Daughter considering Camry or Aura

[PhillyJoe]

Married 30 y.o. daughter's car was hit and Geico paid her $6,000 for her 2002 Grand Am. Seemed like a fair price. With money in hand she is casually shopping, until the rental runs out, for a similar car. Her drive is a 40 mile roundtrip mixed driving each day.Has narrowed the list to two:

2008 Camry 55k, $13,000, certified
2008 Saturn Aura, 42k, $11,000

Both are 4 cyl and comparably equipped. The trade-off is price/miles vs. extended warranty. Both are 1 owner with a clean carfax.
A Camry with a warranty is like wearing a belt with suspenders. I have owned several cars with and without warranties and I can only remember one small claim. My wife says you won't be able to get the Saturn serviced in a few years so we eliminated her from the discussion. Daughter's husband (who drives a '09 Accord coupe)also likes both as do I.
If both showed up at your door, which would you choose?

 

[Brons2]

Camry. People are already starting to complain about unavailability of Saturn parts. You should listen to the wife that you eliminated from the discussion

Besides, 55K is not a lot of miles nowadays and you get 45K on the CPO warranty.

Decide on the Camry and then try to get them down on the price.

 

[mpvue]

it's a saturn AURA, the same basic car as a malibu or pontiac G6. the 4cyl is the ECOTEC, same as used in every other GM car.

the only concern w/ saturns is the older ones, like the S or L series, those were different.

 

[bepperb]

That two grand extra you spend on the Camry, you'll easily get that back when you sell it even if it has 150,000 miles on it. Comparably equipped it's a easy win for the Camry.

 

[dparm]

CPO Camry? Bet you a dollar you'll never need to claim on that warranty.

 

[Rand]

13000 seems high for a 5 year old camry.

if it was more like 11000$ that would be decent.

 

[bourne]

Stay away from the aura. Reviews are littered with bad news.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Rand
13000 seems high for a 5 year old camry.

if it was more like 11000$ that would be decent.


+1. They are overpriced used. She should save and buy a lower content new one, MT preferably for lower lifecycle cost.

 

[NateDN10]

FWIW (and it's probably not much), KBB suggests $15.5K for the Camry and $12.5K for the Aura.

I'd go for the Camry. The Aura will probably be fine, and I'm not a Toyota fan, but especially given the list price, the Camry definitely seems like the better option here. Better resale, no worry about hard-to-find parts or servicing, CPO.

 

[dparm]

Isn't the Aura actually an Opel underneath?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Isn't the Aura actually an Opel underneath?

Yup. Based on Opel Vectra. Not sure if that's good or bad.

 

[lovcom]

My wife has a 2007 Saturn Aura (same as 2008). It has 39,000 miles, and every other month it is one thing or another that needs repair. Just now, a section connector between two sections of the exhaust pipe developed a leak, and it was never hit by road debris either. The car drives ok, but does not have the refinement of the Camry, nor the dependability, nor the gas milage of the Camry.

I'd suggest she get the Camry.

 

[95busa]

Camry

 

[dparm]

I will say this: the Aura is a nice looking car.

 

[VicVinegar]

Camry. Personally I might include a Fusion on my shortlist too if I were looking in that segment. Probably can't go wrong with a 4 banger Accord either.

 

[fisher83]

Go for the best of both worlds...I'd tell her to offer $11k on the Camry and see where that gets her. Even if she gets talked up a little bit she can probably wind up somewhere close to the price of the Aura and she'd be getting a better car in the process.

 

[gomes512]

Don't discount parts availability, which for the camry won't ever be an issue. Especially great for any of the small interior tid bits or things like side view mirrors. All it takes is one trip to the local boneyard with $10 in hand.

 

[HerrStig]

Camry's have been made in far greater numbers than the Aura and replacement parts are easy to come by from places like Rock Auto and Amazon at good prices.

 

[rjundi]

Camry if she wants to sell it easy down the line. Also GM in 2008 was second tier to Accord/Camry/Fusion.

The Saturn is undesirable. I think there is far more wiggle room with Aura. I would offer $8.5k or $9k and see what happens. For the right price it is a better buy, but not for 2k less than asking or likely going price of Camry.

I have noticed even with Acadia twin Saturn Outlook the prices are in the toilet at dealers. They ask KBB and then drop prices $5k-$7k as dealer specials when they sit on lot.

 

[lexus114]

Originally Posted By: dparm
I will say this: the Aura is a nice looking car.



Yup,I saw one at Weis the other day. They do look good, but Toyota`s hold their value big time.