Stephen's 2003 Camry

This blog is created to post pictures of my '03 Camry LE to be sold at craigslist on August 25, 2006

Friday, August 25, 2006

Stephen's Toyota '03 Camry LE 4 doors Sedan

VIN number: 4T1BE30K33U141246

Engine: Toyota 2.4 Liter 16Valve VVT-i engine
Mileage: 78.5K miles
Colors: Silver ext color / Grey int color cloth seats
Transmission: Automatic with O/D
Major Features: Air Conditioning, CD Player, AM, FM Stereo, Cruise Control, Power Steering, Power Windows, Doors and Mirrors, Dual Front Airbags, Side Airbags, Curtain Airbags, ABS Brakes, Tilt Steering Wheel, Rear Window Defroster, VIN number etched on windows,

I purchased this car from a dealership in Fort-Worth in February, 2006. I relocated to Dallas in January and I had been driving company provided rental car for a month. Now I needed my first family car for my wife and my 6 year old daughter.

Since I was new to Dallas, I was not quite familiar with everything here, so reliability was a highest priority. (No one would want to pull the car in the middle of nowhere...) So, the safest bet would have been a Japanese car and I've decided to purchase a used Toyota Camry to save money for my second car to purchase sooner or later.

Because Japanese cars usually retain higher value for more than 2-3 years, 2003 or older model would have been a best bet for the price. But I found Camry made major model change in 2002 and I didn't like the design of Camry before 2001 model. So, choice was narrowed to 2002 or 2003 model of Camry.

Major criteria for me were:
1. No accident
2. Safety features which comes default with the car
3. Low mileage
4. No major cosmetic problem
5. Price

No accident:
- I've checked the carfax and found it did not have a major accident (at least in the record)
- This car has VIN number tag sticker or windows etching every corner of the car. (I've seen a lot of Camrys at that time but there were at least one or two VIN number tags missing somewhere, which meant the car was in an accident which required change of door, fender, hood or trank door etc)
- While test driving the car, the steering wheel was centered correctly and with hands off of the wheel, the car proceed straght forward.
- No major squeak or rust inside and outside of the car

Safety features:
I was driving Volvo S40 for a year before I came to Dallas, and you know why I drove a Volvo... yes, I'm a safety freak.
This car is equipped with a lot of default safety features:
- SRS frontal airbags for driver and passenger - frontal crash
- SRS side airbags for driver and passenger - side crash
- SRS curtain airbags - roll over or side crash
- ABS (Anti-Lock Break System)
- 3 point safety belts for all 5 passengers
- and 2003 Camry got good crash test results...

Low mileage:
I found this car was driven quite a lot during 3 years of first ownership period. (Around 20,000 miles a year and that was above average which was around 10 ~ 15K miles as per Carfax comment) However, I thought... in Texas area - since this car was driven in Texas from the beginning - if you drive a lot, then it would have been through highway and generally speaking, highway mileage is regarded quite ok... So, I lowered the priority of this problem since I was looking for a car in Texas.

No major cosmetic problem:
Here, I found some cosmetic problems... and some of them were major to me... Some (even though they were light) scratches on the front hood and a dent on the rear window frame disturbed me the most... But I had researched quite a lot of cars at that point of time, I couldn't find a better selection than this car regardless of the scratches... at the price range... and I thus thought it was a used car anyway...

And now I have been driving this car for more than 6 months and I've never been distressed because of the scratches or the dent on the window frame - except for a few moments just after I washed the car... :(

Price:
When I purchased this car, it was somewhat higher price than KBB or edmunds.com value... But I researched cars.com, autotrader.com and carfax.com etc to get the price range of the cars within my criteria... and found that it was in the middle of the range. It was not that cheap and not that high... in the middle... So, I disregarded KBB or edmunds.com because I thought they are the price for the reason I shouldn't get ripped off...
Now, I've attached the price tag after I researched the website I used to consult when I purchased the car... and I think this car's price has been decided somewhere in the middle.

So, I have been driving this car 6 months now... And during that time, I visited local dealer-running repair shop just once to change the engine oil on 5/30/2006 and to have check some parts - such as break, timing belts, wheel balance and wheel alignment. I had wheel balance and alignment done and break pad changed... The engineer said that other than that I can re-check in 90,000 mile maintenance... until then, there should be no major problem...

So, I'm driving the car today as well to work... And while I'm writing this on my blog (I'm blogging on blogger.com and I created additional blog for this car sale today since attaching pictures on craigslist was quite disturbing...), uploading pictures of the car... I'm thinking... Why do I want to change my car to another while I'm having no problem...? Do I ever really want to change the car?

YES, now I'm 36 years old... if I don't try a stick-shift 1999 BMW E46 328i at this point of time (almost same price, I could exchange my solid Camry to a possibly problematic BMW ultimate driving machine born in 1999), I might never have another chance in my life... I'll go for it...

One thing to add... why Dallas area have this many birds all around? I washed the car yesterday because one guy from internet wanted to see the car (he never showed up), but I found bird xxx on the car this morning again... You know what? If you don't clean the bird xxx for some time, the color of the paint would be changed... I have a few points on my Camry already... to tell the truth :(

Stephen's 2003 Camry

Friday, August 25, 2006

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