2001 Toyota Camry CE with Manual Transmission

I commit a good deal of time walking the rows in big American automobile graveyards wanting for attention-grabbing automotive stories to inform. In modern yrs I have been peering into every 1 of the hundreds on countless numbers of Toyota Camrys I see, looking for a single thing: the gearshift lever of an exceedingly unusual 5-pace guide transmission. Even however Toyota United states offered a five-on-the-flooring Camry from the really first ’83s all the way as a result of the 2012 design calendar year, you see, the overlap in between the “Individuals who want a new Camry” team and the “People in america who are keen to push a handbook transmission” team grew to become vanishingly compact setting up in the early 1990s. Past calendar year, I managed to spot a manual-geared up 1997 Camry and, 6 months afterwards, a 2000. Soon after that, I remained caught on the very last yr of the 20th century (which was 2000, not 1999) in my three-pedal Camry quest… until a several months back in Northern California, when I ran across this battered 2001 CE in Vintage Pearl Red.

Just one of the major factors that automatics turned so a lot extra common listed here in the 1990s was a basic one particular: purchase cost. If you wanted a new 1985 Camry Deluxe sedan with an automated, it charge you an further 800 bucks on a $8,948 car or truck (about $2,105 on a $23,574 car or truck in 2021 bones, or clams). Which is an addition of just about 9{7b5a5d0e414f5ae9befbbfe0565391237b22ed5a572478ce6579290fab1e7f91} to the out-the-door price tag, and the relative expense of a two-pedal rig went up as the car’s sticker price tag went down.

By 2000, a guide-equipped Camry CE begun at $17,675 although its slushbox-ified counterpart price $18,475 (about $29,105 and $30,420 nowadays). That’s continue to an $800 computerized ($1,315 in 2021), but it added a mere 2.75{7b5a5d0e414f5ae9befbbfe0565391237b22ed5a572478ce6579290fab1e7f91} to the charge of the automobile. For that price tag, why would any Camry commuter be wiling to juggle a Major Gulp, a cellphone and a shifter in quit-and-go site visitors?

It truly is truly worth noting that the authentic purchaser of this car paid $778 excess for the optional Value Bundle #1, which integrated air conditioning (not typical tools on the foundation-grade CE Camry), ability home windows and electric power mirrors. This implies that the buyer was not just likely for the most inexpensive achievable Camry, but rather was the exceptional type of driver who prefers a guide but however needs a no-nonsense sedan that will very last a jillion miles.

American auto shoppers were equipped to step into a Toyota dealership in 2001 and purchase a new Camry LE with a 5-speed handbook and a 3.-liter V6 engine earning 200 horsepower. That automobile would have been an entertaining sleeper, but it value $22,385 (about $36,860 now). On prime of that, these kinds of a motor vehicle shopper would have been drawn to the sleeker (and less expensive) Solara coupe. Meanwhile, a new 2001 BMW 325i sedan with 5-on-the-flooring value just $26,990 and had rear-wheel-push, not to mention the 2001 Volkswagen Passat GLS V6 sedan and its 190hp for $24,050. If any of you have ever found a 21st-century Camry LE with V6/handbook set up, please enable me know.

I have usually considered that Toyota’s CE trim stage stood for Low cost Edition, but in truth it means Basic Version (somebody pried off the CE badge on this auto, but the develop tag suggests it can be a CE). Most of the 2000s Camry CEs you are going to obtain will have began lifetime as fleet cars and trucks, but several (if any) fleet potential buyers will pick out just about anything with a manual transmission and consequently this car was bought by an everyday civilian purchaser.

The digital odometer indicates we are going to hardly ever know how numerous miles were on this motor vehicle when it took that remaining tow-truck experience to this location, but I will wager it was well into the 200,000s and probably outside of that. I will continue to keep looking for an ’02 or afterwards a few-pedal Camry for the duration of my potential junkyard explorations, but will not hold your breath for a junked guide-geared up 2012 product any time before long.

US-sector Camry tv promotion bought much less fascinating as the a long time wore on.

In Japan, the ’01 Camry adverts have been a little funnier.