Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Stole it! (1995 Toyota Avalon w/66k)

The transmission is going out in my 16 year old daughter's car (2000 Acura 3.2 TL), which if I replaced it, would be the 3rd transmission in that car with 190k on the odometer. I was quoted anywhere from $2,800.00 - $3,500.00 for a replacement, so have been looking for another car instead.

Over the past two weeks I've watched Craiglist and the local classifieds like a hawk, hit every used car lot I came across, drove several hundred miles to look at crap and had several sellers outright lie to me, and then yesterday I spotted this beauty. It's a one owner 1995 Toyota Avalon with 66k original miles, V6, automatic, leather, sunroof, power everything, with a clean title. Has some clearcoat issues, mostly on the hood, and a few small dings and scrapes, but is in overall great shape for being 22 years old.

I'd never paid any attention to Avalons until I saw this one, basically a roomier Camry. I drove it two hours home and it cruises right along and rode fantastic. I paid $2,500.00!

That is a great score!!!

And I love the geezer gold it's the most inconspicuous color on the road.

Good grab.

She's already calling it her Grandpa car!...

They are great cars, my stepmom has one and it gets decent gas mileage

Very cool. Sounds like a great buy.

Quite the deal there,

Should be good for another 200K or so.

Where am I when these deals happen to come up?

Geno

Great deal.

You don't find deals like that often. Great score.

Basically (for those that pay attention), you'd be wrong.

What are the differences, oh wise one?

"The Avalon was a new model introduced in February 1994 at the Chicago International Auto Show and launched in late 1994 for the 1995 model year. Built in the same plant as the Camry, the Avalon was developed under the 299T program from 1990 to 1994 and based on a stretched XV10 Camry platform featuring a 3.0-liter 1MZ-FE V6 engine making 192 hp (140 kW) and 210 lb·ft (285 N·m) of torque.[5] With almost 121 cu ft (3,426 l) of interior space, the Avalon was the first six-passenger car, with the most room ever, from a Japanese manufacturer for sale in America."

If it's got a clean title, and Russians weren't involved, it sounds like you got a great deal.

Otherwise, you're probably the second person to steal it........

Power, handling, features, and ride.

Hey great find...

I found a great buy on a car up in Eugene this weekend also...

some times you trip across great deals here in Oregon...

ya just gotta look...

I looked at a 1999 back in 2012 when I was back east, for one of my wife's friends who moved back home back there...

it was a 1999 with 200K on it... did the brakes, tune up, oil change, trans change on it... car was in great shape.... we bought it for 2K... it was good enough, I was tempted to buy it instead if I didn't have to drive it 3000 miles back to Oregon....

Those Avalons are darn good vehicles...

I did read somewhere that this version was a close comparison to a Lexus ES 300, just not quite a refined and I think the Lexus had more power. I've looked at so many cars and read so much information the past couple of weeks that I can't recall everything.

I wanted to stay under $3,500.00 and it's a tough price range. Either stuff has a ton of miles, is beat to hell, or if it's a decent deal, they just don't last very long.

Yes, you stole it. Congrats!



Cars like that will mess with your head. The Corolla S we bought our daughters to learn on (2005 175k single owner no wrecks all records immaculate) was $4200 at the time and driving it back home from Tacoma I was thinking, so why would I ever pay more than $4000 for a car again.......? I mean it rode and drove perfect and looked great too (for one of those)! Still have it and all I've done is battery oil and brakes.

Great deal on a great car.

FWIW: I spent many sleepless nights and made several trips to Georgetown, KY over the extruded side moldings with chrome plated injection molded strips on the 299T cars. My first trip to Japan was a group effort to convince Toyota engineers that the original design for the chrome strips was not feasible. The next generation, 900T, changed to injection molded trim and pocketed extruded chrome strips which made my life much easier.

I realized while driving to work this morning that the 299T did not have chrome strips. The next model was 645T. A minor makeover which added chrome. Not that it really adds anything to the discussion. It just gives me flashbacks to a time in my life that I should have spent more time with family and less at work.

Good deal!

Those are very good cars and you got a heck of a deal.