Advice on purchasing camry 2007-2010

[igbeserk]

Hey i'm new to this forum and I'm in the market for a camry. I want to get a 2007-2010 Camry SE. I'm trying to find the best deal i can some places have 2010's that cost less than the 2007's so that's why that's my range. Basically Yea i'm interested in the camry se model the v4. not looking for speed but it is important. more worried about fuel efficiency. I test drove one and fell in love. Basically i want to know if anyone has any tips for me on how I could get the best deal. So far it seems like in terms of price I can talk them down about 3000 dollars. Anyone know any helpful hints or tricks of the trade to better assist me in getting a good deal? I plan on financing and i have my 95 lexus es300 that i want to trade in has about 149k miles. it's in fair condition kbb says 1275 for it one dealership offered me 1100 so that's not so bad. Any help would be appreciated thanks.

Also any info on best way to maintain it? i think i'll just go to the dealer for everything. oil changes and tires and brakes but i know it's going to cost me more but i want to baby the hell out of this because after 2 troublesome vehicles i want a problem free car. i even plan to get the rubber floor and trunk mats lol. but yea any info on how to keep it well maintained or what's best recommended i appreciate it. thanks for your time and help.

I am going to a dealership friday a 2010 camry se with about 27k miles on it. in red it's about 17.8g going to try and talk them down it'd be nice if we could et down to 13g but that's probably impossible lol.

[Broadcaster]

I know what I have to suggest is not easy but so far this is what has got me the best deal. I always save my money in a car account. My discipline is this.

Whatever car you have assuming you have no payments , you deposit in the car saving account the equivalent of monthly repayments for a car say 350 dollars. Without fail make the payment . At the end of say 6 years you have $25200 in the bank. That is enough money to buy a car. NEVER A BRAND NEW ONE. Let some other idiot pay the immediate depreciation of the car out of the showroom (sometimes as high as $6000). You can always pick up a nice six month old or 1 year old car at that price.

Now the exciting bit

Go to the showroom where ever and see the car you like. Let the salesman put his guts out giving you all nice deals. Once he has finished and exhausted himself just say the following

"How much would you do the car if I gave you all $10 bills?And see his knees trembling. Then to floor him say I want the guarantee and I don't want to pay the tax :D

I have had cars out of the showroom at the right time of the year about $9000 less the price tag. The best part is you say I have no trade in. That normally is the last blow they all love that deal.

Once you have your new car sell your old one privately where you will get up to 8 times more than what they give you as a trade in.

Once you sell the car put the money in the Car account for the next car and start all over.

It is hard to get on that cycle but once you do you laugh all the way to the bank

Happy motoring

A guy wanted to give me 1800 dollars for my Solara as a trade in for a G37 top of the range this morning

I told him to go where the sun doesn't shine.

[igbeserk]

lol that's very interesting. yea i'd have to save though to get the money to buy the car. problem is my car is failing i do need another car and i rather have the piece of mind than just buying something cheaper and having to run into issues without a long warranty. been through two failing cars. don't want a 3rd anytime soon. but in terms of financing this i can give it a shot see if they won't do the tax that would be nice and i'll just say the trade in is off the table and see what they can do before i put it back on the table in that sense i think you're right that can play a key role. but my car is crap 149k miles rear interior is fine front is horrid all these problems i'd be lucky to even get 2,000 for it since it's a 1995 vehicle. but yea thanks for the info i will look into doing that :-)

[Broadcaster]

lol that's very interesting. yea i'd have to save though to get the money to buy the car. problem is my car is failing i do need another car and i rather have the piece of mind than just buying something cheaper and having to run into issues without a long warranty. been through two failing cars. don't want a 3rd anytime soon. but in terms of financing this i can give it a shot see if they won't do the tax that would be nice and i'll just say the trade in is off the table and see what they can do before i put it back on the table in that sense i think you're right that can play a key role. but my car is crap 149k miles rear interior is fine front is horrid all these problems i'd be lucky to even get 2,000 for it since it's a 1995 vehicle. but yea thanks for the info i will look into doing that :-)

mine is a Solara SLE V6 1999 162000 miles and almost like it came out of showroom. I have looked after it and it keeps looking after me and no payments I spend the 1/4 of the monthly payments in its upkeep

[igbeserk]

mine is a Solara SLE V6 1999 162000 miles and almost like it came out of showroom. I have looked after it and it keeps looking after me and no payments I spend the 1/4 of the monthly payments in its upkeep

that's really good man i hope to be able to keep mine mint condition looking and feel. i bought a crappy used lexus i got it checked out wa informed it was unning well no major issues just soem minor. but those minor turned out to be real expensive. then the engine and tranny went. and now the tranny is about to go again. i can'tmake the car look any better without dishing in some money for new seats pain t and what not. but i'vve been trying to improve the car internally. fixing the engine and tranny and what not isssues. you woudn't believe the headache. not worth it and i can't take anymore and i doubt this car will make it into 2011 without me dishing out some more money.

