In 2004, we still had our Grand Voyager, but we’d passed the Avalon on to our son, so we needed another car. We ended up with a used 2001 Toyota Camry, which would serve us well for nine years.
Despite the ups and downs of the decade and the challenges with my business, we survived the early 2000s. My mother lived with us for a few years while our daughter was in middle school and our son in high school. As I was “expected to go to college” by my mother, who never finished high school, I was not going to force any career path on our children. Our son and daughter both took college prep classes, but I was happy they both had alternate career paths. Our daughter worked at a Lebanese restaurant after she turned 16, while my son got a job at a print shop. We gave him the Avalon to commute to work and Akron U. I worked in downtown Akron, and quite often he would ride to campus with me.
I still had the Grand Voyager to drive, but my bride needed a car to get to work. An independent used car dealer, located in an old Pontiac dealership, had a 2001 Toyota Camry LE — a company fleet car that was coming off of lease, with high mileage for a three-year-old car, but a good exterior. The dealer was asking $8,995 for it. An internet search for used cars determined that it was the best-priced 2001 Camry at any dealer, anywhere in the USA at that time.
The 1997–2001 North American Camry, internally known at Toyota as the XV20, was the fourth generation of Camry sold here. Our family had owned a second-generation Camry, and we had preferred Toyotas for years. Hondas were known at the time for their “interference engines” — if the timing belt wasn’t changed on time, valves could collide with pistons — and that probably kept me from buying one, remembering the engine troubles I had with a Datsun 510.
What can I say about Camrys that hasn’t been said before? This Curbside Classic article is a good summation of the strengths and weaknesses of this generation Camry. And you don’t think of Camrys as being collectible, but here is a surprising recent write-up that may challenge those assumptions.
The Camry provided reasonable gas mileage. It had enough headroom, a fold-down rear seat that would take a bicycle if needed, power windows, and power locks. One long weekend, we drove to Athens to drop off our daughter at “Harvard on the Hocking,” came back home, loaded our two bikes in the Camry with luggage, drove to Kelleys Island, parked the car, and rode our bikes all over the Island for three days. Golf carts outnumbered bicycles 100 to 1. Unfortunately, during this trip, a mouse somehow got into the dashboard and died. Getting it out was a project.
On Thanksgiving Eve 2006, the Camry was involved in a rear-end collision on Interstate 71, south of Mansfield and north of Delaware. At holiday time, the whole population of Columbus heads out of town to the other parts of the state to visit family. The traffic is bumper-to-bumper, so assured clear distance can be problematic. This time, that resulted in a crunch. My brother and nephew met us at the Speedway at Route 97 and I-71, and we were able to get everybody home. (We were having Thanksgiving in Marysville at my nephew’s house.) The next day, we stopped in Delaware to see the damage in the daylight ).
The cost to fix it was about two-thirds of what we paid for the Camry. I was surprised they didn’t total the car, but they found a complete front end and put the Camry back together. It got new fenders and a new hood.
Unfortunately, though, the car started to rust on the roof, around the passenger side of the front window — I’m suspecting the windshield replacement was not well done. Mechanically, the Camry otherwise lived up to its reputation, requiring little more than routine service.
Looking at maintenance costs twenty years ago, I am surprised at how reasonable these prices seem now. (Most of our repairs were not done at the dealer.)
After we had put about 80,000 miles in nine years, it was time to get another car to replace this Camry. But back to the chronicle of my daily driver, which I’ll talk about in my next installment.
Related CC Reading
Vintage Reviews: 1997 Toyota Camry – First Drive In The “Real” Chevy Impala Of The 1990s
Curbside Classics: 1997 Toyota Camry and 1998 Honda Accord – Two Very Different Paths
My first new car was a ’97 Camry CE. Auto, air, 4 banger, and dealer installed cruise control, nothing more. Same grey color in and out as the second and third photos. With the 16 gal gas tank and 31 MPG, could go 500+ miles between fill ups.
A gentlemen in a Chrysler minivan ripped the front off when he ran a stop light in ’05. It had 195K trouble free miles on the clock when the wrecker came to claim it. It represented the sweet spot in Toyota reliability and engineering.
You got good service out of this Camry – exactly what they were built for!
