At $7,700, Is This 1995 Toyota Camry LE Wagon a Three-Row Thriller?
With its three rows of seats and two rear window wipers, you might think today’s Nice Price or No Dice Camry offers more of everything. Let’s see if that also includes more value.
The chromatic paint job on last Friday’s 1996 Ford Mustang SVT “Mystic Cobra” could make it the perfect getaway car. After all, the cops would never be able to put out a solid APB on it since witnesses to the crime would not be able to agree on just what color car they saw.
That special edition Mustang’s $22,900 price may not have been highway robbery, but it did elicit a thumb’s down from the majority of you. That earned the Mustang a 60 percent No Dice loss as a result.
I think that after the unbridled insanity that was last Friday’s color-shifting Cobra, we need to start this week off with something a little bit more sedate and less pulse-popping. Maybe we’ll all do some deep-breathing yoga exercises as well. You know, to get the ‘ol heart rate tamped down.
There are arguments to be made that cars don’t get more staid than the Toyota Camry. That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t a few editions out there that might elicit a raised eyebrow or two. This 1995 Toyota Camry LE is one such model. Not only does it sport the 188 horsepower 3 liter V6 in place of the base edition’s puny 2.2 liter four, but it also wraps that engine in a wagon body that is roomy enough for an extra row of rear-facing seats in the back. Those, of course, are not always-there seats either. That row, as well as the middle bench, can be folded down to create a spacious load area or impromptu sleeping platform.
This model was the first Camry to diverge in size from its home-market edition, being a good three inches greater in both width and length. The model’s back end was so wide, in fact, that Toyota’s designers felt it necessary to fit the wagon’s back hatch glass with not one, but two wipers.
Having three rows and two wipers, and one V6 makes this reasonably low (95,500) mileage wagon an intriguing proposition. The XV10 Camry is also notable for being one of the most historically over-engineered models Toyota ever introduced. There’s a legend that Ford engineers benchmarked this edition when spec’ing the first major redesign of that company’s then-popular Taurus, making the updated model far more complicated and expensive to build. Even Toyota realized the craziness of this model’s construction and simplified the next generation significantly.
That means, though, that these Camry’s can stand the test of time, just as long as they are properly maintained and not overly abused. This one, in gold metallic over a brown cloth interior looks to have been babied for most of its life. The seller does note some scuffs on the bumpers, but otherwise, the paint seems to have kept up its end of the bargain. That’s matched with some handsome alloy wheels and lighting lenses that have yet to yellow. The car is shown wearing a protective bra in the pics and who knew that people actually bought bras for Camrys? I guess folks who take pride in their ownership do.
Inside, the cloth upholstery appears intact and unstained and the carpet looks to have suffered only modest fading. Everything appears to be stock save for the dash toupee which is likely there, like the bra, for protection rather than to cover cracks or banana stickers.
According to the ad, the car is in “excellent condition” and has both an accident-free history and a clean title. The only two flies in this Camry’s ointment about which you might find flaw are the somewhat mundane four-speed automatic transmission and the gold-colored badging which, while it once was a thing, now comes across as kind of bougie.
If you can get past those, however, we will now take into consideration the car’s $7,700 asking price. The seller says that the car is a treasured possession but needs to go to help fund the purchase of a home. I guess people need to have priorities. Our priority right now is to vote on that price and determine whether or not it represents a good value for this Camry.
What do you say, is this wagon well priced at that $7,700 asking? Or, does that price tag have you saying “can’t” to this Camry?
You decide!
Facebook Marketplace out of San Diego, California, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
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