Second Time's the Barge! - Camry XV30

[MaleCortana]

Well well well, we closed one chapter and now we hopped onto the next!

What you see below is the final purchase I made since no one had the decency to sell me a good X110 Mark 2 (My birdie is raised at y'all forever) so I decided (with a chuttak lot coercion from my parents) "Hey!, I need a car fast" so I thought what was really worth it and bought this car. So what is this car really?

You're looking at a 2.4 Liter XV30 Camry in Black Onyx. Imported in 2004 by the MD of a "Strawberry Company in Sri Lanka" (You know what it is) and owned by him ever since I laid my grubby hands on it. (Single Owner car, well it was registered to the company, car MFD and Reg in 2004). Car has 216k kms on the clock. This time I'm 100% sure its genuine, because the car was a Brand New Import bought from Toy#ta L#nka and was maintained ever since from them, car still carries a tag of the last service done in October, 2020  , also the plethora of old Eco Test reports also helps me sleep better at night. Additionally typing the Cars chassis code to ToyotaDIY shows me as the Market Destination of this car as Europe and a friend told me that's why the speedo goes upto 240kmph

What features does the car have you say? I honestly don't know since I pivoted from Mark 2s to Camry's really fast once I saw this car. The only thing notable is Auto Wipers (Imagine my shock when it started raining today and it started to be busy at work, didn't know the car had this feature) and the light up ring next to the keyhole and that's about it me thinks yeah. I don't know the options of these cars so if you tell me what to look at I will tell you whether it is present or not. Electric Seats and the Antenna that automatically goes up and down is also a thing.

How does the car drive? Exactly how it looks, pulls like a boat on the straight road with a nice roar and plenty of power but has the craziest amount of body roll you'll get sea-sick if you took it to a track. It's a nice comfy plushy ride and as a cruiser that will get you comfortably from A to B it'll do its job but in terms of road feel and fun to drive its quite rock bottom (In comparison to my experience with a EP91 Starlet). Also looks like Toyota made a 'Feedback-delete' to the damn steering cause I feel absolutely nothing. 

[fiat fan]

5 hours ago, MaleCortana said:

Well well well, we closed one chapter and now we hopped onto the next!

What you see below is the final purchase I made since no one had the decency to sell me a good X110 Mark 2 (My birdie is raised at y'all forever) so I decided (with a chuttak lot coercion from my parents) "Hey!, I need a car fast" so I thought what was really worth it and bought this car. So what is this car really?

You're looking at a 2.4 Liter XV30 Camry in Black Onyx. Imported in 2004 by the MD of a "Strawberry Company in Sri Lanka" (You know what it is) and owned by him ever since I laid my grubby hands on it. (Single Owner car, well it was registered to the company, car MFD and Reg in 2004). Car has 216k kms on the clock. This time I'm 100% sure its genuine, because the car was a Brand New Import bought from Toy#ta L#nka and was maintained ever since from them, car still carries a tag of the last service done in October, 2020  , also the plethora of old Eco Test reports also helps me sleep better at night. Additionally typing the Cars chassis code to ToyotaDIY shows me as the Market Destination of this car as Europe and a friend told me that's why the speedo goes upto 240kmph

What features does the car have you say? I honestly don't know since I pivoted from Mark 2s to Camry's really fast once I saw this car. The only thing notable is Auto Wipers (Imagine my shock when it started raining today and it started to be busy at work, didn't know the car had this feature) and the light up ring next to the keyhole and that's about it me thinks yeah. I don't know the options of these cars so if you tell me what to look at I will tell you whether it is present or not. Electric Seats and the Antenna that automatically goes up and down is also a thing.

How does the car drive? Exactly how it looks, pulls like a boat on the straight road with a nice roar and plenty of power but has the craziest amount of body roll you'll get sea-sick if you took it to a track. It's a nice comfy plushy ride and as a cruiser that will get you comfortably from A to B it'll do its job but in terms of road feel and fun to drive its quite rock bottom (In comparison to my experience with a EP91 Starlet). Also looks like Toyota made a 'Feedback-delete' to the damn steering cause I feel absolutely nothing. 

Looks good mate! Enjoy her. 
 

Get a strut bar and coils for better handling.

