New to the Toyota family
 

Hello everyone!

I'm brand new to the Toyota Family! Thursday, April 13, 2006 I purchased my first Toyota. It's a 2003 Camry LE, Phantom Gray Pearl, 2.4L, Auto, Cloth seats. So far it's a smooth ride!

I'm glad to see there is a forums site where I can go to check out the latest news and get info and such! I formerly owned a 96 Ford Contour. I really liked that car (it was fun to drive, had a lot of zip!) but the transmission started to fail (only had 108K on it too!). Anyway, when it died, I decided it was time to step up to an economical, reliable mid-size and after doing a week+ of research, I settled on a Toyota Camry. I know it early in my ownership experience, but if the early results are indicative of future performance and reliability, I don't think I'm going to disappointed!

If anyone has experience with this car and knows of any pit falls and or maintenance issues I need to be concerned with, please share those with me. I want to take care of this car and I hope it lasts me at least 8-10 years. I'm the kind of guy that drives a car until the wheels fall off, if you know what I mean. I also do a lot of work on my cars myself (saves me a lot of money!) so again, if anyone knows of anything I need to keep my eyes open for, things to check, to maintain, to service regularly that are already mentioned in the book, please let me know so I can keep my Camry in the best possible condition. I'll have to take some pictures and post them sometime.

Thanks for welcoming me to the group everyone!

Odyssey

RE: New to the Toyota family
 

hey..welcome to the forum.

not really much to say as far as maintenance, but just get your regularly oil changes and such, basic things and your car should run smooth. at around 70k mileage i know that the timing belt starts to wear, so u might wanna look into that when that happens. all in all i think camrys last 4ever, so u dont have much to worry about. [8D]

RE: New to the Toyota family
 

That brings up two questions:

1.) The dealership repeatedly advised that I shouldn't change the oil more frequently then every 5000 miles/6 months. That goes against the 3000 miles/3 months rule I'm used to for oil changes. What should I do?

2.) I was also told that my model of Camry had a timing chain, not a belt. Which is it? I'm really, really hoping for a chain. I seem to have bad luck with belts.

Thanks for the welcome!

Odyssey-of-the-Trade