Camry HybridDiscussion area for the Toyota Camry Hybrid. Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving Americas favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
I just bought a 2007 TCH from my Aunt. I have only had the car a couple days and absolutely love it! It has leather, sunroof, nav, and the ride is very quiet and smooth. It does have 113,000 miles, but has been babied its whole life.
So my question is- How many miles are on your camry hybrid?
I tried searching for a forum that had this topic, but most just discussed how the batteries rated or how long they were supposed to last. If you have any links or anything to a topic like this, feel free to send them to me!
Around 38,500 on my '07 TCH when I traded it in for a '12 Camry XLE TCH.
The only weak spots on the car is around 65K when sometimes the water pump may leak pink coolant. The car you have may have already had it replaced.
The other is to check your struts as they may start leaking at 100K miles or more. Any good mechanic could check that for you. If you need to replace the water pump some suggest using one from the NAPA auto stores. This is to get away from the OEM pump that don't hold up as long as it should.
If you ever need struts I would use a reputable independent front-end shop that has a quality quad-wheel alignment machine.
Around 38,500 on my '07 TCH when I traded it in for a '12 Camry XLE TCH.
You had the '07 TCH for 5 years or so and only drove 38K miles??? That cannot be right, then you sure have not made the price difference between hybrid and regular!
The loop to town and back is 33 miles. We didn't make the trip ever night when I had the '07. I try not to drive the TCH when it's in the dusty season. They were times the car would sit for 5 days out of a week. So far I been driving the '12 TCH almost daily. I'm at 290 miles with 3/4 tank left to go. I hit 60.7 mpg when I pulled in the driveway tonight. I may end up with high miles on this tank, but expect the mpg to drop into the mid to upper 50's.
Could be the Phillips 66 gas I use here in town may have removed their ethanol sign. I don't remember seeing it.
The loop to town and back is 33 miles. We didn't make the trip ever night when I had the '07. I try not to drive the TCH when it's in the dusty season. They were times the car would sit for 5 days out of a week. So far I been driving the '12 TCH almost daily. I'm at 290 miles with 3/4 tank left to go. I hit 60.7 mpg when I pulled in the driveway tonight. I may end up with high miles on this tank, but expect the mpg to drop into the mid to upper 50's.
Could be the Phillips 66 gas I use here in town may have removed their ethanol sign. I don't remember seeing it.
All that is fine but.. driving 38K miles over 6 years or so, that is just over 6K per year... Given you paid $35K+ for your '07 TCH (fully loaded as I know you like... ), its hardly worth it for you.
I do drive long trips, with very heavy traffic at times, though this is mostly "highway" (a fine highway indeed with speed limit of 55 or 65 MPH, but a stop and go traffic for and hour or two if its worse... driving ave 30MPH or less over 90 Miles segment...). For that, TCH is great. For short trips such as yours, anything will be fine, especially electric cars... (if you are into it as a hobby). Look for Focus plug in hybrid '13.. you will never but gas again.
As from the financial perspective, if you have just driven 38K miles over 6 years, it has hardly paid off... very expensive per mile driving.... how much did you get for the '07 at such low miles when you have traded in? If I knew, I would have bought that used car from you!!!!
I do 3 trips per week at 40miles RT... say 50 weeks per year only that is 6K miles/year. I will do at least one long trip at 180 miles R/T per week ob average.. say another 50 trips of such, adds 9K miles. This is already 15K miles. If I do sometimes 2 long 180 r/t miles trips in a week, etc. I can get to 20K miles a year. So this will add to enough differentiation based on the miles alone and use for the hybrid, not to mention traffic and morning rush hours (or afternoon) on the long trips (short trips hardly have such).
Oh well.... that is a shame.. short trips is not the best in my view, match for the 2012 TCH... due to the overhead in short trips (19miles segments as I had) to start the gas engine and warm up etc....
A fully loaded TCH was $35k+ in 2007? Man, they have gotten less expensive!
For me to compute the cost differential for my TCH, I'd have compare to a fully loaded XLE V6, as I seriously doubt I could deal with a 4 cylinder car (even at the 178 hp). I needed to have as many HPs has my 2002 Camry SE had, and fortunately, the TCH XLE matches it.
BTW, if history repeats itself, I will drive my TCH for at least 10 years. I drove my first new car (1989 Toyota 4Runner) for 12 years and my second one (2002 Camry SE) for ~11 years. I have a 74 mile RT commute, too. I think I can get 48mpg on the morning trip (I leave at 5:30a, low traffic) and 40 mpg on the return home (rush hour, so babying will not be as easy to do). I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out.