Was this the one that was on the quick site?I remember looking at this few days back(I stalk the car market).

Starlet to camry. Thats a big leap bro. I’m jealous 😛

[john cooper]

Looks really good and looks like some one looked after the car really good.

We do have 2 of them at the moment, V40 and V50 Hybrid. They are very comfortable to drive long distance.

2AZ-FE is one of the best engine watch out for the timing chain rattle and water pump slow leaks if no issues with those two you will be all good with the engine.

Good luck with the car.

regards,

JC.

 

[iRage]

Well...irrespecive of the feelings I expressed to you towards this particular model....Congratulations ! 

It is good family hauler..plus it gives us one more thing to tease you about

So...start saving up some money and we shall start bombarding you with options.  But to be honest...even a decent set of wheels would make it look better.

Almost all export model Toyotas have the meter up to 240kmph. The Japanese ones go only up till 180 becuase of a "gentlemen's agreement" the manufacturers made with the Japanese govt a few decades ago to cap HP and speed in the interest of roadsafety (this was foregone only when they made special specification cars...).

The reason why it says destination Europe is because of the combination of thwo things....the manufacturing plant and the fact that your model code has a "R" (for RHD in it). These things were manufactured in several places. Where the RHD is comcerned; some markets got the car from South East Asian (mostly for SEA countries) plants whilst some got it from Japan; some even from the likes of South Africa. So the SL export model must have come from a plant which was making RHDs for the European market (well..UK). Sometimes when you look at the export models in Vietnam it would say destination market America (until later years when they assembled it in Vietnam itself) or even West Africa (where it says destination market Middle East).

As for the 2AZ-FE engine...like @john cooper mentioned...it is a pretty good workhorse that is used across several popular models (including the RAV4) and was carried on to the V40 as well.  Yes people will freak you out with oil sludge etc...but that can happen with any engine that is poorly taken care of. I mentioned this on someone's status post...that is about an oil burning issue more common on some V6s. This engine, especially the very first releases of the engine, can have oil burning issue (the problem being the oil straining in the cylinders not being done properly because of the rings). Toyota fixed this in the later (very later actually) iterations of the engine. No...you are not going to have issues as long as the engine has had regular oil changes and the oil bleed "holes"/ducts on the rings are not congested. So..just keep it maintained.

Now...have you looked at the TRD body kits ? 

Edited January 22, 2021 by iRage

[GK_007]

"Voila" its a Camry then.  I know for a fact that this model in particular is very popular in land down under. Hope our friends in Aussi will agree these are very popular and hacked as Uber cars. No idea how much you paid for it, but if you managed to bag it under 3.5mn I would say that's more car per buck compared to other options you have around that price range. Cheers.  

[Ruslan]

Wow Congrats mate! Thats a keeper! Looks to be in good nick! These are pretty robust vehicles Toyota has ever made. As @iRage mentioned if you maintain it properly you do not have to worry. As for the features, use https://partsouq.com and enter your VIN, it shows the options it has and the intended market etc. andnplus other things like parts etc.

Edited January 22, 2021 by Ruslan

[Gummybr]

10 hours ago, MaleCortana said:

Well well well, we closed one chapter and now we hopped onto the next!

What you see below is the final purchase I made since no one had the decency to sell me a good X110 Mark 2 (My birdie is raised at y'all forever) so I decided (with a chuttak lot coercion from my parents) "Hey!, I need a car fast" so I thought what was really worth it and bought this car. So what is this car really?

You're looking at a 2.4 Liter XV30 Camry in Black Onyx. Imported in 2004 by the MD of a "Strawberry Company in Sri Lanka" (You know what it is) and owned by him ever since I laid my grubby hands on it. (Single Owner car, well it was registered to the company, car MFD and Reg in 2004). Car has 216k kms on the clock. This time I'm 100% sure its genuine, because the car was a Brand New Import bought from Toy#ta L#nka and was maintained ever since from them, car still carries a tag of the last service done in October, 2020  , also the plethora of old Eco Test reports also helps me sleep better at night. Additionally typing the Cars chassis code to ToyotaDIY shows me as the Market Destination of this car as Europe and a friend told me that's why the speedo goes upto 240kmph

What features does the car have you say? I honestly don't know since I pivoted from Mark 2s to Camry's really fast once I saw this car. The only thing notable is Auto Wipers (Imagine my shock when it started raining today and it started to be busy at work, didn't know the car had this feature) and the light up ring next to the keyhole and that's about it me thinks yeah. I don't know the options of these cars so if you tell me what to look at I will tell you whether it is present or not. Electric Seats and the Antenna that automatically goes up and down is also a thing.