I find other folks’ maintenance logs fascinating, especially since I’m pretty notorious for not doing much maintenance unless really needed. You had the transmission flushed at 89k miles and again at 114k miles, but then not again. I’m guessing maybe it was at one of those quick-lube places that show you a sample of your transmission fluid along with a new one? I have long learned to just say “no thank you” to that.
I think it was aftermath of my “preventative maintenance” with the Grand Voyager — old habits take awhile to die out. I’ve asked my Camry expert, he and his wife have driven them for years, if he has ever had a transmission flush and he said no. I stopped going to the quick lube places, we were going to Firestone Auto because they had “6 months same as cash” and a family member worked there for years.
I am amazed at how many miles you put on and how many cars you have gone through… and how many were involved in big accidents. Other than the two Leafs I leased, I have kept my cars for 10 years, 16 years, 9 years, and 8 years on my current car (that I will drive into the ground; it’s a ten year old C class with 70k miles and few problems other than a non working sunroof.) Only one was purchased new. All have been rear ended, usually in a parking lot or while stopped at a red signal. None were scrapped; all were sold for various reasons (needed bigger car; increasing repairs; wanting to go electric for a while.) Weather and long commutes are brutal on cars.
There’s a reason why “Camry” is my go-to used car recommendation of choice whenever I’m asked. They’re plentiful and with a relatively minimal amount of pre-purchase mechanical due diligence a good one can be found. You do (as you did) need to overcome the fear that many people have of big odometer numbers.
You’re probably right that the accident had something to do with the rusting…and I would say that serious collision damage is one thing that would put a used Camry out of the running for me. But still, odds are that your Camry likely found at least one more driver after you traded it in.
Here in The Land That Rust Forgot™ these are still viable transportation and command a fairly high price, even with 200k+ miles.
Rust, the enemy of the Great Lakes States.
I had a 1997 Camry; it was bought new and kept for 7 years and 111,000 miles. It was our first Toyota purchase since the 1975 Corolla hardtop my wife had when we were married. The Camry was the volume model, the LE with 4-cylinder and automatic. Yes, there was cost-cutting compared to the previous generation “fat Camry,” but I didn’t find them objectionable.
There were also some advantages — the new model had adjustable rear seat head restraints, the hand brake lever was offset toward the driver’s seat (rather than the passenger’s on the ’96), and the car was rated Good in the IIHS moderate overlap test (compared to Acceptable for the 1995-96 models). Also, ABS was made standard on most models, including the LE 4-cylinder.
My car was part of the alleged engine oil sludging group. Ironically with this car but in line with Paul’s views on maintenance, I decided to forego the once-obligatory 3,000-mile oil and filter change intervals and increased it to 5,000 miles, which worked out to about every 4 months. (The manual specified normal service intervals of 7,500 miles or 6 months.) I never had sludging.
Despite “only” 138 horsepower, the car seemed sprightly enough, and I never had trouble merging onto expressways.
The only reason it was sold was to get side curtain and side torso airbags on a newer 2004 Camry; otherwise, it would have been kept longer.
In 2008, I inherited a 2000 Lexus ES 300, essentially a shinier Camry V6. Only service problems the car had were the replacement of two coils. That is until 2016 when we gifted the car to family in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the slight rear oil seal leak-about a 1/2 quart every 5,000 miles-must have not been noticed and the high heat and humidity was its undoing. Otherwise, it could still be going today.
A very clean and understated car design. The rear and side views are beautiful. The interior is also pleasing – even in gray. It’s just a shame that the front end looks so generic/retired.
I think round or even rectangular dual headlights would have been a great addition. And perhaps a continuous black grille with only subtle horizontal chrome accents.
Good to learn these upheld Toyota’s reliability legend .
Still plenty of them doing yeoman duty in California .
Few ever bother to have the tranny oil and filter changed then wonder why or complain when it fails at 150,000 miles .
It’s one of the very first things I do to any vehicle I purchase, there’s a franchise operation called “B.G.” that connects a machine in the tranny cooler’s circuit, it drains out the old nasty fluid and replaces it with fresh fluid, this means the entire ATF gets changed out as the torque converted holds more than 2 times the fluid the pan does .
-Nate