Reply #17: They're excellent

[ForrestGump]

I've had Camrys, and loved them (wanted to buy a used one -- or an Accord, Maxima, or similar Japanese car -- recently but the Japanese cars hold their value so ridiculously well that it was more cost effective for me to buy an old Mercedes). I bought both Camrys new but they're pretty bulletproof and buying used would also likely be a good deal because of the initial depreciation, as long as you use Carfax to check out the car's history.

I didn't buy the Corolla back when I was first car shopping, in 1990, because it was too small for me -- physically too small for my height (ditto the Sentra, and that little Geo car and Acura Integra I couldn't even get into on the driver's side). The Corolla, like other cars, has since grown in size and I have driven hundreds of miles in Corollas since.

I'm happy with my Mercedes -- Germans really know how to make cars -- but for a regular car (i.e., not some Italian sporty thing, that'd be sorta cool to try even though I've got my motorcycle for when I really want performance) I'd still probably pick a Japanese-designed car over just about everything else. Toyotas have always been my favorite, ever since we had a Toyota Corona when I was a kid (I also grew up in areas where Toyota Landcruisers were de rigeur for utilitarian purposes and the men of the land thereabouts were convinced they were the best thing since the creation of the internal combustion engine), and I think they're hard to beat (I see Hondas as exactly parallel in all of this) for reliability and features that assist everyday use.

Test drive it and see how it feels, but you really can't go wrong with a Corolla, or with any Toyota.

The dealerships can be another story, though. Our first Camry, in California, was the result of a nice and clean transaction. Our second, in a southern state, took us to massive dealerships with predatory, unethical salesmen on the job (we ended up going to a smaller dealer where all was cool), and I later discovered that the biggest dealership has a very bad record in terms of how they do business. They sell a lot of cars but they generate a lot of hate...that's something I've heard of quite a few dealers, especially some of the more massive ones, and it's a shame because they sell some of the best vehicles out there.