Bought a semi-new car

(Certified Pre-owned, plus extended 100,000 mile Platinum warantee)....

Just bought a 2003 Toyota Camry, XL, V6. 25,000 miles (low milage which is good), and lots of goodies on it. This was a huge upgrade over my Honda Civic, which rides terribly, has uncomfortable seats, lots of cabin noise, and has an engine that sounds like a lawn mower.

This Camry rides exceptional well--soft suspension like a Cadillac, good acceleration, and relatively quiet cabin noise.

It does NOT handle corners well, but that is likely due to the soft suspension--as when I use to own Cadillacs they also never handled corners well either.

Overall, I'm very happy. I put reliability, ride, and comfort at the top of my list, and this car should have all three (assuming its as reliable as Toyota typically is).

congratulations on your nice purchase. 7 years ago my wife was in need of a new car, and I pointed her toward a new camry which she loves and has put 140,000 miles on it so far. The car you bought is basically a kind of luxury sedan, all I can say is drive it in good health.

nice car

Thanks. I like cars that ride nicely, and so far I'm enjoying it very much. Acceleration is pretty good, and the engine is so smooth and quiet that its hard to tell the engine is on at idle. I like 6-cylinder and 8-cylinder engines over 4-cylinder engines for this reason, my previous 4-cylinder engine vibrated when stopped and was loud.

The Camry has a lot of good qualities and I think it is the best choice for most people. Unfortunately it is as dull as a $2 grocery store flashlight.

Congrats on the new car! And a very nice car too.

I must give the Japanese that they build reliable cars. Unfortuanatly, as said above, they are extremely dull looking /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon6.gif

Congrats, and big thumbs up on getting a 1 year old car - probably the best balance of value, newness, and factory warranty.

We bought one last christmas /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif it's the V6 LE though, should drive well for years to come /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif (it's dark blue, what color did you get?)

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Penguin said:
We bought one last christmas /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif it's the V6 LE though, should drive well for years to come /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif (it's dark blue, what color did you get?)

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V6 LE as well. Its a light golden/tan, with grey interior. (the only used V6 available, I and didn't want a 4-cylinder).

I originally was looking at Avalons, but the extra $4,000 seemed a little excessive for the milage they had on them. The Avalons are NICE though, and assuming they are still made 5-6 years from now I might eventually go that route as my next car (or even something like a Lexus ES 330). I'm looking to get 4-5 years service out of the Camry, then preferably upgrade to something even more luxurious (comfort, quiet, and ride are my big things, I have no interest in "sporty" type cars).