Friend looking to buy mid to late 1990's Camry; problems?

[Asteroid]

FMy mate had the head gasket issue with his (4 cyl). If i recall correctly its not actually the gasket, but the head bolts at the back of the block which strip, and there isnt enough meat in the block to fit a helicoil. He ended up getting a whole nee old stock motor.

Wrong engine. The 2.4L (2AZ-FE) from the 2002 onwards was known for this, mainly 02/03 build cars. It's very widely written about in North America, yet there seems to be almost nothing of it here. Dunno. The yanks fixed them with thread inserts.

The older 2.2 (5S-FE) should be okay if it was serviced once in a while.

[AdmiralAwesome]

Every single seal plus power steering pump/rack will leak profusely. 8/10 that I've seen come in have had reasonable leaks.

[val245]

the 4cylinder ones always break, or crack the camry bracket... (exhaust bracket from bell housing to engine pipe)

[cheapracer]

Seems to me that the stereotype that drives a $2k Camry doesn't "over spend" on "unnecessary" stuff like oil & filters being replaced "too often".

I was talking about the type of owner from new.

A very good Camry can be had for $2 to $3K, over that is too dear, 15 years old now.

[darwinschops]

if boringly reliable transport is what your after, you will win at it in a camry

hah, this has to make an appearance again!

having any part of the stereotype commodore driver in me means no camry for me. high school mate's top of the range '85 hatchback (even rare 10 years ago) was the best first car any cunt could have. velour, power windows, a/c, heaps of room, venetians, manual, skids. and a massive bong smoke stain above the driver's seat by the end. was the one thing that stuck in mind last i saw it.

after 3 years, 3 bangles, total neglect and abuse it still worked. it was pretty broken by then end but ability to put up with negligible maintence or attention from car disoriented people seems solid.

same again for mates '93 model. most hopeless car bastard i know (owns an '04 hundi elantra, dieing a funny as fuck boat towing death itself) killed one in the end but in retrospect, he disrespected that car whenever he had the opportunity. between when he turned it on and off really. and not knowing how to open the bonnet didn't help.