Can Camry beat Accord?

[mrtwo]

My officemate bought a 91 Accord EX 4cyl at 1997 with 120K on it. Now it has 240K and still runs good. Can Camry do it? Any experience? My Camry has 113K now, if it can go to 200K, i will be happy.

[Brian R.]

I have owned both Camry and Accord, many models. (I am an old fart). There is very little difference between them in quality. The major differences lie in ergonomics and ride/handling. If you like the way the Accord interior is set up and the way it feels, then get an Accord. If you prefer the way a Camry is set up, get a Camry.

As far as quality goes, there is more difference between individual Accords (or Camrys) than there are between the two brands on average. The lesson here is if you get a good Accord or Camry, they will run forever. If you get a bad one, look out. The reliability factor is that there are fewer bad ones of these two brands than most other makes. All brands have excellent cars and bad ones.

[Bossman]

Mrtwo,
From a former Pennsylvanian, I would say that your overall best long term mechanical insurance would be to change your oil and filter every 3,000 miles.....period. Change your air filter at least twice a year. As long as you do all of your other scheduled maintenance and keep it washed and waxed, you should drive your Camry for lots 'o miles!

[GSS123]

If you do your own brake work you'll like the Camry for ease of removing brake rotors. Camry rotors are like most cars on the road. Honda for some reason press fit the rotors on and they are a pain to remove.

[rpmglide]

Originally Posted by Bossman

Mrtwo,
From a former Pennsylvanian, I would say that your overall best long term mechanical insurance would be to change your oil and filter every 3,000 miles.....period. Change your air filter at least twice a year. As long as you do all of your other scheduled maintenance and keep it washed and waxed, you should drive your Camry for lots 'o miles!

Another PA driver- I change the oil between 3-4K and had my mechanic do the 100K recommended stuff (timing belt was replaced as all others) and I see no reason my '98 Camry won't make 200K.

[mrtwo]

Glad to see so many nice PA drivers. I am proud to be a PA driver too.

[GRIMRUNNER]

I have an '87 camry with 284K and still runs like a champ

[weran43]

Not in my book. I'm a loyal Toyota guy - I currently own two 2002 Camrys, SE and LE. Recently I had a chance to drive my brother's 2002 Accord (6 cyl), and I hate to admit, neither of my Camrys can hold a candle to Accord's performance, especially when it comes to accelleration - Accord's performance literraly blew me away.
Are the Toyota engineers paying attention?
However, my biggest beef is the Camry's performance in the snow - it's absolutely the worst! I, as well as two of my 2002 Camry owner co-workers had to replace all our tires at the first sign of the snow. It was just impossible to navigate, and two of us ened up hitting the curb, before we realized what we're up against.
The original tires on 2002 Camrys (we have here: SE, XLE and 2 LEs) are so deficient in this area that there should be an official warning or ... an investigation. It's almost criminal!
I'm curious - did anyone else have a similar experience? And, did anything change in the newer models?

[mrtwo]

r u driving 4 cyl camry or 6 cyl?

[weran43]

My Camry is LE (2 cyl), my wife has SE (6cyl), while one of my buddies drives XLE (6cyl) and the other LE (4cyl - like mine). Eeach car performes extremely poorly in the snow, with the SE and XLE being absolutely the worst (maybe becuse of the high performance tires and 16" rims?).
At the first sign of snow (in 2002), I was forced to replace tires on my wife's SE with snow tires, and replaced mine with all-weather tires -there was no other way around it, and I'm not a novice driver - I've been driving in NJ for 40 years now.

[HaldorDahlDor]

my 89 camry just hit 256,000 miles and runs like a champ.

[ProMan]

88 wagon, 190K. Still very sharp.

[ProMan]

Originally Posted by weran43

My Camry is LE (2 cyl), my wife has SE (6cyl), while one of my buddies drives XLE (6cyl) and the other LE (4cyl - like mine).
. . . . .

2 cylinders?

[weran43]

Yes, an obvious typo - I should've said: 4cyl, as I did so in the second part of the same sentence. Good catch, nevertheless - it shows that at least someone is paying attention.
The larger point, however, is that I'm not trying here to knock the Camry or Toyotas, per se. I, too, had driven '85 Camry for over 200k miles without any major problems and also had experience with many other Toyotas in my family. Generally speaking, these are very good cars. Furthermore, my son has worked for several years at the Toyota design lab in An Arbor, Michigan, so I have a pretty good insight into this company, and I'm not at all biased against it.
My comments here were just to point out an obvious defficiency in this particular model, to solicit other comments, and to perhaps help Toyota prevent similar problems in future models. That's all.