[Broadcaster]

that's really good man i hope to be able to keep mine mint condition looking and feel. i bought a crappy used lexus i got it checked out wa informed it was unning well no major issues just soem minor. but those minor turned out to be real expensive. then the engine and tranny went. and now the tranny is about to go again. i can'tmake the car look any better without dishing in some money for new seats pain t and what not. but i'vve been trying to improve the car internally. fixing the engine and tranny and what not isssues. you woudn't believe the headache. not worth it and i can't take anymore and i doubt this car will make it into 2011 without me dishing out some more money.

I hear you

I never believe anything any car sales man says private or professional. Their objective is to get rid of a car. If I tell you the horrors that I have escaped you wont believe. Those tricks will remain for another post. The trick is buy a good car and maintain it well. Once the payments are finished continue with the payments in the "car account" as explained before then you will be on the roll.

I know every nook and cranny of my car and work that has been done is always documented. The mechanics I use are tested guys over the last 10 years. They know they will loose a good customer if they misbehave. They can't afford loosing me.

My dad kept his Volvo Amazon from 1964 to 1992 when he died and then my mother sold it for the price that we bought it all those years back. That was fairly pristine too see photo. Any way I wish you a good luck and remember a car is never an asset. It is a liability. The only way this liability will behave is if it is kept well. The ride will be only as good as the money spent on it. As we have lady readers I don't wish to elaborate on those last two sentence. :D

This car in those days went round the clock 3 times

[igbeserk]

I hear you

I never believe anything any car sales man says private or professional. Their objective is to get rid of a car. If I tell you the horrors that I have escaped you wont believe. Those tricks will remain for another post. The trick is buy a good car and maintain it well. Once the payments are finished continue with the payments in the "car account" as explained before then you will be on the roll.

I know every nook and cranny of my car and work that has been done is always documented. The mechanics I use are tested guys over the last 10 years. They know they will loose a good customer if they misbehave. They can't afford loosing me.

My dad kept his Volvo Amazon from 1964 to 1992 when he died and then my mother sold it for the price that we bought it all those years back. That was fairly pristine too see photo. Any way I wish you a good luck and remember a car is never an asset. It is a liability. The only way this liability will behave is if it is kept well. The ride will be only as good as the money spent on it. As we have lady readers I don't wish to elaborate on those last two sentence. :D

This car in those days went round the clock 3 times

thanks man and yea i have to baby this car to insure it lasts a long time. and yea that volvo looks sweet :-)

[Leighcm]

I know what I have to suggest is not easy but so far this is what has got me the best deal. I always save my money in a car account. My discipline is this.

Whatever car you have assuming you have no payments , you deposit in the car saving account the equivalent of monthly repayments for a car say 350 dollars. Without fail make the payment . At the end of say 6 years you have $25200 in the bank. That is enough money to buy a car. NEVER A BRAND NEW ONE. Let some other idiot pay the immediate depreciation of the car out of the showroom (sometimes as high as $6000). You can always pick up a nice six month old or 1 year old car at that price.

Now the exciting bit

Go to the showroom where ever and see the car you like. Let the salesman put his guts out giving you all nice deals. Once he has finished and exhausted himself just say the following

"How much would you do the car if I gave you all $10 bills?And see his knees trembling. Then to floor him say I want the guarantee and I don't want to pay the tax :D

I have had cars out of the showroom at the right time of the year about $9000 less the price tag. The best part is you say I have no trade in. That normally is the last blow they all love that deal.

Once you have your new car sell your old one privately where you will get up to 8 times more than what they give you as a trade in.

Once you sell the car put the money in the Car account for the next car and start all over.

It is hard to get on that cycle but once you do you laugh all the way to the bank

Happy motoring

A guy wanted to give me 1800 dollars for my Solara as a trade in for a G37 top of the range this morning

I told him to go where the sun doesn't shine.

There's some good advice there and some not so good. Car dealers don't care if you're paying cash. That's a myth from many, many years ago when the dealers used to be the lenders, and if you borrowed the funds, you were paying them each month. Now, it's actually better for the dealer if you finance the car. A stack of $10 bills would just take a long time to count, and banks fund immediately.

