Old Man Bored to death by Appliance Camry.

Joined
May 31, 2002
Messages
3,810
Location
St. Charles County, Missouri
Someone tail ended me at a stop sign. He had Geico which got me into one of their select shops the day after the accident. No problem with treatment by Geico or the Enterprise guy who checked me out. Whole process took about fifteen minutes.

I buy used rental cars so I'm not the sort to drive aggressively. I bought a couple of well worn early nineties Camrys and Prizms for my kids more than twenty years ago. I had a couple of approximately 2005 Corollas as rental cars which were nice and the next gen Corolla (maybe 2008) which was pretty awful.

Finishing my second day with this 2020 (I guess) Camry is ........boring. They refer to Camry's as appliances. This thing is an appliance. Not pleasing, not horrible. Has an eight speed transmission, I guess. I'm not abusing it, so it goes about its daily chores without a hassle. I'm listening to the NPR station on FM and one of the speakers has an annoying rattle that would really bug me if this was my car if I was taking it on a trip. Interestingly, doesn't seem to show up when I push podcasts from my phone.

This isn't as annoying as a couple of rental Sentras I've been stuck with, it's less connected than some rental HyunKia's I've had. It's just a..... Whirlpool. And I guess that's been the rap on Toyota products for some time.

I'm looking forward to being back in my last gen Soul. I guess it's good to miss the car you're stuck with.
 
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I drive a lot for work, usually travelling an hour or more to client sites. Most the time it's around 100 miles round trip each day give or take for most of the sites I work with. It does wear on me, and if I drove an appliance I think it would just be even more tiresome.
 
I bought a '07 new and kept it for 10 years.
I always said it was the best transportation I ever owned, but the most most boring car I ever owned.
Eventually got a Challenger - a proper old man car!
 
Not to hijack but what is the damage to the Soul. Expensive, I trust. Kia's are good until you have a collision repair. Very expensive to repair for whatever reason. My 2011 Forte was rear-ended parked and it was 8k to repair. A seemingly minor RH front collision (2016 Soul) with another moving car racked up 8k in damage to include an engine cradle. These repairs were not OEM but LKQ stuff, that's how USAA rolls when they pay.
 
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Not to hijack but what is the damage to the Soul. Expensive, I trust. Kia's are good until you have a collision repair. Very expensive to repair for whatever reason. My 2011 Forte was rear-ended parked and it was 8k to repair. A seemingly minor RH front collision with another moving car racked up 8k in damage to include an engine cradle. These repairs were not OEM but LKQ stuff, that's how USAA rolls when they pay.
Mine is $2k about twice what I would have thought. OTOH I totaled out a Buick Encore. Grill alone was over a thousand using poorly fitting non OEM parts from China. Maybe it's Korean cars.
 
That's why vanilla is always the most popular ice cream.
passport1: Best description. My 17 OB is also vanilla. Love it tho...but it will never get the heart racing in excitement to drive it.

Sorry OP Camry was ALWAYS vanilla! And that's not a bad thing at all....just plane jane.
 
passport1: Best description. My 17 OB is also vanilla. Love it tho .but it will never get the heart racing in excitement to drive it.
Biscut tks. Several years ago I had a Subaru. Many times after it had been snowing all day and I punched out from work in the afternoon it got my heart racing in excitement to drive it knowing the Sub would get me home.

Vanilla has many shades.
 
Yea the camry is super boring, I guess that’s a good thing in a way depending how you look at it. Regarding Hyundai/Kia vehicles, I’ve noticed they get totaled out faster than other brands. It might be the poor resale value that causes them to be totaled at a high rate. I’ve also heard they are a nightmare to piece back together.
 
. . . Finishing my second day with this 2020 (I guess) Camry is ........boring. They refer to Camry's as appliances. This thing is an appliance. Not pleasing, not horrible . . .
I know I'm going to offend some here, but I'm going to say it anyway. Isn't that true of all Toyota products? Very conservative designs and technology. Long, long time between refreshes. And even after a refresh, so many features of their cars still don't change. At least not significantly.

With such a strong emphasis on reliability, and perhaps safety, it seems like all other design features take a very distant third place at Toyota.
 
When I traveled for work that would require anywhere from 3-6 hours behind the wheel in any given trip the prior gen Camry was my go to. When the current gen came out I was excited since I had good experiences thus far with the older model, IMO the new one was a step backwards for Toyota.

I think the biggest thing for me on the new on was the powertrain (2.5) felt like it took a step backwards in refinement and the interior also took a step back in quality. IMO the prior gen is a better car.
 
I want nothing but my Soul back

Sorry you lost your Soul.

I was going to suggest a used Mercedes. Way more fun driving and has lots of features, never really get bored in it. Sound system is Harman Kardon. Everyone thinks they're expensive to maintain but I've just done average stuff on mine for the last 6 years. Depreciation is extreme on used cars so you can pay about a 1/3 when they're at 5-6 years old and have maybe 2/3s of their life left.
 
Not to hijack but what is the damage to the Soul. Expensive, I trust. Kia's are good until you have a collision repair. Very expensive to repair for whatever reason. My 2011 Forte was rear-ended parked and it was 8k to repair. A seemingly minor RH front collision (2016 Soul) with another moving car racked up 8k in damage to include an engine cradle. These repairs were not OEM but LKQ stuff, that's how USAA rolls when they pay.
That’s any car really... this was $5,000 in damage. My wife barely sideswiped one of those poles at a gas station in the 300, hit the rear door, side skirt, and part of the wheel arch... that was $4,000.
 

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