To OP: nice color choices - some buying tips
*************
asainmoomoo: I am phobic about my cars and a toyota/lexus fan. Here is what I have gleaned from 38K miles and 40 months of ownership of an 09LEV6.
Color: I too was going with the black and as I was signing the papers 04/08, I saw an Avalon on the showroom floor with the dark grey metallic and I said, "too bad they don't make the Camry in that color" - to which the salesman responded .... "oh yes, they do." Since they had a V6 in stock, I switched my order to the grey. Three yrs 4 months later, the car shines like it is brand new. If I were in your position, I would delete the white as a color choice, the "new car" shine does not seem to last very long.
Price if you buy new: Although the dealer invoice will show a $2,000+ gap in pricing, when I bought mine, gas had just hit $4 a gallon so nobody was buying the V6's. There were no dealer incentives on the I4 but there was a $1,000 incentive on the V6. In addition, the dealer was way overstocked on V6's and wanted to dump them as fast as possible. My actual price differential was $400. Now that gas has hit $4, you should be able to find a good deal. I was paying cash, had no trade in and told them "you've got one bite at the apple .... here is my offer .... take it or leave it." they took it, I cut them a check and drove it off the lot [with 4 miles on it and a full tank of gas] within an hour. Now that gas is $4 a gallon again, maybe you can get a great deal too.
Tires: Make sure your new car does NOT have Bridgestone Turanza EL400s. Standard in 09 was either Michelins with 440 treadwear ratings or Bridgestone with 260 treadwear rating. Although the Michelins are good for about 40K miles, my Bridgestone fronts wore down almost to treadwear indicators in 8000 miles and internet search will show all the complaints. Replaced with Michelin Primacy MXV4's with 60K mile warranty and 660 treadwear rating - now with almost 30K miles on them, they don't even look half worn.
VVT-i oil line: If you buy used, do not touch any V6 manufactured with a build date on the door jam prior to 05/08. A faulty rubber exterior oil line can rupture causing the oil to drain from the car with no warning. After replacing thousands of engines under warranty, toyota finally recalled over 1.5 million 2GR-FE equiped vehicles. Problem: The manufacturing fix was to replace the rubber hose with an all metal oil line. The recall fix is a bandaid that calls for replacement of one rubber hose with another rather and the fix is only temporary. The correct fix is a labor intensive replacement of rubber hose with metal all metal oil line. My build date is 02/08 so I will have to deal with this issue after the warranty is up.
http://sites.google.com/site/toyotav6oillinescandal/
Gas pedal, ECU reprogram & floormat recalls: If you buy used, make sure they didn't do a clusterf%$# on the floorboard. I declined all safety recalls on mine. The cures were worse than the disease.
I4 engine choices: You probably know this but, if you get an I4, don't get the 2.4L found in pre 2010 models. It is replete with oil burning and other problems that you can find in this forum and it's 21 less horsepower than the I4 dual exhaust 2010 & 2011 SE.
Appearance LE vs SE: No question the SE is normally better looking. If you can deal with the boring interior, however, you can sure make an LE V6 look sweet. The dual exhausts already distinguish the car from the rear. I replaced my 16" tires & wheels at 8.5K miles with 17" Avalon Limted 9 spoke wheels and 215/70/55 tires .... same stats as the SE. I had buyers remorse for not getting an SE after spending $1,300 (net of selling the OEM tires on craigslist) for new tires and wheels. I got brand new OEM wheels still in the box for half what the dealer reatil price. However, once I saw how great it looked and started getting all kinds of compliments on the car's appearance ... if I had it to do over, I would change nothing. The only reason I did not add tint was because I planned to keep the car over ten years ...... tint ususally only stays good for 6 or 7.
Handling LE vs SE: Traction and stability control became standard on LE 2010. Mine has neither. SE clearly has a sportier suspension, but when I replaced my tires and wheels with SE equivalent, handling and traction significantly increased.
Pictures:
http://s586.photobucket.com/albums/ss303/Pablo0767/?action=view¤t=CamrySideViewDS.jpg
My Photobucket account under Pablo0767 has a pic of my car right after new tires and wheels installed ...... it still looks just as shiney new now. If you want two more including a rear view, PM me and I'll send two more pics. Photobucket account is soley for the camry and also shows the carnage left on the safety recalls of the 09 I4 I rented while my car was in the bodyshop after getting rear ended in an ice storm. It also shows an early recall letter relative to the VVT-i recall metioned above.
********
best wishes on your search for the right car at the right price...
