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Camry's are BULLETPROOF

12K views 39 replies 16 participants last post by  Yoytota  
#1 ·
I just had to post this, and I am sure that others have posted this, but this car is, as I posted BULLETPROOF. I have a 1997 Toyota Camry 2.2L 4 Cyl CE with 213,000 miles on it. it has survived a lot of things intact. My first accident is one, where I slid into a car going down a hill on a snowy day. another I backed into a Tundra at a crowded gas station. (no damage to my car) but a small dent to his bed. I have slightly flexed my car on a snowbank and the frame (hopefully) isn't bent. I have backed it, and drove it into and up snowbanks. I have bottomed it out and its still runs perfect. I love my car so much and I am glad it was free. the only downside is that it is SO boring. I am happy I have an auto but I wish I had a manual so it would be more fun.

So what has your Camry endured in the years you have had it. I would like to know

Thanks!

Ian
 
#2 ·
I got rear ended about a year ago. Here's the damage to the Pontiac that hit me, and the damage to the Camry. I got a check from the guy's insurance company for $1200. I spent $1400 to get the front and rear bumper covers replaced and a total repaint.

Image


Image
 
#4 ·
well first off it's always the car that rear ended you gets the most damage. i've seen a lot of cases that happened to me and to my friends. once i rear ended a ford escape and my 94 previa had major damage, but no frame damage though, just broken radiator, broken hood, broken front bumper and lights. nothing happened to the engine.
another time is that my friend's bmw 335i got rear ended by something (i forgot what brand and model it is), like the gen 3 above her car just and a few scratches on the rear bumper, but the car that rear ended her suffers the most damage
last week i saw another accident. a guy was driving a mustang from 90s rear ended a compact car, that mustang was totaled. couldnt start, couldnt drive off to the parking lot right next to the road, while the compact car was fine, just some bumper damage.

and yes, toyota, with their shrinkable body design that is supposed to protect the occupants while involved in a crash, makes their cars look vulnerable. a small crash would result in major body damage.
an example: my friend was driving his 08 camry in a parking lot. he got hit side way by a woman driving a bmw going at 15mph and she was on phone, not paying attention. my friend couldnt open the door that got hit, and had to replace both doors at the same side. i doubt this same crap would happen to our camry (i mean, having to replace both doors, or having to replace door at all) come on, 15 MPH side impact kills both doors?
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
^ that looks like a gen 4. I guess technically it's "newer" than the gen 3, but my gen 4's have been bulletproof.

Back in high school, I was quite the dumbass. I would constantly take my $700 5 speed off road and attempt to go mudding with all my ******* buddies with lifted trucks. It always ended with me getting stuck in something, but one time it ended a little more dangerously....I ended up sliding down a ditch, and when I met the bottom, the car started to roll. I did a complete flip, and ended up back on my tires. Only damage was one small dent and a popped tire. I landed about 3 feet away from a ginormous tree which surely would have wrecked the car, as well as me.

After that, I chilled out and stopped do so much stupid s**t. But more recently, the new gen 4 has made it through lots. Plenty of people have tapped the bumpers, doors, I have surely tapped a few things, and handles it like a champ. The engines are almost flawless, and the transmissions really take a beating.

It's nice not ever having to worry about my car dying on me. When it does break down, it's usually something simple and rather cheap.

I've been saying these cars are bulletproof for yeaaaaaaars.
 
#11 ·
Last July, we had a very strange accident. We were going to Water Fire in downtown Providence. We couldn't find a parking space so we parked a half mile away in front of a church on a main street and walked to downtown. When we returned we found our '97 Camry up on the sidewalk with the right side front bumper into a telephone pole. A 25 year old had hit a 2010 Ford LTG pick up truck and pushed it into the rear end of our Camry. Our car looked fine except for a slight bump to the bumper and the rear bumper had just got hit at the level of where the top bumper is. You should have seen the damage to the pick up truck! The 25 year old was driving an uninsured car from Syracuse and had a suspended license. The 2005 Kia Spectra that he was in was wrecked and had been towed away by the time we returned to our car. Our car was repaired -our mechanic recommended a place that does collision work who they installed new bumper shock cushions two new bumpers and a complete matching paint job. I got the car back and it had been completely cleaned and detailed. Of course, the place that fixed it found other things to fix to the tune of just under $3000. Thank God we had insurance from usaa because they covered everything. The car now needs suspension work.

