Buying a Camry: Question - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

maxpower_hd · 03-21-2006, 12:50 PM

I am looking at a 1996 Camry LE, 2 door, 4 cyl, automatic with 81K miles for my wife. I have had a few Toyota trucks but never had a Camry. Are there any particular issues with this model and are there any specific things I should look for before buying?

It looks like a real clean car and it is loaded. It's priced reasonably at $5500. I think I may be able to get it for $5000.

Any comments. concerns, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

Camrymatic · 03-21-2006, 01:44 PM

I bought my 94 with 85k miles, also in great condition, from a dealer on ebay for 3.5k (4k with taxes and everything). Check things like timing belts,fluids, listen for noises etc. Get an Idea of how well the car was maintained before you got it. Also dont forget to chcek the vin on Carfax, see what comes up. In general there is nothing specific to look for with these camries in my opinion, they are all pretty rock solid and with that milage everyting should be fine as long as it was maintained.

jhbhatia · 03-21-2006, 01:51 PM

Run a carfax, if its sold by private party, have the seller sign a letter asking for his permission to release any history of insurnace claims against that vehcicle. Additionally, take a mechanic to see the car with you. Sounds like a good price!

Cyorke · 03-21-2006, 01:57 PM

Like he said check to see if the timing belt and all associated parts have been replaced. The most annoying thing about the Cmary is the rear strut mounts going bad. You will know they are bad if you hear a crunching sound from the rear of the car on hard acceleration or when going over speed bumps. IF they are bad it is not dangerous jsut very annoying. Check to see if they ahve service records which you should do on any used car. Besides that you really shouldnt have any major problems.

They are known for window regualtors going out and power antennas not working but again nothing dangerous and not extremely expensive to fix.

You should also know that the 5SFE engine nthe 4cyl Camry is fairly noiy at idle. You will notice more noise with the A/C on and they tend to vibrate a decent amount at idle.

The Gen 3 Camry's are probably the best ones ever in my opinion. THe styling is ok, even for a ten year old car they still look nice.

Transmission pan gaskets are known to leak also but this can be fixed by doing a drain and refill on the trans, the valve cover gasket will leak on the back side of the engine closest to the firewall and the distributor o-ring will leak. If the dist o-ring is leaking you will notice some oil on the top of the transmission directly under the dist. Agan neither one of these are very expensive to replace. You may also want to pull the plug wires to make sure there is no oil on the ends of them. THe spark plug tubes can leak also. IF there is a large amount of oil on the plug wire ends thenit may be time to reseal the plug tubes.

Check CV boots. They dont go out very often but not a bad idea to check them.

That is all I can think of right now. Most of the stuff you may have problems with are going to be more wear and tear type things that would ahv eto be replaced anyway ona ten year old car. the nice thing about buying a 96 is that was the last year for that body style so all of the little bugs and quirks were pretty much worked out by then. It is not a hot rod by any means but should be a great car for several more years.

Are you buying from an individual or a dealer? The price seems to be a little bit high. I bought a 94 V6LE with about 65k miles for 3500 from the dealer I used to work for. Granted I got a deal on it because I worked for the dealer but trade in value on that car was only about $3,000. The one you are looking at is newer with more miles and only has a 4cyl. If it is from a dealer I can gaurantee they didnt give more than 3000 for it on trade. The only thing that helps add some value to it is the fact it is a Couple. THere are not very many of the copes around. I wold try to get the price down a little bit more.

maxpower_hd · 03-21-2006, 02:21 PM

Thanks Cyorke. Thats exactly the input I was looking for. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I will see if I can get it down a bit. Judging from the prices locally though, I would doubt they would take anything less than $4500. It's worth a try though.

Incidently, it is a used car dealer.

Cyorke · 03-21-2006, 02:29 PM

yeah if it is a dealer it may be hard since they have to cover overhead and all taht good sutff. But for the hell of it you might want to start in the low 4,000 range and jsut see where it will get you. That sounds about right for a retail price but like I said I know they didnt give anywehre near taht for trade. The dealer I worked for we pretty much gave what they were going for at auction. We could look it up and see what they ahd been going for for the last week, month, year type thing. The entire time I worked there almost all Gen3 Camrys that came in we gave right in the 2500-3000 dolar range for trade in. The one I bought had 65K miles and was an LE, we gave 3000 for it. I had a customer trade one in that was a LE V6 with about 180k miles on it. It had leather and we gave 3000 for it. SO they were very predictable if they were even slgithly well maintained.

Gary_602Z · 03-21-2006, 04:15 PM

Also remember that there are a lot of other cars out there for sale! The price sounds a little high to me also.

