2003 Toyota Camry LE 2.4 from North America

Summary:

A great family car that is reliable and fast!

Faults:

Air conditioning relay under hood at 110000k.

Rust spots on trunk lid 90000k. Have seen this on other Camry's of same model (was covered under waranty).

General Comments:

This car is fast and great on the highway, with no problems passing other cars.

I use this car to haul a 17 foot 1400 pound boat and it performs great! (I would not recommend this for everyone) but it is a tank!

Note: This model has a 2000 pound towing capacity. New model ie. 2007 only has 1000 pound towing capacity.

I have not had any steering problems with this car as written by other people on this site.

The factory sound system is wonderful and the driving experience is quiet with little road noise.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 4th August, 2006

11th Aug 2006, 00:05

Note: The above review is for a 2003 camry.

2003 Toyota Camry LE 2.4L VVTi from North America

Summary:

Good car-not perfect, but it does a lot of things right

Faults:

Brake light switch became improperly calibrated after a few thousand miles-causing the cruise control to malfunction (because it thought I was constantly hitting the brakes so it kept deactivating over and over). I didn't realize these two problems were related (and in fact, didn't really realize my brake lights were on for quite a while-which in retrospect probably made me very vulnerable to people rear ending me because they couldn't tell when I was braking).

Luckily, I didn't get rear ended before I took the car into a Toyota dealership (Dorschel in Rochester, NY). They fixed it up quickly so no complaints there. The problem hasn't come back since, so I guess it probably was just poorly calibrated at the plant (my Camry is from the Kentucky plant).

Haven't had any other real problems, but the number of creaks in this Camry is fairly ridiculous when compared to the previous generation Camry! A lot of these creaks seem to emanate from the door panels where the plastic door handle assembly seems to rub against the plastic surrounding it. I noticed that the previous generation Camry had the door handle sunk into fabric so this wasn't an issue. So although the creaks are fairly annoying, I'm beginning to suspect that it's not really a build-quality issue, but an issue with the new design itself.

General Comments:

It's a great value-has plenty of newer features like electronically controlled throttle and cruise control, comes with ABS and a power driver's seat.

It's very comfortable over long road trips-probably one of the best cruisers you can buy in this price range.

It has sadly not been quite as reliable as my previous car (due to the brake switch thing) which was a Civic Si (2002). It has also not been as quiet in the interior-with more rattles/creaks (although the Honda had none so pretty much any car will have more).

The engine and transmission are great in this car! The processors that control them definitely learn your driving style over time so soon it'll downshift when you want it to downshift so it's a very responsive car.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 7th January, 2006

2003 Toyota Camry from North America

Summary:

Look elsewhere

Faults:

Master Cylinder today goes out at 115,000 miles. I have NEVER had a friggin master cylinder go out and I have owned some shi**y cars.

Once again, I took it to the dealership to get the front brake pads changed and they tell me that they do not need to be. It's a little messed up considering there's 115,000 miles on the vehicle.

General Comments:

Buy Honda... Toyota is garbage.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 29th December, 2005

12th Mar 2008, 23:03

If that was your only problem for 115K, this is an exceptionally reliable vehicle. You should read the reviews about Honda. They are far worse than Toyota. They are all man made machines and they all break sooner or later. It seems to be later than sooner with most Toyotas.

2003 Toyota Camry LX 4 cylinder from North America

Summary:

Don't waste your time or money

Faults:

The brakes squeak constantly, yet when I take it to the dealer, they tell me that I do not need the brakes changed.

The trunk latch broke and the trunk wouldn't shut.

The car started leaking coolant horribly.

The water pump "supposedly" went at 80,000 miles.

After the water pump was fixed, I took the car out two days later only to have my engine overheat, while coolant was splattering everywhere.

Car is back in the shop now awaiting service.

General Comments:

I have always thought that Toyota built quality cars. Looks like I was wrong.

Service department is very helpful, but they cannot diagnose cars very well. I will be pis*ed if my engine is done with.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 27th March, 2005

27th Mar 2005, 19:35

Get your car out of the shop, take it to another dealer then contact Toyota regional management and explain your situation with your current dealer.

6th Jun 2005, 08:08

So if he does all that Toyota will help him?

Think again...

This company does NOT stand behind its product and customer satisfaction is not high on their list.

Dump the car and get something else.