The savings plan is one of the best ways to buy the car, if you have the discipline to do it. An everyday car is a depreciating asset, if you can even consider it an asset, and if you can pay for it up front, you'll need to have some cash left to pay for repairs, insurance, gas, etc. It will eventually wear out, so you'll have to repeat the cycle, and you won't have a large amount of money left from your original investment if the car is 8 or 9 years old. You could also consider leasing a car, or even doing a pre-paid lease with that savings account for the car because then you'll be in a new car under warranty for most of the time, and put out less money and sales tax. Basically, no matter what, you'll have a car payment, if it's in advance in the savings account, or if you are financing or leasing, so weigh the differences and figure out what is best for your life style. There is no blanket best way for everyone. If you own a business or drive your personal car for work, there may also be some write-off potential that you should also consider.

The difference between trade value and retail value is never 8 times, unless you're talking about a very inexpensive car. It's definitely going to be a few thousand dollars on anything over $10k or so, so if you have the time (and there's no trade tax credit in your state as that makes a big difference on the trade values) it's worth trying to sell it on your own. You can check out KBB.com for an estimate of the difference between trade value, private party sale value, and retail value. When you read those values, realize that NOTHING is in excellent condition, unless it's a new or show car...and I mean Concours d'Elegance level, not the local Honda Civic club.

Realistically, if you're looking for a pre-owned car, one that's about 2-3 years old will have taken the brunt of the depreciation, not one that's only 6 months old, as someone will have had to pay close to new car invoice prices to buy that 6 month old car in the first place.

On a new Toyota, you probably won't see too many $9k discounts. An average $20k Toyota probably has $3k in markup, so unless there's a factory rebate on it, you won't find that big discount level...maybe 15 years ago when the cars used to have more markup, but not now. If you want to research it, you can get close to the actual MSRP and invoice amounts on sites like Edmunds.com or KBB.com. You should also be able to see the incentives on those sites, like rebates or special financing.

[Leighcm]

I hear you

I never believe anything any car sales man says private or professional. Their objective is to get rid of a car. If I tell you the horrors that I have escaped you wont believe. Those tricks will remain for another post. The trick is buy a good car and maintain it well. Once the payments are finished continue with the payments in the "car account" as explained before then you will be on the roll.

I know every nook and cranny of my car and work that has been done is always documented. The mechanics I use are tested guys over the last 10 years. They know they will loose a good customer if they misbehave. They can't afford loosing me.

My dad kept his Volvo Amazon from 1964 to 1992 when he died and then my mother sold it for the price that we bought it all those years back. That was fairly pristine too see photo. Any way I wish you a good luck and remember a car is never an asset. It is a liability. The only way this liability will behave is if it is kept well. The ride will be only as good as the money spent on it. As we have lady readers I don't wish to elaborate on those last two sentence. :D

This car in those days went round the clock 3 times

Have to say that Volvo is pretty cool...some of those old Volvos ran forever. I think I read something about one with a million miles on it awhile ago.

[igbeserk]

that is some good information. Yea i feel like at best they'd go 3k lower in price. since i've been going around and checking out different cars and dealers 3k seems to be the sweet spot. but some dealers do have a higher mark up but like you said that's not many. financing would be my best option unless i actually had the cash to pay for the car outright. leasing sounds good but that's why i want to maintain this car. if i can take care of it until it's all done and financed off. i can keep the regular maintenance going and still end up on top because i'm not leasing a newer car. yea but you are right either way it's an investment. thank you for the info guys. really appreciate it :-)

[Broadcaster]

The difference between trade value and retail value is never 8 times

Earlier I said that yesterday the main dealer in Glendale (California) tried to offer me $1800 for my lovely Solara.

I have already an offer from an enthusiast for $8734.00 which I am not even prepared to entertain. Admittedly it is not 8 times but it isn't far off.

Realistically, if you're looking for a pre-owned car, one that's about 2-3 years old will have taken the brunt of the depreciation, not one that's only 6 months old, as someone will have had to pay close to new car invoice prices to buy that 6 month old car in the first place.

If you buy a brand new car from a showroom today, and within 6 months go back to the same dealer I wish to know if I am wrong in saying you would be offered at least 6k less than what you paid for.

Additionally lets suppose you sold that car to an end user after 6 months at the value that the dealer was going to give you and in turn that end user decided to sell the car after six months, I promise you that last end user will not loose as much as the one who bought it direct as brand new from the showroom.

