack $2800
A/C Compressor $2700

This is sort of like saying "Don't ever purchase a home because when the furnace fails 12 years down the road it will cost you $10,000 to replace it."

Our TCH saves us over 600 gallons of fuel every year. At $3.10/gal, that's $2,000 in annual savings.

Once the hybrid component warranty runs out at 8 (or 10) years and 100k miles, we've saved the cost of many such "feared" repair costs. We come out even further ahead since there is less wear and tear on the brake and drivetrain components compared to a conventional ICE-powered vehicle.

These fear tactics are what allows sales personal to unload expensive extended warranties onto customers. That, to me, is simply "unwarranted."

[Axxis8203]

Originally Posted by Pipemajor

This is sort of like saying "Don't ever purchase a home because when the furnace fails 12 years down the road it will cost you $10,000 to replace it."

Ya, except for the fact that a Home is usually considered an appreciating asset.