"Tell me where I can buy the lottery ticket with a 1 in 10,000 chance of winning 3500 dollars."
You can probably do better than that anywhere. In WI our payout is about 57%. So if there was a hypothetical game where you paid 1 dollar and had a 1 in 10,000 chance of the jackpot (and that was the only prize), the payout would be ~5700 dollars, better than 3500.
Seriously, owning a Camry or any other car is about evaluating risk and assigning a value to it. [Almost] Everyone on this forum can see there is a risk of getting into an accident, and buys insurance against it. Well, there's also the risk of getting a flat tire, so some people buy a warranty for that (or get one free at Costco/Sams). And you could leave your lights on so for a few bucks AAA is there if you decide you want them.
And guess what, there's also the risk of a drivetrain failure. With any car. If it's a big deal to you, buy an extended warranty. But I haven't seen enough of these to think it's a big deal, that Toyota has any plan for the situation, or that a class action or large recall will ever happen. If anything, the 2AZFE is made in such volume that this would be a headline if even a few thousand (out of millions) were having a problem. But hey, we're only eight years into it's production, maybe there's a huge turd hanging over the fan just waiting to hit.
FWIW, there is a change in engine blocks on 7/31/03 for Highlanders at least. Perhaps you'd want to make sure yours was manufactured after that date? Although all HL's are made in Japan, so I'm not sure the change translates to US made Camrys.