On that basis if you bought a six months old car privately and if you know what you are doing you will do better.If you want to buy from a showroom go there about 20th of December and try to buy an Ex demo. As in January new models come in the older ones go for a song, because very shortly they would be 1 year old cars.

On a new Toyota, you probably won't see too many $9k discounts. An average $20k Toyota probably has $3k in markup, so unless there's a factory rebate on it, you won't find that big discount level..

In the last two years as we have been going through the biggest frauds USA has seen in its history no cars were selling did you see the deals that was going on ? Some of those are still there on a 20 K car you are not going to save much however when you are about 34K to 40K mark you can easily slaughter the car salesman. I hope you have noticed my sentiments about car salesmen is very similar to your sentiments of the local civic owners.

Have to say that Volvo is pretty cool...some of those old Volvos ran forever. I think I read something about one with a million miles on it awhile ago.

Sorry to correct I think the story goes this old fuddy duddy had a Mercedes 180D of 1957 which was driven over one million miles Mercedes Benz in Stuttgart took it for their Museum and in exchange they gave her a brand New Benz. See actual picture of the car below

And as for the Volvos well one those Amazons (as they were known) is pictured below. I dare any dealer to offer a book value for those . This is a 1966 two door version and looks most beautiful shark that I ever saw

By the way your inputs are very informative and it is nice to have a car talk with you. :D My apologies for partial quotes

[igbeserk]

Well I checked out this 2010 camry se v54 red today. they were selling it for 17.9 or so i was hoping they'd go down in the price they shaved off about a 1000 but i didn't want it mainy due to the fact that it had no sunroof. I thought all se's came with a sunroof standard? but maybe because all the sunroof's up to now that i saw had sunroof's. but on top of that all their camry's on that lot even their xle models didn't have sunroofs. I have to really reearch more they offered me 1000 for my car as i expected them to. I need to find out about toyota's power train warranty and see exactly hat it covers if it's even worth it or not. and do i pay for the labor and not the part or do i not pay for the part and labor if it's covered under warranty. so much research my head hurtslol.

[Leighcm]

On the Toyota powertrain warranty, if the part is covered under it, you don't pay anything...parts and labor are covered by the manufacturer. Here's the details on the Camry warranty: http://www.toyota.com/camry/warranty.html

If most of the Camry SE and XLE models come with a sunroof, it may not be advisable to buy one without a sunroof as you may lose resale value because the vehicle is less desirable.

[Leighcm]

A few responses to your points:

I have already an offer from an enthusiast for $8734.00 which I am not even prepared to entertain. Admittedly it is not 8 times but it isn't far off.

I don't remember if you mentioned this...is your Solara a stock vehicle? If so, $8k is a fantastic price for it. Didn't you say it had 140k+ miles?

If you buy a brand new car from a showroom today, and within 6 months go back to the same dealer I wish to know if I am wrong in saying you would be offered at least 6k less than what you paid for.

It's possible, but it depends on the price of the car. You can't use specific amounts that easily...it's more like a percentage of the value. Here's how it works: you buy a brand new car. With the current market on Toyotas, I imagine most high production models are selling nearer to dealer invoice than to MSRP, so the new value for the new car is essentially invoice, not sticker price. In order for a dealer to take the car back and re-sell it, now as a used car, they must purchase it for at least a few thousand under invoice in order to list it on their lot for around the invoice price of the car when it was new, then have some mark-up for someone to come in and try to negotiate the price down a little bit. However, if you are trying to buy that car, by the time the dealership has done an inspection to ensure they are not liable for anything (even a very new used car), and they mark it up a bit, you're not going to save a huge amount of money, and you'll lose any manufacturer's incentives that would apply to a new car. Also keep in mind that a large chunk of that money you lost would be your state taxes and fees, which have nothing to do with the value of the car. It's basic math.

Additionally lets suppose you sold that car to an end user after 6 months at the value that the dealer was going to give you and in turn that end user decided to sell the car after six months, I promise you that last end user will not loose as much as the one who bought it direct as brand new from the showroom.

The biggest percentage reduction is still on a car that is 2-3 years old...if you'll check the KBB values, you'll see this.

On that basis if you bought a six months old car privately and if you know what you are doing you will do better.If you want to buy from a showroom go there about 20th of December and try to buy an Ex demo. As in January new models come in the older ones go for a song, because very shortly they would be 1 year old cars.

Yes, but if you're buying that one year old new car, you've lost a year of ownership, and you now have a new car that's worth as much as a used 1 year old car, and the new ones will never sell as low as the used ones.