How does the car drive? Exactly how it looks, pulls like a boat on the straight road with a nice roar and plenty of power but has the craziest amount of body roll you'll get sea-sick if you took it to a track. It's a nice comfy plushy ride and as a cruiser that will get you comfortably from A to B it'll do its job but in terms of road feel and fun to drive its quite rock bottom (In comparison to my experience with a EP91 Starlet). Also looks like Toyota made a 'Feedback-delete' to the damn steering cause I feel absolutely nothing. 

Nice buy, well its a boat compared to Mark 2's. A friend had one (still has I think) and he used to do this thing called 140 before brakes on green path. It had no issues getting to that speed but when it came to braking you could feel the soft suspension.

Car looks to be in very good condition. Congrats on the purchase.

[iRage]

9 minutes ago, GK_007 said:

I know for a fact that this model in particular is very popular in land down under.

Australia is also the only market that got a fun variant of the car with a 1MZ-Fe V6 (210 ? hp) with a 6MT I beleive....sadly none made it officially to anywhere else (other markets got the 1MZ-FE but not the manual tansmission). Australia, Middle East and the US were the larger markets for this...Thailand, Vietnam and the Phillipines also had a decent number as business limos and taxis. The fun after market parts are also more widely available in Australia and the US.

Also, if I am not mistaken, Australia made most of these Camries for the non-US market. Production bases in Thailand/Vietnam/Japan were quite small in comparison. The model was a flop in Japan as Japan had the X110 based cars followed on by the Mark X (towards the latter part of the XV30's life)

[MaleCortana]

5 hours ago, fiat fan said:

Looks good mate! Enjoy her. 
 

Get a strut bar and coils for better handling.

Was this the one that was on the quick site?I remember looking at this few days back(I stalk the car market).

Thanks Mate! Yep Yep it was advertised on the quick site and I didn't really give it any attention (Was Hunting exclusively for X100s and X110s), went to check her out, she had some dings here and there but really needed a car quick. Bought the car a day after it was advertised (ad is still up me thinks).

4 hours ago, john cooper said:

Looks really good and looks like some one looked after the car really good.

We do have 2 of them at the moment, V40 and V50 Hybrid. They are very comfortable to drive long distance.

2AZ-FE is one of the best engine watch out for the timing chain rattle and water pump slow leaks if no issues with those two you will be all good with the engine.

Good luck with the car.

regards,

JC.

Thanks! Okay I will definitely ask my mechanic to check them out, thanks for the heads up  

 

3 hours ago, iRage said:

Well...irrespecive of the feelings I expressed to you towards this particular model....Congratulations ! 

It is good family hauler..plus it gives us one more thing to tease you about

Teasing has already begun unfortunately, my friends have expressed that the only women I will be seducing with this barge are "middle aged company secretaries" unfortunately  

 

3 hours ago, iRage said:

The reason why it says destination Europe is because of the combination of thwo things....the manufacturing plant and the fact that your model code has a "R" (for RHD in it). These things were manufactured in several places. Where the RHD is comcerned; some markets got the car from South East Asian (mostly for SEA countries) plants whilst some got it from Japan; some even from the likes of South Africa. So the SL export model must have come from a plant which was making RHDs for the European market (well..UK). Sometimes when you look at the export models in Vietnam it would say destination market America (until later years when they assembled it in Vietnam itself) or even West Africa (where it says destination market Middle East).

Oh okay, I had no clue how these markets worked, I only knew "DESTINATION: JAPAN" was for JDM cars that were not intended to sell in foreign countries so that is a fun little fact there.

