I bought this car for $1100 with 150,000 miles on it. Sounds like a lot of miles, but for any Toyota, that is about half the life expectancy. I drove this car into the ground and finally sold it prior to moving to NY at 285,000 miles.
The EX was a stick-shift. The clutch pedal was smooth and short. But it still had enough 'play' in it to make the car easy to drive. Not a lot of stalling from popping the clutch too fast with this car.
The four cylinder engine was agressive, even fast if you can believe it. I managed 85 mph cruising speeds on long trips in 5th gear at less than 3000 RPM's. Not bad for a car that was 13 years old when I got it.
One thing about the Camry back then - not much for looks. It was a basic boxy sedan. The proportions were all good, and the headlights made an attractive slim fascia with a gill of the exact same height. The lower edge of the stock ground effects were not that remarkable in that era. But overall, the complete look of the car was pleasing. Mine was silver, with a darker grey bottom half. The car had plastic pannels from the knee-level down all around the car and the bumpers were originally black. This did not look good to me, so I simply painted them a dark grey. I extended the same color to the stock wheels, and the results were pleasing.
I added a chrome pin stripe down the sides (a wide one) and got chrome wipers to match. I stripped off the black coating on all the chrome framings: around the windows and such. This helped a LOT with the car. It then had a very retro look to it. Lovely.
The instrument layout was sensible for its time but the guage cluster could have been bigger. I hooked up a custom stereo (though not that good of one) and got pretty good acoustics out of that car.
I managed 27 miles per gallon city and 32 miles per gallon highway. The car ate a little oil, about one quart per 100 miles, but I never decided to investigate the cause of it and simply kept it topped off and happy.
The cars wheels were wide, so it did not handle that great in the elements, and the length of the car made it outright dangerous on ice. Nonetheless, it felt great on the highway in good conditions, and was snappy in accelerations, getting to 70 in almost 8 seconds! Not bad for a sedan!
This car never gave me a single mechanical problem. Ever. Perfection. Toyota has earned their reputation.
Toyota Camry
EX