My mechanic recently said that I need new mounts. If I buy the parts he'll install just the mounts for $250, if I replace the struts with a quick strut type he'll charge me $205. He said that the mounts are so loose that he can't tighten them anymore. I have been looking at Monroe QuickStruts,KYB Strut Plus and Gabriel Ready Mounts. I may just go with the Monroe QuickStruts from Rock Auto. I have dealt with Rock Auto before and I haven't had any problems with the parts that they sell. Then I'll have new Michelin Defenders put on and get a front end alignment. I will probably post after the work has been done to let everyone know how it handles after I get the job done. Repair costs for Labor have really gone up in Rhode Island. I really need to get this work done though. I can't do these repairs myself anymore.
 
#12 ·
Just got hit by a 91' Chev, Corsica. Stopped at a light for at least 1-2 minutes. Perfect conditions: full daylight, no snow or ice. It was a little cool out, but the frail elderly ladies claim was "that she just wasn't paying attention"!? Huh? Pardon me, but you were braking to a stop behind a car stopped at a red light,... and you were not paying attention?

Thats,...um, not all that good to hear.

I looked for damage and saw some paint scuff marks, no deformation of the bumper wrap on my car. (It was a square bumper hit).

Her car had several crackes in the bumper skin, and both of the headlights were not fitting well with the hood. A little bit more of a look showed me that both front corners of the bumper were scraped, damaged and coated with paint from parking, turn-in damage. She had likely smacked at least 2-3 cars in her recent past parking at the local stores.

As she pressed on her trachial bypass, to try and speak to me, I decided that I'd let this one go.

I said "Honey, I'm going to let this one go, it looks like there is no real damage, so I'm OK with this, but I think you really should consider turning in your keys, the next one, and I can tell you have hit quite a few things, may hurt you or someone else, be very careful out here".

We were 2 blocks away from a police station at the time. Later, a good hard look at the rear bumper confirmed my first check, and she had left only the smallest of paint scratches.

I just couldn't shut her down, but somebody will have too, some day soon.:(
 
#13 ·
Hopefully this lady won't end up running someone over because she's not "paying attention". I personally would have called the Police, she's gonna keep driving carelessly if there is no consequences. Anyway the bumpers on the Gen3 Camry's are substantial, it takes a good hit to damage them, unlike the paper thin bumper covers on cars today.
 
#35 ·
Defrock Bad Drivers



I'm with you. Bad drivers should never be given a break. They force economic hardship on others.

Sometimes they cripple people, and aside from the pain and loss of function, again there's economic hurt put on the victims (and often taxpayers, when a person has to go on disability). All because some people don't have the spine to raise hell with the cops, the driver's family and the media. Bad drivers need to be eliminated.

And then there are the bad drivers who kill people. You won't be so quick to give granny a pass if she runs over your dog, your kid, your best friend or your lover. When you look in their dirving histories these people often have a string of accidents on their record.

Don't even get me going about phone users and drunks. Lets just say my solution involves fire.
 
#17 ·
moral of the story is: buy good quality old cars... i saw someone selling a classic car the other day, asking for 4K. i forgot what exactly it was, but it was some muscle car back from the 60s or around that time. am really thinking about getting one of those classics just for the heck of it lol
not like i can track race it, pick up chicks, or run it on mountains but... hey a classic is a classic, it's for people who really know and appreciate cars!
 
#15 ·
It snowed a few inches here in Charlotte yesterday, which is kind of a big deal for all the native southerners around here. Milk sandwiches everywhere!

Anyway, my friend called me around 6 PM and sent me a video of his car in the middle of an intersection, in a snow bank, and then he showed me a car behind his (an SUV which apparently rear ended him at about 20 MPH). No one was hurt. The womans SUV was absolutely totalled and had to be towed away, but my friends Gen 4 Camry only got a few holes in the rear bumper.

Like I keep saying, 90-00 Camry's are TANKS
 
#16 ·
Well, not a Camry, but still a Toyota. My second Tercel (94'), I got for $50. Client had it to towed in after hearing a "bang", and 15 mins later the car died and wouldn't start again.

Turns out that a connecting rod broke, punched 2 holes in the block, 3 in the oil pan, and still ran / was driven for 15 mins. I gave the client the 3 options to repair it. New engine, re-built engine, and used engine. 2400$, 1600$, and 900$ + labour. I knew he wasn't going to repair the car, so I jokingly offered him. 50$ for the car. I really didn't expect him to exclaim "SOLD! That's a verbal agreement with witnesses!".

