Good Buy: 3rd Gen Toyota Camry

If you're looking for a daily driver with some power, check out the V6 3rd generation Toyota Camry which ran from 1991 to 1996. A frickin' Camry, you say? Have I gone nuts?

Well, sort of. You see, you can get a Lexus ES300 which is a much better Camry. It's barely a Camry at all. However, the Camry is a car that you can buy for $800 without a check engine light on. They're also just different cars. The Lexus is more luxurious while the Camry is more raw. 

They are dirt cheap (I know, I was a dirt salesman) and actually have decent specs. The first V6 engine they used made 185 bhp and 195 lb-ft of torque. It got an engine for the 1994 year and onward that made something like 195 bhp and 203 lb-ft of torque (the 1MZ-FE). These numbers are not very bad. It's kind of torque-y (turkey?). And this engine is aluminum so it's preferred for NA builds.

I should mention that the Camry comes in two doors just in case you missed it in a picture above. Those make much better sports cars for obvious reasons.

This aluminum engine was codenamed 1MZ-FE while the standard V6 is 3VZ-FE. The latter is actually more widely used because it handles turbos better. The 1MZ-FE is obviously lighter but weaker. Strangely, the aluminum engine has mods more widely available. 

The thing that surprised me most about this car, though, is the fact that it is possible to make it look good. I am not lying.

Yep, that's a Camry. In recent months, I've seen a nice one driving around where I live. That coupled with the fact that I did a burnout in my ex's Camry when she asked me to "Just move it and don't do anything stupid!" Yeah right. I did a neutral drop and was surprised it spun the wheels!

There's more than one!

So I looked into it today and you know what, this isn't a bad beater. You can absolutely make it look nice but you can also just beat it to crap doing fun stuff at the track. Actually, I take back calling it a beater. It's only a beater if you make it one. My ex's was a beater but so was she. 

But the gist of this car is that it's quick (not fast), easy to work on, and it's reliable. I think it's a great starter car actually. While I, of course, didn't crash my first car, I'm sure many do. Might aswell be a Camry - they only made about 8,000,000.

Despite the jokes, I do think this is a solid car. For years I associated it with the ex-girlfriend I mentioned but I gotta say - she never put oil in hers, actually never did anything for the year and a half I knew her, and the car drove fine. I checked her oil a couple times (no more) and the first time, there was none. 

Whatever you do, get out there, just pick a car, and wrench away. I will talk to you car people again soon.

- Rokas Kirvelis