One other thing: I bought the TCH not just because of the differential cost, but also because I just want to use less gas, period. The $$ are not the only reason to consider a hybrid, I think. I also like the fact that the TCH is a very techie car, and I'm a technogeek. I get a thrill out of looking at gauges and trying to trick out better mpg. I'm an anal engineering type.
All that is fine but.. driving 38K miles over 6 years or so, that is just over 6K per year... Given you paid $35K+ for your '07 TCH (fully loaded as I know you like... ), its hardly worth it for you.
As from the financial perspective, if you have just driven 38K miles over 6 years, it has hardly paid off... very expensive per mile driving.... how much did you get for the '07 at such low miles when you have traded in? If I knew, I would have bought that used car from you!!!!
I paid around $25K for the '07 TCH that don't have a moonroof or navigation. That was a near end of year price even though the car was one of the last ordered from Kentucky for that model.
I ride to town at times with my wife in her 2010 Ranger pickup. She changes her oil once a year so her miles are similar to mine although I change my oil at 5000 miles. I got right at $15000 for the trade which to me was to low. The dealer in turn certified the car and was asking $19,000. Naturally it sold in a few days. I got 52 mpg average for the years I owned it. I'm driving the '12 TCH similar and getting higher mpg so far. Here in Alamogordo I don't have to worry with heavy traffic or speeders like I did when we lived in Garland and worked in downtown Dallas. I was driving the '94 Corolla at the time.
I enjoy saving gas, especially when it's in the $4 range. I was all set to buy the Toyota plug-in Prius. I test drove a new prius and with my 6' 4" 300 pound body just didn't fit the seat well. The Camry was just right for me. I had considered the Chevy Volt but my wife went over the past troubles I had with my last 3 Chevy's. Then the Volt at the time being a first year car was not a good idea. I never set in one and may be the seats are a little too narrow for me. Both electrics had a 35 to 38 mile range which would be great for my trip to town and back.
Here is a shot of the '07 TCH I had. The owner must drive it to El Paso daily. We see it going the other way at times when were headed to Alamo. I always used Chevron or Phillips 66 gas and run 40 psi cold in the michelin tires in the '07.
The picture shows the rough country road I live on where I can drive near 2 miles at 25 mph while in the EV mode.
Last edited by WhiteSands; 08-21-2012 at 02:36 PM.
Whitesands: Beautiful shot of your previous camry. You pretty much live in a desert? Is there any wildlife out there?
Our Camry is now the go-to vehicle in the family. As you can see from fuelly stats we can drive the TCH twice as far as the Venza for the same amount of fuel. As a result we are going to blow away our lease miles. We are on track to easily hit 36,000 kms/yr and the lease is for only 24,000 kms/yr. No worries we will buy this beauty out in 3 years.
Does anyone have a TCH with high mileage or know of anyone who does?
IIRC, the latest issue of Consumer Reports shows a couple of folks with like 200k+ miles on their Hybrids. The reports were encouraging in that they were low maintenance, good mileage, and batteries lasting longer than expected.
Whitesands: Beautiful shot of your previous camry. You pretty much live in a desert? Is there any wildlife out there?
Our Camry is now the go-to vehicle in the family. As you can see from fuelly stats we can drive the TCH twice as far as the Venza for the same amount of fuel. As a result we are going to blow away our lease miles. We are on track to easily hit 36,000 kms/yr and the lease is for only 24,000 kms/yr. No worries we will buy this beauty out in 3 years.
They call this the high desert due to the desert elevation at 4300 feet. Alamogordo is about 4400 feet so it's easy to see why I have trouble getting good mpg toward town. Coming home it's lots easier to achieve good mpg.
Wildlife, their was a bear seen within a mile of our house. A few days later I guess he headed back into the mountains about 3 miles from here. Some coyote's howling in the distance. Sometimes a small group get really loud when they make a kill, maybe a rabbit nest late at night.
I knew back around 2000 that Camry was the car to have. I kept driving my '94 Corolla till it had 185K and I sold it and bought a 2003. I drug my feet on buying the '07 TCH as my wife kept telling me, yes but it's a first year car. Months later I went ahead and bought it and ended up it was the best car I ever owned. I kept saving looking forward to someday that Toyota would come out with a newer improved model. I had no idea just how nice this new car would be.
I wanted one of the first prius I test drove here in town around '99. My wife said no, $18950 was just to much to pay for a car. I would tell her it cost Toyota $49000 for each prius that was made back then. She said it being part electric would cost way to much to repair. Well today we know even those early prius seldom had any problems with it's synergy systems, nor did the Camry's.
Who would ever believe that someday we would be driving a good sized comfortable car that get's 40 mpg combined.
Last edited by WhiteSands; 08-21-2012 at 07:24 PM.
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