Why did you purchase your TCH? What vehicle did your TCH replace? Or, if you have other vehicles, what other cars do you have? I'm just curious as to what income bracket TCH owners belong to.

I replaced my TCH with a 2000 Honda Accord. It was time to get a new car, but decided on the TCH because the Hybrid thing really intrigued me.

 

The TCH replaces a decrepit 1995 Dodge Neon (we bought new in July 2004) with 177,000 miles. A true shining star for an economy domestic, especially a new model, it had given its best and needed to be replaced since more things were broken than not.

The comfort, handling, styling, and safety of the Camry appealed to me, although I wanted to get something that would get the same or better gas mileage than the Neon (32 MPG.) When I heard about the Camry available as a hybrid, it was a slam dunk. We would have bought the thing even without the $2600 tax credit, but that certainly helped ease the shock of paying MSRP for a car.

Cars are not typically a statement for me: they are transportation. My other vehicle is a 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan which is, of course, the end-all be-all practical vehicle. I’ve often wondered what sort of person would dangle two tennis ***** in a sock off the trailer hitch of their monster trucks.

Toyota’s demographic niches would probably put me in a Prius.

 

We replaced our 1994 Toyota Camry with our TCH. We had the 1994 Camry since new until we sold it this August. That's 12 long years, never any serious problem and still drives as smooth as the day we bought it. So we are sold on the Camry name.

Actually, we really wanted a Lexus but the only Lexus that we can afford is a TCH

 

Mine was a 2-stage replacement. Up until Aug05, I drove a 1999 CaddySTS as my daily driver. But then we bought a new house that is 45 miles away from my office. With premium gas costing close to $4/gallon at the time, I needed a more economical car. So we bought a 97 Paseo convertible last summer, it was a cheap, fun, small car and it did it's primary job very well (34mpg). But then my wife got pregnant, so that car was too small for our new family. Hence, I needed the size of the Caddy with the fuel economy of the Paseo. The TCH was released just at the right time!

 

We owned a 1997 Ford Explorer with over 150,000 miles and a 2001 Ford Ranger with 45,000 miles. Ironically it was the Ranger we traded in. It had a standard cab which meant I couldn't put more than two in, except for short distances. Without the extended cab it was a pain going to the supermarket. Additionally it's a stick which my wife hated driving. The Explorer (yes, a Ford) has been extremely reliable. We've put our share of money into it, but it's all been wear and tear and maintenance. And my wife loves that car.

We have a family income in the $5,000,000 to $10,000,000/year range with homes in Lake Tahoe, the Cayman Islands, a coop overlooking Central Park in Manhattan and a yacht we keep in the French Riviera. Noooo.... don't want to wake up.... like this dream.

 

My purchase of 2007 TCH was a multiple vehicle replacement which started with my 1993 Camry....:
I had a very nice 1993 Camry (around 90,000 miles) with 0 issues but got totalled (rear-ended) from an 18 year old and also had a 1999 4Runner. I traded in my 4Runner for a 2005 Odyssey (what a piece ohhh junk a year of constant issues) which did not last long and traded it in to a loaded 2006 Sienna LTD (what a relief 0 issues so far). Later, since I needed a 2nd car, I bought a 2005 Camry 5 spd manual made in Japan, but I sold it (did not like the shape overall and wanted an automatic one) so I bought the 2006 4Runner LTD 4WD V8 which I liked it a lot but it was getting between 13-15MPG which was sold, since I decided to go green, and bought the 2007 TCH which is the best Camry I have ever owned since my 1993 one.... what an awesome vehicle the 2007 TCH and 2006 Sienna is... 0 issues on both vehicles so far with Sienna around 10k miles and TCH around 1k miles... --The End--!

 

We traded my 1999 Corolla (85,000+ miles) for my TCH. I wanted a more family-friendly vehicle. Our criteria for selecting a new vehicle were that it had to get at least as good FE as the Corolla, have more rear passenger leg room, and be green . I get better FE in my TCH than I did in my 99 Corolla .

 

We owned a 2000 Nissan Maxima GLE. At the time of purchase my wife had just received a new job as a Clinical Leasion for a Pharma company and part of her contract required her to be driving a car that was no more than 3 years old so the Maxima had to go. So what would be the next car? Well the Maxima had been great but the drawbacks were the fact that it only got 27 mpg at BEST and the fact that it HAD to have premium gas (and lets remember premium was around $3.59 per gal at the time). So we looked at a number of similarly equipped sedans that got a bit better FE and on regular (thought the Passat was also premium due to the turbo). In the end we were able to get a TCH with no waiting because the orderer (is that a word?) backed out and it was equipped the way we wanted. The FE is >10 mpg better than the Maxima and the fule costs $0.40 per gal less...with the miles she is putting on the car this is a significant savings (car will have 15k miles as of tonight or tomorrow).

The fact that we know the Toyota will be fairly trouble free for a long time is/was also part of the decision.

 

Mine did not replace anything, like the tecnoledgy and fuel milage, We own a Lexus GX470, VW TDI Deisel, TCH, Buick La-Sabre. patiantly waiting for the new Honda deisel 2.2 litre comming in 2009. MPG on the Lexus sucks with 13-15, La-Sabre 25-30, TDI 42-48, TCH 39-43.

Income bracket: Social Security

 

We are replacing a 1995 Concorde (for sale, by the way ) with 197,000 miles on it. It has been great car with room for two adults, two dogs, a child and tons of luggage and a hockey bag. We started looking at the 2006 avalon (couldn't afford it) then the 2006 Camry. We heard that the 2007 was coming out soon so decided on the xle v-6 which would be closest to the Concorde. We then heard that they were going to make a hybrid. We wanted to do something for the environment, but needed more room than a small good MPG car and the Camry hybrid seemed to fit the bill, other than the tiny trunk. As far as income, I am disabled so we don't have enough income to even use the 1/2 tax credit, so that didn't matter to us. Our other car is a 2000 neon (we get the employee price on Chrysler products). it gets around 28 MPG mixed driving but is too small for all of us.