Purchasing advice... - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

kgasso · 06-19-2002, 08:05 PM

Well, as some of you know, my Gen2 blew a head gasket (and also bent a rod) recently. I've thought over doing a conversion to a 3S-GTE engine and tranny... and am still not sure if I could justify spending the money on that.

So, I'm looking into buying a little newer car. Saw and test drove a 2001 Camry LE today (black with some ugly gold pinstriping on it, that could be taken care of with a heat gun though)... and I think I fell in love - or maybe it was lust, I wanted to go to town with the car right there on the lot. :wink:

Anyway, it had 17,500 miles on it and was extremely clean, drove very well - didn't seem to have a off-the-line power as my old V6, but once it got going it would rocket - and handled like a dream (compared to my old car).

I've checked the kbb.com website and the price seems okay as compared to what they want - $16,995 - but I was wondering, does anyone think I'll have any luck haggling them down to something like $15,000 or $15,500?

Hoping I can put a total of $3,000 down with a trade-in and pay in the range of $275-$300 a month.

So, does the price sound right and is there anything I should definitely look out for in the Gen4.5's? I've looked it over very thoroughly, looked under the car, everything looks in order.. just a little tiny bit of rust on the exhaust piping.

If you guys think I should go for it, I just might. It'll be nice to own a fairly new car.....

Thanks,

-Kameron

_________________
1991 V6 Camry LE (2VZ-FE)
Blown head gasket, either planning a 3S-GTE swap or getting a new Camry.....

http://www.sounddomain.com/id/kgasso

[ This Message was edited by: kgasso on 2002-06-19 21:08 ]

Tony D · 06-22-2002, 06:52 AM

Sorry got to this one so late,if this was at a dealer, they probally paid close to 15 or even 16K$ for the car. As a used car manager, I buy 4cyl 2001 for lot for around 14,000$. For a 6cyl $16900K is a real decent deal, unless the market is very different here in WI. Hope this isnt too late to help.

[ This Message was edited by: tony d on 2002-06-22 07:55 ]

kgasso · 06-22-2002, 10:35 AM

Nope, definitely not too late...

The one I was looking at that they wanted $16,995 for was a 4-cyl... so maybe I'll try to talk them down a bit.

Thanks for the help!

-K

_________________
1991 V6 Camry LE (2VZ-FE)
Blown head gasket, either planning a 3S-GTE swap or getting a new Camry.....

http://www.sounddomain.com/id/kgasso

[ This Message was edited by: kgasso on 2002-06-22 11:36 ]