 

3 hours ago, iRage said:

As for the 2AZ-FE engine...like @john cooper mentioned...it is a pretty good workhorse that is used across several popular models (including the RAV4) and was carried on to the V40 as well.  Yes people will freak you out with oil sludge etc...but that can happen with any engine that is poorly taken care of. I mentioned this on someone's status post...that is about an oil burning issue more common on some V6s. This engine, especially the very first releases of the engine, can have oil burning issue (the problem being the oil straining in the cylinders not being done properly because of the rings). Toyota fixed this in the later (very later actually) iterations of the engine. No...you are not going to have issues as long as the engine has had regular oil changes and the oil bleed "holes"/ducts on the rings are not congested. So..just keep it maintained.

Oh okay, any idea whether the 2004 XV30s were affected? I read somewhere that the major issues were with the engines that went to the US and after '05. 

 

3 hours ago, iRage said:

Now...have you looked at the TRD body kits ? 

I'd also like to order something more than table water mate at a dinner mate 😢 My cycle of the Starlet was Work -> Payday -> Garage -> Repeat, looks like it will repeat with this also  

 

1 hour ago, GK_007 said:

"Voila" its a Camry then.  I know for a fact that this model in particular is very popular in land down under. Hope our friends in Aussi will agree these are very popular and hacked as Uber cars. No idea how much you paid for it, but if you managed to bag it under 3.5mn I would say that's more car per buck compared to other options you have around that price range. Cheers.  

Seems to be a staple in the Middle East as well, which was why my father wanted me to get it. Thanks! And yep bagged it under 3.5mn 

 

1 hour ago, Ruslan said:

Wow Congrats mate! Thats a keeper! Looks to be in good nick! These are pretty robust vehicles Toyota has ever made. As @iRage mentioned if you maintain it properly you do not have to worry. As for the features, use https://partsouq.com and enter your VIN, it shows the options it has and the intended market etc. andnplus other things like parts etc.

Thanks ❤️ , yeah the car seems to be regularly serviced and stuff since it was a Company Vehicle and sure I'll hop on that website and check it out.

 

1 hour ago, Gummybr said:

Nice buy, well its a boat compared to Mark 2's. A friend had one (still has I think) and he used to do this thing called 140 before brakes on green path. It had no issues getting to that speed but when it came to braking you could feel the soft suspension.

Car looks to be in very good condition. Congrats on the purchase.

Yessss! Hard Braking in this is scary because of the weight transfer, definitely will have to kill the suspension a bit, Thanks!

[iRage]

19 minutes ago, MaleCortana said:

Oh okay, any idea whether the 2004 XV30s were affected? I read somewhere that the major issues were with the engines that went to the US and after '05. 

It really was there in all the engines. America was a market where things got out of proportion because of how Americans take care of their cars (especially those who buy cars like the Camry, Corolla...sort of like our Premio crowd in many regards...just pump and drive types...and then sues the company when things go wrong). '04 was sort of the hieght of it leading up to about 2008/2009ish....by around this time the cars had done a good 60-80 miles on them with just 6 or so oil changes...and then the RAV4 and XV40 carried on the same engine with little to minor changes which made people yell bloody murder even more (in the US). It is just that later on Toyota changed the service recommendation for the car and later on made updates to the engine.  Other markets got the same engine..however slightly different service recommendations....and things were fine.

So...assume that the things you hear about the oil burning is present....just that it will not screw you over if the car has beenand continues to be maintained properly....regular oil changes...flushes...minimize sludge buildup...just keep an eye on it....if you observe excessive oil consumption...then be a little bit more diligent...if it gets worst...then look for a fix. Now mind you..your car has done 200+K kms...so that by itself has its own wear and tear.

[iRage]

30 minutes ago, MaleCortana said:

-> Payday -> Garage -> Repeat

for a car like this..the cycle is going to be..

online purchase -> pay day -> garage -> pay credit card -> repeat

[MaleCortana]

4 minutes ago, iRage said:

It really was there in all the engines. America was a market where things got out of proportion because of how Americans take care of their cars (especially those who buy cars like the Camry, Corolla...sort of like our Premio crowd in many regards...just pump and drive types...and then sues the company when things go wrong). '04 was sort of the hieght of it leading up to about 2008/2009ish....by around this time the cars had done a good 60-80 miles on them with just 6 or so oil changes...and then the RAV4 and XV40 carried on the same engine with little to minor changes which made people yell bloody murder even more (in the US). It is just that later on Toyota changed the service recommendation for the car and later on made updates to the engine.  Other markets got the same engine..however slightly different service recommendations....and things were fine.

