1st Nov 2010, 16:59
I agree it can be a joy getting somewhere and getting out to walk around. Is it not better to truly enjoy the car with great ride handling and amenities vs where you end up? If you are making 5 plus years of car payments, getting out of the car rubbing your back from a hard jouncing ride, is that doing it for you? Turning the key and pointing a car is not joy. My friend with her Prius hates cars, but she at least makes it to the mall to shop
2nd Nov 2010, 04:51
The design of these modern cars, especially Toyota, is very bland and generic. Very ugly to look at.
Uncomfortable grey cloth seats. All grey plastic interior make for a very dated look, the interior stills looks like the late 1990's in my opinion. The exterior takes no styling risks, very bland design that Toyota is known for.
In my opinion, these cars are extremely overpriced, even at used prices, uncomfortable, and poorly engineered.
Toyota quality has gone downhill since the 1990's, especially on their base model North American exports, where you can expect less than par quality.
I would HATE to have to drive one of these to work everyday, it would make the commute miserable.. plus I would have to make huge car payments on something that I don't even enjoy driving, let alone looking at! These are extremely ugly cars I cannot stress that enough..
Instead I drive a 1986 Buick LeSabre I bought for $700 cash. It's in mint shape, handles like a dream, has a V-8, rear wheel drive, plush seats, power everything, and on top of that, still gets 28 mpg on the highway!
This car is a dream, and it's beautiful to look at. I get plenty of compliments from people with much more expensive cars, they are jealous I can "afford" to own a classic.
The extra gas cost of having a full size V-8 sedan, when calculated into my monthly budget as opposed to my 1.8 DOHC Hyundai Elantra, was a whopping $30. A small price to pay to drive a "real" car with comfort, safety, and peace of mind.
Why people still buy these soulless imported deathtraps I don't understand. They are expensive to buy, fix, and operate, and certainly not of better quality than domestics. We have just gone through 2 decades of promotion and marketing about the superiority of imports, and are finally just waking up the fact that it is just another marketing ploy like all others.
In my personal experience, I have seen many unreliable imported vehicles (especially Japanese and VW) that my friends have owned, all less than 10 years old.
If I had to count how many times I had to lend out my old, beat-up, bulletproof 1980's Chevys to friends because their 2007 Toyota or 2005 Jetta's won't start or is in the shop, it would be many, many a time. Let's just say I've never had to borrow a Toyota because my Chevy won't start..
2nd Nov 2010, 11:40
If you think a 1986 Buick Lesabre is "Beautiful to look at" then you're about the first person to say so, because my Grandmother owned the same car, and it was by no means a work of automotive artwork. Hers lasted up until about 125,000 before the transmission conked out, at which point she bought another LeSabre, which has been just so-so.
The Camry has about the same styling as you'd find on just about any other family sedan in its class: The Chevy Malibu, Ford Fusion, Audi A4, Honda Accord, and Nissan Maxima: Styled to be unoffensive and understated. I for one think the current Camry is one of the more aggressively styled of the bunch. Definitely far more so than the Malibu.
We have owned 2 Camrys to date so far. An 85' Camry which was one of the first model year runs in the US. I remember as a kid this car was simply amazing. It was PACKED with electronic gizmos. It was made during the height of Japan's dominance of the electronics industry. Everything on the car was powered: Power mirrors, seats, antenna, sun roof, and a crazy stereo with about 25 tiny lights that kept time to the music. We kept this car until I was in high school before we traded it in on a 92' Camry. The 92' Camry we owned was built in Kentucky with American and Japanese components. Toyota operates a plant- Denso USA in Tennessee. Thus, when we bought the car were felt pretty good about the fact that a lot of the parts were made by people in our home state. It was a solid, peppy, comfortable car. We sold it to a neighbor with 235,000 miles. She drove it up until a few years ago with who knows how many miles.
That car was replaced with a 98' Avalon. My brother inherited it. Even though it too is packed with electronic gizmos, everything still works as it should. It now has close to 275,000 miles. We've always used the cheapest oil and oil filters, have often let the oil go unchanged for well past due, and basically just driven the car day in day out.
Now. There's a common experience we've had with all of these cars: NONE of them have EVER broken down on us at all. When I mean never, I mean not even for a minor problem. My Dad had an '88 4Runner that had a wheel bearing go out. Took 30 minutes to stick in a new one. That is the extent of the problems we have had so far. I currently own a '96 Tacoma with 243,000 miles and a 2002 Prius with close to 150,000 miles. Neither of these have ever had a problem either.
Most people like me are in the same boat. Perhaps Toyota might not make the most exciting cars, but that's not why people buy them. They buy them because they are reliable, no-nonsense cars that get you to where you want to go, and do so for years on end, with no problems. I couldn't ask for anything more.
I'm not sure why people keep on coming on here to bash this brand. They rose to prominence because they built a good product. Remember that they started off small and with no market share in the US. That people feel that must come on here and make negative statements for no reason, especially if they don't even own a Toyota is baffling to me.
If you think a 86 Buick is beautiful, good for you. Keep driving it. We could care less. But stop bashing a product that for the most part is world-renowned for making a good product.
1st Nov 2010, 09:56
I see so many of these things on the road, I try to stay away from them while they pass me! And when I do see a Camry, I see maybe 1 person in the back seat and the whole back of the car is slumped down like they have 4 fat people scrunched in the back? Redesign of the shocks anyone?