In the last two years as we have been going through the biggest frauds USA has seen in its history no cars were selling did you see the deals that was going on ? Some of those are still there on a 20 K car you are not going to save much however when you are about 34K to 40K mark you can easily slaughter the car salesman. I hope you have noticed my sentiments about car salesmen is very similar to your sentiments of the local civic owners.

There's some great incentives on cars right now, but I think if you check the news, the biggest problems and dealers going out of business were at the end of 2008, and it's been a steady uphill climb in sales since then. The deals are a bit subjective though...you may be getting a big discount on a new one, but the new car you just bought is worth that much less because all of them are selling at the lower amount. There's a couple views to every point.

At the end of this conversation, my point is that your average car is not a good investment....it's just transportation, view it in the same category as a bus pass. It's a monthly expenditure one way or another.

Sorry to correct I think the story goes this old fuddy duddy had a Mercedes 180D of 1957 which was driven over one million miles Mercedes Benz in Stuttgart took it for their Museum and in exchange they gave her a brand New Benz. See actual picture of the car below

And as for the Volvos well one those Amazons (as they were known) is pictured below. I dare any dealer to offer a book value for those . This is a 1966 two door version and looks most beautiful shark that I ever saw.

Yeah, no book value on collectors cars...appraised individually. Goes back to that saying "it's only worth what someone will pay for it".

I don't remember the Mercedes one, although that would be pretty cool too. I went searching for the Volvo guy, and found this:

http://www.roamingti...miles-volvo.asp

[igbeserk]

alright thiss is the car i purchased yesterday.

http://www.bennetttoyotapa.com/certified/Toyota/2007-Toyota-Camry-Allentown-9192ff850a0a006400f264c63d5f2572.htm

was an hour drive to get to had to think long and hard about it.

2007 se model has about 32k miles on it. Runs great. When i went to check it out I noticed it had some blemishes that rubbed me the wrong way. For one the lower left bumper had a scratch on it someone hit a curb or something while parking hard to notice unless you get down low. Also the bumper itself seemed to be very slightly shifted like it needed to be situated and clipped on. Also there is a slight discoloration on the right corner area of the spoiler. Both headlights are like a quarter oxidized on the top part. The interior looks good but around the handle some fading or wear is shown. On the top hood somewhat of a dent hard to see and hard to feel like really really hard to notice. The 3rd cup holder i suppose you could call it. the cover doesn'tclose just pops back so something is up with the spring or the lock mechanism.

There were other issues that I had to address. But basically they didn't want to come down on the price anymore. It was a long drive I wasn't happy with what i saw compared to the photos of what I saw before I took the trip up there. Before I went i told them could get do 13k they said the best they could do is 14.5 and i told them i had a trade in, they said bring it in we'll see what we can offer. I figure they can offer me a 1000 since other places have offered me a 1000. I get there we get down to the prices they're claiming they said 14.9 and they want to give me 500 for my car i told them no. so they bumped it to 1000 so 13.9 then i told them about the car issues and they bumped it to 13.5 but wouldn't go any lower. The manager told me that I could schedule an appointment with them free of charge i bring it in they resolve the little issues that they can like the bumper maybe some paint and they said the oxidization they have tools and cleaning solutions for that. It was such a hectic day I forgot to get it in writing so I do hope he honors what he said I will call them on monday to schedule since before i left he said just talk to the person who sold me the car about it.

But yea I felt like it was a good deal a little bit cheaper would've been better but what can ya do. My other issue is when i got home i read some of the contract and some things didn't make sense like the price but a few more minutes later it made sense i have to look it over again just to mke sure i guess they do the max price then deduct it that way or something just odd.

One form they had me sign which was a form the finance director ran out to have me sign before I got in the car to head home. Was called a buyers guide. had waranty checked under it but had limited warranty checked under that. and basically it says the dealer will pay 0% of the labor and 0% of the parts for the covered systems that fail during the warranty period. and under systems covered: says toyota certified used powertrain warranty - 7 years / 100,000 miles from original in service date. I don't get that it's a certified pre owned car so there's a warranty on it basically the aount of time left on the original warrany. If they're not paying to get it fixed then I would have to right? if so then how is it a warranty? i'll have to call them and see. Still gotta look at this funny math like when it's all said and done doesn't seem like i saved anything lol.

here are some pictures I took. one has the bumper scratch i was talking about.

http://img253.imageshack.us/i/img1643u.jpg/

http://img529.imageshack.us/i/img1645x.jpg/

http://img521.imageshack.us/i/img1646n.jpg/

http://img502.imageshack.us/i/img1638m.jpg/

any help or info you guys could give would be much appreciated.