Hi gang. New member here from central PA. Last Wed my wife and I took delivery of a loaded 2007 Camry Hybrid. The circumstances of this deal were amazing (well to me) as we started shopping for this car about a week and half earlier.
My wife is starting a new job next week as a pharmacutical rep and there will be a lot of driving involved. Her company gives $500 a month on top of the salry as a car allowance, but they also require that your vehicle meet certain standars one of which is age and her car at the time didn't meet the age standard. She had been driving a 2000 Nissan Maxima GLE which was a great car but had 2 MAJOR drawbacks: 1) fuel economy, best she ever got was 28 mpg on a trip which was all highway driving 2) use of premium fuel, due to the high compression engine it required 92 octane or better fuel...well we all know what has happen in the last 2 years to the cost of fuel.
So the search was on for a new vehicle..goals were; 1) New (our first ever, we have been buying 2-3 year old cars to avoid the depreciation) 2) Cap in price at $35k usd 3) EPA highway number higher than 30 mpg 4) Size and equipment similar to the Maxima 5)use of regular fuel a bonus
So we quickly had a short list: VW Passat 2.0T, Toyota Camry XLE, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Toyota Highlander Hybrid. The Passat had the drawback that it has a Turbo which means 92+ octane but the price was lower and because of that the 4 year numbers (gas + loan + service + ins) was actually the lowest. The Highlander Hybrid is out of the price range but we were thinking we could stretch it. The Camry Hybrid was pretty much our #1 choice but the dealers (4 of them) were all telling us the same story...end of July...maybe. In the end it came down to the Camry or the Camry. We are big VW lovers (I have had 5 of them to date) but in being so we know that they aren't the most reliable cars in the world...Toyota on the other hand. So the wife decided that she wanted the Hybrid and we had her Maxima evaluated for trade and picked our dealer...then we started the waiting...that was on Sat the 13th of May. Two days later my cell phone rings...it is our salesman and he is asking if we want the Camry Hybrid that is on their lot?
We had sat in this car but couldn't drive it because it was waiting for it's owner to pick it up...this was the first one in our town...two other dealers hadn't even seen a Camry Hybrid yet, they were waiting on their first. Well it turns out the people that had ordered it saw it and decided they didn't want it. We were third on the list so with one out of the way they offered the car to the next buyer...this lady HAD to have blue and this car was white...she would wait...so it was on to us and we honestly didn't car as long as the car wasn't green or red we wanted it if it had the options we wanted...this car did. So on Tues we got approval of the loan and on Wed May 17th we took delivery.
The car has been pretty darn good so far...the only gripe we have at this point is that the DVD navigation system isn't all that great
If you are looking, think about passing on the DVD nav and getting something aftermarket. Everything else has been great. I hope to get some photos up soon.
See you around the forums
John
Hello from PA...lucked into a Camry Hybrid
Re: Hello from PA...lucked into a Camry Hybrid