Yes Americans do tend to be the complainy type after not doing what they are supposed to do.

I'll keep an eye out for the oil levels 

[iRage]

1 minute ago, MaleCortana said:

I'll keep an eye out for the oil levels 

Now..knowing your OCD tendencies...you don't have check oil consumption on a daily basis. Check now....then in a few weeks (3ish since you are new to the car) just check if there is any noticeable change...then check a bit more frequently...if not...just stick to a 3-4 weekish cycle until you are comfortable that it is not burning oil. Which I doubt it is....if it was at a stage that the "issue" was burning oil there would be other tell-tale signs which would have been noticeable during an inspection.

[MaleCortana]

1 minute ago, iRage said:

Now..knowing your OCD tendencies...you don't have check oil consumption on a daily basis. Check now....then in a few weeks (3ish since you are new to the car) just check if there is any noticeable change...then check a bit more frequently...if not...just stick to a 3-4 weekish cycle until you are comfortable that it is not burning oil. Which I doubt it is....if it was at a stage that the "issue" was burning oil there would be other tell-tale signs which would have been noticeable during an inspection.

🙄 Yeah Yeah I definitely didn't check for engine oil daily (Hides oil dipstick) also what are the tell tale signs btw?

[iRage]

18 minutes ago, MaleCortana said:

what are the tell tale signs btw?

Well...maybe not tell tale signs of the burn itseld but more or less signs of a abused engine...signs from sludge to discolored oil which increases the chances...to maybe even exhaust smoke.

[MaleCortana]

Okay I'll keep an eye out and get those checked

[MrCat]

4 hours ago, GK_007 said:

"Voila" its a Camry then.  I know for a fact that this model in particular is very popular in land down under. Hope our friends in Aussi will agree these are very popular and hacked as Uber cars. No idea how much you paid for it, but if you managed to bag it under 3.5mn I would say that's more car per buck compared to other options you have around that price range. Cheers.  

Yeah, Camry`s used to be absolutely everywhere 10 years ago, though not much now with the invasion of the SUV   One of my Indian colleagues told me that some actually call it the Toyota "Curry" coz the Indians love it.  Guess what he drove.  

@MaleCortana That`s a good ride you got over there! Congrats.!  I`ve driven the V6 version, it`s hilarious how the front wheels start screaming if you start flooring it mid corner. Kind of like the font wheels dont "know" where the back is going and the driver wouldn't know what any of the wheels are doing, just hear the tire noise and go oh ok!!.  

The rear air vents are a great feature which was lacking in some of the mid sized SUV`s in 2004. You should let someone else drive and try sitting in the rear sometime, awesome space. 

 

[GK_007]

3 hours ago, MaleCortana said:

I'd also like to order something more than table water mate at a dinner mate 😢 My cycle of the Starlet was Work -> Payday -> Garage -> Repeat, looks like it will repeat with this also

What about doing some cosmetic rubbing like cleaning the head lamps bro. Not sure if its due to the lighting, I'm seeing them slight yellowish. Don't think it will break the bank.  

[MrCat]

5 hours ago, MaleCortana said:

 

Teasing has already begun unfortunately, my friends have expressed that the only women I will be seducing with this barge are "middle aged company secretaries" unfortunately  

  

 

 

 

Huh? Ya mates are either jelous or have no idea about the car..  Take any decent women for a "ride" in it and they"ll eventually complement, guranteed..! 😁😁  That back seat is a "couch" compared to ya mates little "bench" in the back of his Yaris or Swift or whatever ..  😉

[GK_007]

2 hours ago, MrCat said:

Huh? Ya mates are either jelous or have no idea about the car..  Take any decent women for a "ride" in it and they"ll eventually complement, guranteed..! 😁😁  That back seat is a "couch" compared to ya mates little "bench" in the back of his Yaris or Swift or whatever ..  😉

Exactly, and whats wrong with middle aged company secretaries? 😏 

[tiv]

21 hours ago, MaleCortana said:

Well well well, we closed one chapter and now we hopped onto the next!

What you see below is the final purchase I made since no one had the decency to sell me a good X110 Mark 2 (My birdie is raised at y'all forever) so I decided (with a chuttak lot coercion from my parents) "Hey!, I need a car fast" so I thought what was really worth it and bought this car. So what is this car really?

