2000 Toyota Camry CE from North America - Comments

Power steering pump started getting noisy when turning, I think it needed replacement.

Catalytic converter or catalytic converter sensor. Driveability was not affected, but the CEL was on.

Paint flaking off the rear bumper.

The worst thing about this car is 2.2L engine. Very slow even with the 5 speed. Going uphill, often had to downshift to the 3rd. The automatic tranny version is worse and as slow as an old, tired turtle. No performance whatsoever. 0-60 - yes. Have to get a V6 to get good acceleration and power. Merging on the highway in a busy metro a area with 2.2L is downright scary, you have to rev it to 4K rpms to get some kind of performance out of it. Then it gets noisy.

The good thing is, MPG is great. I got as high as 31MPG on highway only.

I would not get a 2.2L engine again, unless it was a very small and light car and definitely 5 speed.

This is a KY-made 'yota, not sure if it makes any difference.

The paint was just flaking off in places like the rear bumper.

The 5 speed tranny is mediocre. BMW, Nissan and Honda have smoother shifting manual trannies. It does work, but not as smoothly as I had hoped.

I got a check engine light about the catalytic converter, though I coudldn't narrow it down, it might have been just the sensor or the cat itself. I am not sure how much the cat costs, but it's surely expensive from Toyota. I never got it fixed dreading the high repair bill and just drove around with the Check Engine Light as the mediocre performance did not seem to be affected.

AC is weak even after a DIY recharge. If the car is parked on a hot day, it doesn't cool it enough.

The seat belt is hard to buckle up as the buckle is hidden. In this regard, I like Ford and GM cars where the buckle sticks out.

There were some body panel alignment issues, like the rear door had a poor fit. The windshield gasket was not right and was making a lot of noise. Some trim on the door came off.

There aren't enough settings for the windshield wipers. The slowest is OK, but the 2nd slowest is too fast, and the fastest one is not fast enough.

The good thing is, the car is easy to work on for a shade tree mechanic. If you are a DIY type, a 4-cyl is the car to get. The engine bay is fairly open vs. a V6 FWD car which is usually more difficult to work on. The spark plugs are super easy to change, the belts are not too bad. Brakes are super easy to replace.

The oil change is super easy with the oil filter right in front of you. I used Mobil 1 the whole time, as I was scared by all these stories about engine sludge, though never experienced it myself.

While 2.2 is mediocre, it didn't burn any oil, didn't leak anything, didn't make any strange noises.

There is some kind of TSB about filling up the gas tank too much and the gas spilling over there and ruining the charcoal canister, or something to that effect, and supposedly setting a CEL. I was careful to never pump gas in it after it cut off. Never experienced it myself though.

The trunk is too small, or rather too shallow.

All in all, considering the competition, not too bad. In the same price range, Honda and Nissan et al, have about the same number of problems or worse. Also I do not trust automatic transmissions from *any* maker, foreign or domestic, of any vintage.

Do not get this car for perfomance reasons, go for the "SE" version with V6 and ideally 5 speed - not an easy combo to find, especially as Toyota in its infinite wisdom dropped the V6/manual combo for Gen 5 as I understand. That's just stoopid. 2000 Camry CE 2.2L is just a basic grocery-getter, great around town. For interstate travel, I would want something more powerful.

P.S.

The vehicle had a smell inside. It appeared to be of automotive nature. Not sure exactly what it was, but didn't smell like gas. Not sure if the vehicle had an cabin air filter, maybe that's what the problem was.

Not sure what the problem was, but it was confirmed by others.