One other thing to remember and this is on any make or model is that you are buying a 10 year old car and work will have to be done sooner or later.

Gary

Cyorke · 03-21-2006, 04:26 PM

One other thought on the price. If they can prove that all of the maintenance has been done to the vehicle and the timing belt has been replaced then that would obviously be worth something. If you were to ahve all of the patrs under the timing cover replaced at a Dealer it would probably run you in the neighborhood of 500-700 dollars. Those parts would inclued the timing belt, water pump, tensioner pulley, idler pulley, cam seal, crank seal, and oil pump seal. If they can not prove that the timin belt was done you may want to look onthe timing cover for a sticker that states the belt was replaced at a certain time and mileage. If it was done at a dealer they should have put the sticker on it since it coems in the timing belt packaging. it will ahve the date and mileage the belt was replaced.

ToyotaToday · 03-21-2006, 07:59 PM

Check out consumer guide. see link

http://auto.consumerguide.com/auto/u...x.cfm/id/2105/

maxpower_hd · 03-22-2006, 11:48 AM

Thanks again for the tips.

I know that a ten year old car may need some work. I do all my own work so I'm not too concerned about that. I was more concerned with inherent problems that these models have. I would just prefer to work on something that is a little simpler to work on. I just don't want to end up with a car that is known for bad transmissions or blowing head gaskets or some other equally expensive PITA item.

For comparison, my wife's old car was a 1996 Chrysler Sebring Convertible. That was a PITA to work on. You have to remove the driver side wheel, front fender well and a bracket to get to the battery. It's not even visible from above. A tune up requires you to remove the fuel injection plenum completey. You can not access the rear three plugs without doing so. There were also many, many things that the model was known for and ours seemed to have them all. What a piece of crap.

In contrast I've almost enjoyed working on my Toyota 4x4 and my daughter's Celica so I would really like to get another Toyota.

Thanks again.

mspringer · 03-22-2006, 12:12 PM

Check Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com).
My research on Camrys led me to believe that resale value on these cars is terrible once the car reaches 7 years of age, or so. I don't think that has anything to do with mechanical problems as much as it has to do with the average Camry buyer - 55 year old female, not a buyer of older used cars. Bad news for sellers, great news for buyers.

I recently bought a 97 LE 4cyl automatic, with a sunroof for $2500, from the original owner, a little old lady who only drove it to work and back...
As such, the car has its share of door dings, I would rate the body "fair" dur to that and some scratches on the bumpers, mechanically, the car was serviced far more often than necessary, and had the timing belts done at 58,000 miles. I bought the car with 60,000 miles on it.

Remember, the Camry is one of the best selling cars for many years running, so there are an abundance of nice used ones out there.

maxpower_hd · 03-23-2006, 06:24 AM

Thanks mspringer. I will keep looking but I think I might keep this one in mind. It is a two door and looks a little sporty so my wife likes it better than the 4 door. I would like to find another coupe for a little less. I do have some time, I would just hate to miss out on a good one that she will like and I won't mind working on.

If it were me, I would find some shitebox that runs good.

For example, I have a 1993 Toyota truck that I got for $0 and had to rebuild the motor. It's got a few dents but that just means I don't have to worry about people dooring me in parking lots.

BlackCamSe · 03-23-2006, 06:45 AM

THat engine in the car the 5-sfe is prown to sludg buildup so just change your oil a little more ofter.

BlackCamSe · 03-23-2006, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mspringer

Check Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com).
My research on Camrys led me to believe that resale value on these cars is terrible once the car reaches 7 years of age, or so. I don't think that has anything to do with mechanical problems as much as it has to do with the average Camry buyer - 55 year old female, not a buyer of older used cars. Bad news for sellers, great news for buyers.

I recently bought a 97 LE 4cyl automatic, with a sunroof for $2500, from the original owner, a little old lady who only drove it to work and back...
As such, the car has its share of door dings, I would rate the body "fair" dur to that and some scratches on the bumpers, mechanically, the car was serviced far more often than necessary, and had the timing belts done at 58,000 miles. I bought the car with 60,000 miles on it.

Remember, the Camry is one of the best selling cars for many years running, so there are an abundance of nice used ones out there.

Yah but because the camry lasts so long most people probibly run the cars into the ground,

Cyorke · 03-23-2006, 07:31 AM

DOnt let us stop you from buying the car taht you want. If this is it then buy. As lonf as you feel like you got a good deal then you did. The Camry has a great reputation and the coupes are hard to find. IF she wants the coupe you may want to jump on it becuase there probably wont be many more come around. Of course you could always up the price range and go for a Gen1 Solara if she is determined to have a 2DR.