New Camry purchase

[brett]

Or do the service yourself (or the part that you are comfortable with). The Lexus dealer quoted $150 for new air filter and cabin air filter. I said I would do it myself and ordered the parts from a Toyota dealer while in the Lexus service waiting room. Total cost with free shipping was $35, installed by me in 15 minutes. I also have a trusted independent mechanic that does the more complicated things or repairs that require special tools.

Dealership service department is a profit center (the largest profit center for some dealers). Not everything has to be done that they list.

I do exactly the same for my in cabin air filters. I stopped with those service packages that highlight things like that and 'checking the car door locks and lubricating same'. Plus all the other nothings that show up on those lists to give the impression of a great deal of work for a great deal of money.

Just installed a new battery. Took all of ten minutes. Not worth waiting at a dealership and paying a huge premium when I can pick one up while we are at Costco and install myself with a 10mm wrench.

 

[Koolau]

I had my last Camry for 17 years. Then my son had it for 2.

Always did Toyota service. I wrote off the car for business. The last time I took the car into Toyota they gave me a list of things. The total was $3100. I decided to buy an Acura. Never did.

Instead I asked around and find a private Toyota mechanic. Found one who was highly recommended and Toyota trained. Gave him that list. He told me what needed to be done. It came to $1600. All replacement parts were Toyota branded right down to the coolant, brake fluid, and transmission fluid. That was year 12. Drove the car for another 5 years after than....no issues, no repairs other than usual mtce.

Now our 2007 Solara and the 2006 Hondo goes to this private shop.

It's amazing how long an otherwise "good" car can go, needing "stuff" done to it. Our old CRV received a $3500 list of stuff needing done to it from our independent garage. I told them that the the next time something major broke, I'd put a bullet between the headlights and that would be it. Forget the oil pan leak, the minor coolant leaks, the "iffy" suspension members, the long overdue brake flush/cylinder rebuilds/brake line replacements/etc./etc.

When the fuel pump gave out 4 years later, I put the car out of its misery. It had served me faithfully for over 14 years (starting when it already had 100+K and almost 10 years on it.) I probably wouldn't have been driving such a car if it were used for major travel, but on an Island, what's the worst towing bill you might have to pay? Oh, and I never did have to tow it. YMMV

 

[kgtest]

Sooooo, you say your wife is cheating her employer by driving extra miles that she does not need to in order to get a larger reimbursement check...


Got it.

Nope. She drives as many miles as she needs to get the job done. She isn't cheating anyone. All her miles are logged and tracked in a corporate system.

 

[kgtest]

We landed on a Camry SE. 28k plus tax. It will be delivered sometime in early May. I'll sell the current car as is and let the buyer know about the axle. Plugs, clean the battery terminals, new filters, and call it good

. Plan is to clean the old Camry up and list it for $5,000 200k miles runs and drives great with no service lights on, good heat, good a/c, 10k on the tires, clean it up and detail it really good.

Maybe it will go another 100,000 miles, maybe another 500,000. I won't own it to find out. Right now its in pretty good shape for having 3 little kids with winter driving. Good paint, clean title. It was originally a rental return. Its funny people say never buy a rental as a daily driver but its been fine. Just time to upgrade. We decided on FWD. Its what we are used to.

Someday I'll have my Corvette but it won't be any time soon. Probably pick one up right before the boy has his Jr Prom. That will be perfect timing to chalk it up to a midlife crisis. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

[kgtest]

We just purchased a 2022 Camry XSE. Went out of state to get it. I called dealers from 5 states before we found close to what we wanted. Several dealers I called has cars listed on their site or car sites but had already sold them. Had some good discussions with dealers though. They are basically selling what they have coming in as not a lot on the lots. The dealer we purchased from said they normally had 250 cars on the lots but only 5 per month now the wasn't already pre sold. He said they are loving it as they are selling more cars with less carrying costs. We paid MSRP and to be honest we were happy to get the car as this was a planned recapitalization purchase with certain options. It was the easiest car purchase I have ever made.

I had finance lined up but they asked if they could try. They found us a rate of 1.79% at north west federal credit union for 6 years. So I took a higher amount just to lock in the rate and kept my cash. Its strange to see your payment be 80% principal and only 20% interest. Well actually it is strange to have a car payment.

Thanks for sharing. Our dealer had 12 LE camry that had already been spoken for. I looked around at 6 in state dealers but all the lower model LE had been spoken for.

We ended up going with the SE. We arent huge fans of the leather type material but will make it work. Our dealer just had 2 Camrys allocated this past week and one happened to be black so we decided to take it. The process was super low stress. Spent like 20 minutes total in the dealer. Real nice salesman. Didn't pressure us at all which was a refreshing change. Honestly the Camry we own now wasnt stressful to buy either.

I think its kind of nice they arent sitting on the lot I feel like that puts pressure on dealers to start pushing add ons etc like scotch guard, door guards, under coatings etc.

 

[Bamaman]

Glad your new car is in and delivered. And it's nice you've found a low pressure dealership that operates in a straight forward fashion. The world is need of such operations.

Many new car dealers should work harder to operate like your dealer does. They'd have a much higher customer satisfaction rating. We don't like or have time to play brain games with automobile salesmen.

 

[freedomatlast]

Plan is to clean the old Camry up and list it for $5,000 200k miles runs and drives great with no service lights on, good heat, good a/c, 10k on the tires, clean it up and detail it really good.

At $5000, you'll be leaving money on the table and people will be beating down your doors to buy it. I'd start at $7,500. I know that may seem unreal, but that's that state of the used car market today. I recently sold a '97 Corolla for $5000 and it sold on the first day. I had 5 others in line if the first guy didn't take it.

And with gas prices over $4.00/gal in many areas, more people will be letting their $80,000 gas guzzling trucks sit while looking for more economical vehicles to buy, just like 2008 all over again.

Also, if you can time the sale of the old car on the same day you pick up the new one, have the dealer process the paperwork on the sale of the old one as a 'courtesy trade' and you'll save the sales tax amount on the price of the old car.

 

[Texas Proud]

Nope. She drives as many miles as she needs to get the job done. She isn't cheating anyone. All her miles are logged and tracked in a corporate system.

Your quote from original post... emphasis mine...



She gets paid for mileage reimbursement from MegaC and always trying to stack extra miles on her trips so she earns more

 

[Texas Proud]

My sister read that the manufacturers are getting on the dealers for marking up the price over suggested retail...


When she bought her car they wanted $2,000 to $4,000 over MSRP according to the dealership... we paid MSRP and no extra add ons...