Looking to buy a Camry - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

***Chris Tacoma*** · 10-27-2007, 02:00 PM

This question is to all you Camry Guru's. There is a 1990 Camry near me for sale. States it has 72,000 original miles on it. Asking $ 2650 , automatic transmission, not sure about anything else, is this a good price ? Is there any problems with that year. Looking to possibly buy it for my wife. Any and all info would be appreciated. I'll put a pic up of it. TIA Chris

geoff5093 · 10-27-2007, 10:13 PM

IMO it's too expensive. Even though it only has 72K miles on it, it's almost 18 years old, and even on a lower mileage engine age will start showing effects. You can buy a Gen 3 Camry with around 100-120K miles for about the same price, or even less.

72K original miles doesnt seem right though, unless it wasnt driving during the winter or something, because it comes out to only about 10 miles a day.

***eyeball96*** · 10-28-2007, 10:38 AM

Appears to be a nice gen 2, but yea, price is alittle high...is it a V6?

***Chris Tacoma*** · 10-28-2007, 02:10 PM

Yes it does appear to be in good shape but , almost 18 years old already like geoff5093 stated. The person didn't list if it was a v6 or not. Had it listed multiple times. I'm looking into the Camry's because I've personally never owned one and was going to buy as a gift for the wife for her upcoming birthday at the end of November. I'm now eyeing up a 1999 Camry Le with 89000 miles for 5890. That's in really good shape and there is no way i would pay that much either. I think if I showed up with cash in hand and meant business I could chew'm down.

Thanks for all the input. I'll check this thread to see if anyone else has anything to add. Thanks

Chris

xet · 10-28-2007, 03:41 PM

i agree with everyone else, i would personally bump up to a gen 3 and maybe take a little higher mileage or a little higher price, it would most likely be worth it in the long run

N35QU!K · 10-30-2007, 05:00 AM

For that price, I'd go for a Gen3

TBayToyotaBoy · 10-31-2007, 01:12 AM

I love my Gen 2 Camrys, but even I would go for a Gen3 for that price. You're not too far from me here in the salt belt. These cars cannot hold up to the winters, unfortunately. The gen2's fare much, much better as far as rust is concerned...

Mechanically, though, that 70K car would go forever. Mine has around 250,000 miles on it, to give you an idea.

marc780 · 10-31-2007, 05:57 PM

Maybe its cause im in California where everything costs more...but if the mileage is accurate, and not from a broken or disconnected speedo at some point in the car's life, i think this car might be worth buying or at least looking at.
As the others say, 70k miles for a car that old seems awfully low. Like maybe too good to be true. But there are signs to look for of high mileage - you will know as soon as you start it up and hear the engine whether the milage might be suspect or not. Check the wear on the pedal pads, the wear on the drivers seat and drivers door sag and hinge operation. And as a last step, if you are seriously considering this car i would pull a valve cover and have a look at the valve train, it ought to be fairly clean with no signs of sludge.

At 70,000 miles for a camry i'd think it would not show much wear...if the wear seems in line i think i'd buy it even if it is a few hundred bucks overpriced.

***Chris Tacoma*** · 11-11-2007, 06:15 PM

Well I pulled the trigger and bought the wife a camry. 2000 Camry Le automatic with the 2.2L . It's a green color, not exactly sure of the specific name of it have to do some research on it. 92,100 miles on it. I couldn't for the life of me find the radio antenna. Then I looked on the inside of the car on the windshield there is this black antenna , is this something they came with ?? Then I noticed my cd player doesn't work on the stock radio, is this a common problem ?

The one thing that I really didn't like was that the place where I bought it from gave me only 1 key for the car. I thought there should be a key fob for this year. Is there a way to see if this was equipped from the factory ? Can I take the vin # to a toyota dealer give them my vin and see what this was equipped with? I'm going to the dealer Monday where I bought this from and I want to know if they or I can contact the previous owner and ask them for the key fob. Can I buy one off say like fleabay and program it ?

Any and all info on this year is appreciated, or if you have some tips or tricks I should know about please do share. I'll post a few pic's of it

marc780 · 11-11-2007, 08:13 PM

nice camry, i drive and work on these kind all the time at work cause we have a bunch of em. They are nice driveing cars and rarely break. Clean the inside the throttle body and soak the IAC every 30,000 and she will run nice for a long time.

***ASG14*** · 11-11-2007, 08:50 PM

1: Yup, antenna is in the rear window.

2: Bring the VIN to the dealer, and they can make you a master key with JUST the VIN. they enter the Key Code into a machine. It;s probably around $10.

3: I hear cases all the time of just the CD player taking a crap. And ERR codes poping up on the screen?

4: If you bring your VIN, they can tell you a lot of infop on the car. Need to go to PARTS at the dealer for it.

***Chris Tacoma*** · 11-11-2007, 11:05 PM

Thanks everyone for the help. Did a quick search and it seems like the IAC, throttle body and I believe the EGR, are common problem areas. Going to bring the vin to the dealer and I'll see what happens.
Just a quick introduction. My name is Chris and I also own a 05 Tacoma. Probably see me more around the Camry area now. Take care, Chris