Potential Camry buyer

[Iron]

I'm in the market for a new car and I have pretty much narrowed it down to 2002-2006 Camrys or Impalas. I have a few questions-First off, reliability wise is the inline 4 the same as the v6, or is there some problem common to either engine I haven't read about yet? Also..it is important to note I am a college student and that my plan for this car is to either sell in around 4 years(so resale and repair costs are important to me), or keep the car as a secondary car. I know Impalas have worse resale but they are also cheaper to fix and the 02's are already cheaper than the 02 Camry's. Any insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[somick]

I do not know about Impalas. They look pretty powerful to me. At least they always pass me on the road (:.

I have 50,000 on my Camry. So far so good. I enjoy every moment I drive it. Seriously! The only problem is you have to change oil every 5,000 miles...

One problem I had was clicking in the steering wheel which was taken care by the TSB at the dealer free of charge.
Another one that I still have is minor brake pedal vibration. There also was a TSB for this but the problem is so minor that it rarely bothers me.

Other than that, like I said, the car is very very good! But once again I have only 50,000 miles on it.

I hope this will help you make your choice.

Good luck,
Sam

[Mike Gerber]

IMHO, the Camry will be more relaible long term than the Impala. I would check the frequency of repair records of both cars in the anual auto isuue (April issue) of Consumer Reports magazine. You can view it for free at most librarys. Add that fact to the resale value you already mentioned, and I think your decision will be pretty easy.

Mike