My '99 Camry is totaled...need advice - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

shinner · 04-22-2008, 02:09 PM

All,

A week ago Sunday (13th) I was rear-ended by a drunk driver on I-81 in Pennsylvania...went off the road, rolled at least once but pretty much walked away without any major injuries. That's that good part. The bad part, my '99 Camry is totaled (or I believe it to be).

See pics at this link: http://tinyurl.com/48488x

Needless to say, I feel pretty damn lucky to be alive and I think the Camry played a great part in that. I have no idea when things will be settled but I'll be needing to buy a car to replace this one. Having been through this wreck, I'm leaning towards buying another Camry (who could blame me, right).

This is where this board comes in...I need some advice regarding which model years had problems that would easily discount them from being considered.

The '99 was a pretty good car for me in the less than a year that I had it; but I think I'd like to have something newer this go around. I don't know if I could afford a new one ('08 or upcoming '09), but something between 2005-2007 would probably be "doable" (would like to stay around 20K).

Was reading some threads here in the Gen 5/6 forum and it seems like there are alot of problems with the 2007s. True? Not much talk about the 2006s. Info on any year/configuration to avoid would be great. Whatever I end up with, it will definitely have to have the V6.

Any help would be greatly appreciated....thanks

Jim

sbushnak · 04-22-2008, 02:52 PM

oh man that's one bad accident. Glad you are ok.

the Gen 5 and 5.5 (2002-2006) are great cars.

shinner · 04-22-2008, 03:13 PM

yep, it was a wild ride...I have pretty good memory of it...remember being upside down sliding and thinking I was going to die, just waiting for the next big hit the car was gonna take. Next thing I knew, I was outside the car on the grass. No broken bones, no internal injuries. Real lucky.

Miranthis · 04-22-2008, 04:53 PM

are you parting out the 99?

I bought a 2005 SE I4 and LOVE it. It not that I don't like the Gen 6, but for the price the Gen 5.5 was a great deal for me. Shop around a drive them. For some of us the drive by wire is a bit hard to get used to, but i am adjusting.

Jeff

shinner · 04-22-2008, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miranthis

are you parting out the 99?

no idea at this point...not heard from the insurance company's adjuster. I owe a good bit of money on that car still so if they total it and give me enough to pay off the loan, that's gonna be the route I take. As I have to provide my own work vehicle (I do field service), I'm gonna need to buy a new car as soon as I'm cleared to go back to work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miranthis

I bought a 2005 SE I4 and LOVE it. It not that I don't like the Gen 6, but for the price the Gen 5.5 was a great deal for me. Shop around a drive them. For some of us the drive by wire is a bit hard to get used to, but i am adjusting.

"drive by wire"?

Looking online, I see a fair number of 2006 SEs and LXEs with V6s that I could swing.

Cannabis Camry · 04-24-2008, 10:43 AM

Let us know if you plan to part out the 99 Camry. And why have you not taken out your in dash system? Somebody is going to come along and jack that so fast.

shinner · 04-24-2008, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cannabis Camry

Let us know if you plan to part out the 99 Camry. And why have you not taken out your in dash system? Somebody is going to come along and jack that so fast.

I'm going to try and grab it tomorrow. The towing company's yard is about 2.5 hrs from where I live and I've been recovering from the accident; iow not too worried about yanking the stereo from the car. It's in a locked yard, which isn't to say that someone can't jump the fence...but at this point the towing company can't yank it themselves as the car is still my property.

Hopefully I can grab it tomorrow after my doctor appt which is up in the same area as the towing company's yard.

Cannabis Camry · 04-24-2008, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shinner

I'm going to try and grab it tomorrow. The towing company's yard is about 2.5 hrs from where I live and I've been recovering from the accident; iow not too worried about yanking the stereo from the car. It's in a locked yard, which isn't to say that someone can't jump the fence...but at this point the towing company can't yank it themselves as the car is still my property.

Hopefully I can grab it tomorrow after my doctor appt which is up in the same area as the towing company's yard.

Hope you recover well. I wonder if those rims are still in good shape...

shinner · 04-25-2008, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cannabis Camry

Hope you recover well. I wonder if those rims are still in good shape...

Just got home...they look to be in very decent shape. Guy had no problem with me pulling the head unit out...took less than 5 minutes. Grabbed a few other things left behind that they didn't think I'd want while I was at it. Wish I was in decent enough shape to pull down the glove box and panels so I could have gotten the Sirius tuner out too.

Got my eye on a couple nice 2006 Camry SEs....who knows how long it will take for the insurance companies to pay off my loan on this one. I can't buy anything until that's done though.....which sucks.

shinner · 05-27-2008, 04:19 PM

Well...got some good news. Insurance company totaled the car (as expected) and gave me $1000 more than I owed on it. Great news in fact. I was kind of sweating it since I didn't buy gap insurance.

Oh, and regarding the head unit...it survived in fine style. Hooked it up to a power supply on my kitchen table and ran it through it's paces. No problems at all.

Did a couple videos (stellar commentary by yours truly, totally off the cuff

) of me running through the functions:
Part 1: http://tinyurl.com/3sn73o
Part 2: http://tinyurl.com/448txb

Think I'm gonna sell it though. Bought a 2006 Camry SE this week and think I'm gonna upgrade to a H/U with nav in it. If someone wants to make me an offer on the JVC, fire me a PM. I'd take $250 plus shipping for it.

Slainte,

Jim

islandboy57 · 06-09-2008, 07:25 PM

Dang.. I'm a little late here but I'm glad you walked away pretty much without injury. The Camry certainly did its job in sacrificing itself to keep you safe. Got any pictures of the new Cam? I love the gen 5.5, especially the SE

.

shinner · 06-09-2008, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by islandboy57

Dang.. I'm a little late here but I'm glad you walked away pretty much without injury. The Camry certainly did its job in sacrificing itself to keep you safe.

Yep, it sure did...definitely influenced my decision in what to replace it with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by islandboy57

Got any pictures of the new Cam? I love the gen 5.5, especially the SE

.

A couple in the Gen 5/6 pic thread

A few more on my photobucket page....never did take any of the interior. Probably should. I usually take good pics of cars right after I buy em in case I get hit.

islandboy57 · 06-10-2008, 03:12 PM

Dang. You got the SE V6. I love those 17" 'smoked out' rims! I take pictures of my gen 5.5 all the time after I detail it. If my car is ever totaled I will definitely have proof that my car was not just in 'average' shape! Glad to see you've stuck with the Camry, and a really nice one at that

shinner · 06-14-2008, 12:51 PM

Thanks man.....yeah, I had to have the V6. Before changing jobs I had always driven a company car with 4 cylinder engines so when I jumped ship and had to provide my own vehicle, there was no way I was sticking with the 4 angry squirrels.