I've been looking at a 1997 Toyota Camry LE for my first car and I was wondering if it was worth purchasing. The seller is asking $3500 which while I have the capital to purchase it, I think they are definitely asking way too much seeing as it has 200k miles on it. I did manage to test drive the vehicle and found more issues like a bad 02 sensor, squeaking in both front tires when hard turning, the passenger-side mirror being unadjustable, and what I suspect to be a leaky condensation hose. I didn't hear any ticking or knocking from the motor and the transmission showed no signs of hesitation, and the A/C blew out cold and hot air. With all that being said is it worth buying and fixing up, and what would you guys say is a fair amount to purchase it. Or would y'all say it's not worth the hassle and to buy something a bit newer that's in my budget of $3500.
Too much money for a 25-year-old Camry with 200K miles. Also, are you prepared to deal with a car that old? Even if basically sound mechanically there are a lot of little things to go wrong and rubber parts will be deteriorating. If you don't do your own repairs it's going to be an expensive pain in the rear to go to a mechanic for every little thing.
Not really, but I am eager to learn as much as possible, but the biggest issue at that point would be the price which I think is way too much.
Way too much money. The car is a quarter century old with 200k miles. Offer $1200.
i have a '97 that we purchased new, still rides great, fantastic spare car, sell you mine for $3000 lol
it could be a good car if you drove it tenderly
$2000-$2500 down here
Pass. Having owned few older cars, I would say buy something less than 10 years old (+less than 100-120k miles).
Toyota/Honda (as Scotty always say) will be better options.
With the age, what ever the brand, lots of issues will pop-up and you will not enjoy your drive
Tell him "$800 cash is the absolute best I can do. This thing needs waaay too much work, so much so that it's going to cost more than you're charging. The mileage alone should have the price halved."
If you can mock his car enough by pointing out flaws along with the prices to fix them (also never call it nice or show any excitement) he'll drop it significantly. If it's still not low enough say, "OK, well if no one buys it & you want to sell it for a price commiserate with the age/condition/mileage, you have my number."
I did this with a 97 F150 the guy was asking $4.5k for, had him down to less than half after a drive & gave that speech then sat in my truck for a couple mins. Phone rings, "$950 is as low as I can go, I paid $2k for it last week" after he just claimed to own it for over three years🤣
I wasn't going to buy it due to a cracked frame & "a tree falling on the bed" which wasn't shown in the ad along with none of his stories adding up but I wanted to see what he'd say and had driven 100 miles so it was the only way I could pay him back for being so dishonest over the phone.
Not to mention as I was looking the truck over, the creep slinging drugs to people that kept stopping by...that really stuck in my craw.
I mean it's a 25 year old car with 200k miles that's quite overpriced, BUT If you can't find something else - eh why not.
Try lowering the price based on the mechanical issues you found, and if there's no records of timing belt service (as far as I remember these had belts) try also lowering him on that.
Personally I would not recommend a 90s Japanese as a first car because nowadays with 4,000lbs Teslas and 6,000lbs Ford and RAM trucks everywhere - almost any collision is a death sentence.
The Camry had similar crash test performance to the Corolla of the time and that gets absolutely obliterated by a modern one - a the modern one is only a 2,500lbs car that's considered to a relatively weak safety-wise compared to its modern day competition.
The important comparison is between the shots at 00:33 and 01:44
Something not to be missed but with a decent insurance pay out might be good depending on where he lives, with all the "legalization" (or just lack of caring) going on it's like half the people on the road are blitzed, combine that with phones & yikes.
Back when I still had my Camaro it felt like every hoopty or bad driver had a homing device aimed at my car😄
I was hit by everything from civics to plows, luckily that thing was easy to fix.
Once a Taurus cut across over five lanes to clip me just after I had put new paint on. I was passing the gas station doing about 50, couldn't believe his excuse, "I just remembered that I needed gas & you were in my way."
I suppose the "consolation" was his was totally wrecked, I was able to drive still as the plastic rear bumper & some rim damage was the total.