Not having 50$ on me at the time, I ran around the shop and borrowed 5$ from 10 of the other mechanics. Walked over to the CAA (Canadian Automobile Association), which handles registration, and transferred ownership to me.

Yanked the shot engine. Had a spare engine from an 87' kicking around. So, I used that bottom end, head from the 94'. Cleaned, re-built (including head) and re-installed it in 5 hours.

Kinda miss having a running monthly tab when I worked at a dealership, and being able to get the majority of parts I needed inside of 5 mins.
 
#19 ·
One thing that has gone by the wayside, that is, really tossed out in car building regs. has been front and back-end structural impact resistance.(to low speed impacts) The old guidelines of 5mph with no damage, are now 2.5mph, with the car/suv, still in operatable condition. (movable)

Some time in the last 10 years, auto-makers got a big break on this element. It great that they can have such pretty design and styling now, but even the smallest bump is worth over $1000 in repairs.:eek: Just a tap really, hardly more than if your foot slipped of a clutch, and bumped your car forward a couple of feet,= +$1000 dollars!

I'm not surprised a 20mph impact would write off one of these. It would be close with good bumpers on both cars.
 
#20 ·
At my school auto shop we have a donated Dodge Dakota (no clue the year) but its newer and its 2wd. When the car was in on the lift I look at the front bumper and behind it and notice it was hollow plastic. nothing protecting the driver from a side impact into the bumper, and only the reinforcements protecting the front. I noticed on my Camry there is at least some Styrofoam stuff to protect it a little and make it a little more solid.

and today I caught a patch a sand at a stop sign and squealed my tires pretty good. :lol: I love being adolescent... haha
 
#25 ·
i swear a unibody is almost like a spring... you break the tension and who knows where it is gonna end up

but as well a 2000lb car moving at 20mph. is at least exerting 2000lbs of force... and well you can bent and compress half the panels on your front end with your hand and about 100 pounds of force.... front end equals SPLAT!

most accidents MISS the bumper as well (the person hitting someones rear) due to them hitting the brakes .. your rad support is not a hefty structure
 
G
#33 ·
My step dad has an 02 dakota with the small v8. Car is already rusting to pieces and the original trans crapped out at 20k.:headbang: Yeah, the cheapening out thing is pretty bad. My dad has been trying to sell me his 6th gen camry and I keep telling him "After my gen3 dies. They don't make em like they used to".:lol: I'm going to hit 300k this year. At 283k now. Car still shifts nice and smooth.
 
#27 ·
The foam is actually very sound structurally. It does a good job absorbing energy in front- and rear-end impacts. Chances are that Dakota had a foam insert at some point and it was just removed- even my little Geo (which weighs in about 2,400lbs) had foam inserts. It has since had the stock bumpers replaced with units a bit beefier, but still.

If you meant squeal as in your tires locked up when you hit the sand, don't worry about the haters. You live in an area with nothing but gravel roads for a few years and you start to realize that a little bit of slipping as you're coming to a stop isn't such a terrible thing.



I'll stick to my Gen 2 sedans over the Gen 3/4 ones. I drove one of mine down the side of a mountain (I was up in the Magdalenas mountain range) when I had a front tire blow out. I drove down the road, through all of the nasty switchbacks and what have you, on 3 tires. Wasn't so bad.

Didn't even damage the fender. The liner was destroyed, yeah, but the fender itself suffered little more than some scratching.

I later threw that same Camry into a ditch doing about 30mph. Hit a patch of black ice and, well... Yeah. Got someone to pull me out. Only damage was a tiny smidgeon of a dent in the urethane bumper cover. Can't even see it unless someone points it out.
 
#28 ·
haha, no I didn't lock up on the sand. I was turning left on a busy road that the speed limits are a little higher (around 45 mph) and my front tires where on a patch of sand. I saw an opprotunity to pull out and saw no cars I new I needed to build of speed quickly... soooo I punched it... my car dropped to first gear and the tires were spinning on the sand and they were making some noise. then it caught, and hit some fresh pavement and tires squealed pretty good. I didn't do the mature thing, but I did the safe thing... no matter what people think
 
#30 ·
It might have been but probably not. I got my Camry from my uncle and it had a lot of dents in it and it wasn't in an accident... He just didn't care to much about what happened to it, if he kept it in mint condition I would have to...

So don't worry to much your car being in an accident, your car is going to be solid. Good luck