This brings me to the point of this post. I picked up a 1994 Toyota Camry from a co-worker last week to daily drive and save on gas. I'm the third owner, the first was a shop manager who bought it new, then my buddy who decided to buy something a little nicer so the girls will actually ride in his car. It has a little over 240K miles on it, but the records penciled in the owner's manual show regular maintenance and timing belts (yes plural) have been done on time. It has new tires, and drives better than expected for an 18 year old car. Camrys of this era were built much like the Mercedes of the '80s, like a tank and reliable like nothing since. While Jill spent her Saturday afternoon cheering USC football, I spent my time cleaning the Camry, I was in heaven.
I was trying to get the "funk" out of the car before I start daily driving it. You wouldn't believe the amount of paper towel and Windex I went through cleaning the nasty interior. My special recipe for interior cleaning is Windex and paper towel. I use the towels until they are saturated, the Windex has the right mixture to break down the dirt, but dries fast and leaves a fresh smell on stuff. I like to use my dentist picks as well, cleaning out the cracks and crevices of the dirt and crumbs that fall between the cracks. When I was done you'd say the interior looked old, but the dirt and grime was gone. The smell has gone up the scale from "what died in here?" to "could use a little Fabreeze". I think I also vacuumed out about a season's worth of leaves and dirt, and made 53 cents under the front seats. The "Black Ice" air freshener under the seat wasn't doing the car any favors, so i tossed that too. I like a little Fabreeze, and a couple dryer sheets under the seats and she should smell halfway decent in no time.
Under the hood the car needs some minor attention for me to consider it a daily reliable car. The coolant overflow tank is cracked, it'll get replaced ($25). The motor mounts are shot, well at least the transmission mount, and the top torque strut stabilizer are from what I feel ($45 combined). I'm going to do an oil and filter change, put some new spark plugs in it, and change the air filter while I'm at it. The battery terminals are corroded, I'll clean those up too. The hood struts don't hold the hood up, found that out quickly. A pair of vise grips will hold it up fine, or a broom handle, but I believe in working on a car without rigging it. Hood struts are cheap ($20) so I'll pop a set on while I'm at it. There is a knocking in the right rear, strut top mount from what I've been told as it's a common failure point on Camrys. I'm going to wait on that for now, not in the budget to put shocks on it, but maybe in a month or two I will change them. I also want to get it up on a lift at work and check the suspension from the bottom.
I will also mention that picking the car up where I left it at work and driving it home behind Jill driving the E55 was a humbling experience. We were driving up to the freeway and had to pass an old truck uphill to get to the onramp. Jill moves over, buries the gas pedal on the E55, and like a slingshot, she's gone, and I mean in a blink of an eye just gone. I bury the throttle in the Camry, and... Nothing. This will take some getting used to, it reminds me of driving an old diesel Benz. It's a momentum car, but again it's about comfort and mpg's, not horsepower, we have the E55 for horsepower. The Camry drives great on the freeway, has cruise control and it works! The radio has an AUX input with a plug that the previous owner put in the console so my iPhone can plug in easily. I know it sounds trivial but having the input to stream music or Podcasts is very important to my commute.
Overall I'm very pleased with the purchase, not bad for a grand.
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