2008 Toyota Camry from North America - Comments

"Each reader must read information on this site carefully. The Camry section of this site seem to be taken over by Internet trolls. People commenting on Toyotas and especially Camry do not seem to have ever have owned one. Most people commenting seem to be Chevy or Ford owners bad mouthing the Camry."

There is just as much opportunity for import fanatics to enter false reviews on the domestic sites (and I suspect more do that than the other way around) so all-in-all the averages should balance out. I've read several domestic reviews that list issues I have never even heard of (and I'm a mechanic) and I doubt seriously that the reviewers actually owned those cars. The fact remains that Camry has a very low record of owner satisfaction on this site. Nothing makes up for a bad car, not even ad hype.

Ever heard about sampling intervals? Or standard deviation? If you did you would not construct a home-grown statistical overview about "dissatisfied customers". Remember that bodies like CR, JD Powers and the like base their statistics on a minimum of hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of observations.

Oh, yes: The Internet is more and more becoming a junk yard for irrelevant information. "The truth" is usually what various companies and organisations finds beneficial. Hundreds of thousands of people are working full time around the world as agents "to manage" information. More and more of these are devoting their work day to various Internet fora and sites. Add to this a bunch of information management DIYers that posts fake information. Really, for all sorts of reasons; some are probably disgruntled UAW workers and various people that feel buying Toyotas are "unpatriotic". Some people haven't even forgotten the war and dislike everything japanese.

Have this in mind when you read information from sites like this. No information here is quality assured, ANYBODY CAN POST BASICALLY ANYTHING, while information from CR, JD Powers etc is at least quality assured.

National polling organizations base national trends on samplings of a few hundred or less. The average deviation is usually regarded as 4%. If you gave Camry the benefit of the doubt you'd still have a satisfaction rating of under 50%. That's lower than most domestics for the 2000-2010 period reviews. There are certainly more than 100 Camry reviews between 2000 and 2010. There are also quite a few 2006 Camry reviews, yet it STILL gets a 0% satisfaction rating. Sounds more like a bad car than bad figures to me!!

"Have this in mind when you read information from sites like this. No information here is quality assured, ANYBODY CAN POST BASICALLY ANYTHING, while information from CR, JD Powers etc is at least quality assured."

I totally agree. J. D. Powers rates a Ford product and a GM product higher in long-term reliability than even Lexus, and Consumer Reports rates the Ford Fusion one entire level higher in reliability than Accord and TWO entire levels higher than Camry. The arguments on here that "Japanese cars are better" is just not backed by the facts.

I rarely see a high priced brand new domestic bought, with a cheap import replacing it next. It seems complaints or issues related on here are someone driving an old domestic they started out with, and then bought a new little import to tool around in.

I had my grandmothers old domestic, then a new Honda next, as my first new car after driving a hand me down. I take a lot of comments good or bad with this very real likelihood in mind.

I went from a 600 dollar domestic old car to a new 14000 import. It's unrealistic to say my old car had problems and my new one is the best. Get some equivalent age and mileage, and compare a car bought new to new that you cared for since new. It's a better way to inform others.

17:04 Japanese cars are better, and that IS fact. Like you said.. A Ford product, and a Chevy product; meaning ONE each. EVERY other Toyota and Honda gets higher ratings than all other automobiles from any domestic manufacturer, because they have always been and still are the far more reliable, higher quality, much better designed vehicles. Fact.

13:15 people bad mouthing a Camry likely had problems with them. As evidence see consumeraffairs.com. If I switch to another new different mfr.- car after numerous issues I will complain about my last one. It amazes me you think people have the time to be so inventive. I had terrible experience with Honda and I do not hesitate to complain. If someone had the same with Toyota, let others know. I now drive a domestic. Is that ad import hype so strong? They can have issues and do.

"I went from a 600 dollar domestic old car to a new 14000 import. It's unrealistic to say my old car had problems and my new one is the best. Get some equivalent age and mileage, and compare a car bought new to new that you cared for since new. It's a better way to inform others."

I agree, but in our case we've owned both brand new domestics and imports, and found that regardless of age and mileage, the imports cost us far more in repairs than domestics. We now drive only Ford and GM.