You're looking at a 2.4 Liter XV30 Camry in Black Onyx. Imported in 2004 by the MD of a "Strawberry Company in Sri Lanka" (You know what it is) and owned by him ever since I laid my grubby hands on it. (Single Owner car, well it was registered to the company, car MFD and Reg in 2004). Car has 216k kms on the clock. This time I'm 100% sure its genuine, because the car was a Brand New Import bought from Toy#ta L#nka and was maintained ever since from them, car still carries a tag of the last service done in October, 2020  , also the plethora of old Eco Test reports also helps me sleep better at night. Additionally typing the Cars chassis code to ToyotaDIY shows me as the Market Destination of this car as Europe and a friend told me that's why the speedo goes upto 240kmph

What features does the car have you say? I honestly don't know since I pivoted from Mark 2s to Camry's really fast once I saw this car. The only thing notable is Auto Wipers (Imagine my shock when it started raining today and it started to be busy at work, didn't know the car had this feature) and the light up ring next to the keyhole and that's about it me thinks yeah. I don't know the options of these cars so if you tell me what to look at I will tell you whether it is present or not. Electric Seats and the Antenna that automatically goes up and down is also a thing.

How does the car drive? Exactly how it looks, pulls like a boat on the straight road with a nice roar and plenty of power but has the craziest amount of body roll you'll get sea-sick if you took it to a track. It's a nice comfy plushy ride and as a cruiser that will get you comfortably from A to B it'll do its job but in terms of road feel and fun to drive its quite rock bottom (In comparison to my experience with a EP91 Starlet). Also looks like Toyota made a 'Feedback-delete' to the damn steering cause I feel absolutely nothing. 

Is this car J*-**** V*P single digit no.

I might have seen it today in katana?

[MaleCortana]

6 hours ago, MrCat said:

Huh? Ya mates are either jelous or have no idea about the car..  Take any decent women for a "ride" in it and they"ll eventually complement, guranteed..! 😁😁  That back seat is a "couch" compared to ya mates little "bench" in the back of his Yaris or Swift or whatever ..

That is true^

4 hours ago, GK_007 said:

Exactly, and whats wrong with middle aged company secretaries?

2 hours ago, tiv said:

Is this car J*-**** V*P single digit no.

I might have seen it today in katana?

Nope, this is a JK number one, might've been a similar car, I ride mine mostly around Borella, Rajagiriya, Thalawathugoda and Malabe area's  Only been to Katana once and that was to pick up my Starlet in August 

[tiv]

9 hours ago, MaleCortana said:

That is true^

Nope, this is a JK number one, might've been a similar car, I ride mine mostly around Borella, Rajagiriya, Thalawathugoda and Malabe area's  Only been to Katana once and that was to pick up my Starlet in August 

As you mentioned these were a hit in the middle east, my dad too had one.

Used to do easy 1000km a day.

When they put it away it had closed over 400 000km with the stock engine and transmission. The front end was totally sand blasted though. I dont recall what the engine was  but they have a very high end trim there.

[Magnum]

Congrats on the purchase! 

These are very popular in Australia, I personally know someone with a unit over 250,000kms, it still runs trouble free with just regular maintenance. The one you have got here is a top spec model, most of the cars I see here arent this well specd. 

There was a V6 engine as well, but I have heard they are difficult to work on, maybe because its a transverse V6 

[MaleCortana]

1 hour ago, tiv said:

As you mentioned these were a hit in the middle east, my dad too had one.

Used to do easy 1000km a day.

When they put it away it had closed over 400 000km with the stock engine and transmission. The front end was totally sand blasted though. I dont recall what the engine was  but they have a very high end trim there.

Nice, but those might have been a different engine config right? (probably the V6s?) not the 2.4L?

 

1 hour ago, Magnum said:

Congrats on the purchase! 

These are very popular in Australia, I personally know someone with a unit over 250,000kms, it still runs trouble free with just regular maintenance. The one you have got here is a top spec model, most of the cars I see here arent this well specd. 

Thanks! And yes I think most Camry's I saw here were cloth seats + 2.0 combo but this isn't that high spec as well since its at LE, might have some options ticked though