Hey Scotty,
I'm from California and I need some advice. I'm looking to move to Texas or Georgia in the coming months, and I need to buy a cheap reliable car. I'm leaning towards a corolla, camry, or civic. I'd prefer something post year 2000. I've got about 1,200 right now but I am willing to save and spend at most 3,000 on a car. Keep in mind I need to be able to drive it cross country, and then do some road trips between Georgia and Texas. I found a 2007 Camry Hybrid online for $1500. I asked $700 she countered with $900. Now its in good shape, and its got a nice leather interior. Only issue is that it needs a new hybrid battery. It also has 300,000 miles, but it hasn't been wrecked. I'm willing to swap the batteries if the total of the car and the swap is less than $3,000 combined. Is it worth it? Is $700 or $900 alone still not worth it for a 300k mile, 07 hybrid camry, non op with a bad battery? I was also thinking of maybe buying a car in Georgia instead. Would it be cheaper? I'm decent at working on cars too, I did sparks, fuel pump, exhaust leak, secondary air pump, and water pump on my previous car.
Thanks, Alex
If you go for battery "reconditioning" you might get by with $2k, but if you want a new battery pack from Toyota be prepared for $5k or higher. That would be quite an expense for a car with 300k on it already. Reconditioned battery packs generally only last a year or two before they are right back to their previous performance problems, because the reconditioning process only replaces the bad batteries... and, unless you go back to Toyota for the batteries, you can't guarantee their quality. If you are looking for something reliable and plan to take it cross-country, I generally would not look at hybrids with lots of miles, due to the complexity, and numbers of possible failure points.
You might think I'm crazy, but you might consider either a Crown Vic or Mercury Marquis from the early 2000s. If you can find one with reasonable miles, they are extremely reliable, and not that bad on gas, especially on the highway.
@wse
Oh ok, I remembered Scotty did say in a video that the reconditioning isn't great. I wish it was a 2007 Camry non hybrid for $1500.. ughhhhh. I don't think that's crazy at all. Crown Vics are good cars, my issue is that yes it is decent mileage but I drive my dad's Prius right now. I'm used to that 50 city 50 highway mileage. Dropping down to a 18 city 25 highway is gonna be a challenge. I was hoping to get a car with at least 28-35 city. Another thing is the crown vics are kind of big in my opinion. I like the corollas for being compact. I usually have expensive camera equipment in my car so a closed trunk and 4 doors, all in a compact car is exactly what I need.