GatewayRedbirds.com

Why do you say that?

Because it is. It's like saying yep I just wanted some car, about 15 ft long, 8 ft wide, with seats, tires, and a steering wheel. Basically you've said I want to spend more then $25,000 of my hard earned dollars which I will pay off over 6 or 7 years so ultimately it will cost me like 40k for a car that is nothing more then a car.

Let's look at Camary statistics.
fuel economy: average at best
0-60 time forever
steering feel: non existent
fun to drive factor: zero
cool factor: surface of the sun cool

I have literally driven every car in that segment. The Camary is close to last on my list I'd buy. Someone who buys a Camary is one or more of three people.

1)didn't bother to drive anything else before buying
2)stupid
3)living on a stereotype that is 15 years old and didn't really exists back then

Almost all cars today are reliable and get decent fuel economy. Unless you are going to an ultra high fuel economy vehicle pick one that's fun to drive or atleast looks decent. A Camary just says you've given up.

You guys are car enthusiasts. Most people don't care about specs. I don't care what it looks like, how fast it accelerates, etc. I need it to cost about $15-20k, kids to fit in it, get good mileage, and I want it quiet enough that I don't hear the engine over my music.

Because it is the vehicular equivalent of Applebee's.

Well, I shouldn't say that exactly. I guess what I mean is that if a man tells me, "I really love my Camry. Just a great, reliable car.", I also expect that guy to recommend going to Applebee's for dinner, where he will most certainly order a Bud Light.

I don't care about the specs. I'm just saying that buying a Camry is the very definition of just settling on a car, because it is OK. Maybe Camry is "OK" in Japanese.

I was gonna say, but got distracted at work, that for me all it has to do is run. I don't care if it takes 3 minutes to get up to 60 mph. I've never spent more than $3500 on a car (and that was for a truck that I needed to pull a boat). I understand that people get into cars.

But, if you're not into cars, I don't understand why anyone would spend any money at all. As has been mentioned, almost all cars are pretty reliable now and have been for the past umpteen years. It's not like the bottom is going to fall out of the engine. And, you can get a used Nissan or something like that for $1500 on craigslist. If it breaks down, [expletive] it, sell it for anything you can and go spend another $1500.

The average cost to drive a mile according to the gov is what like $0.55 (this includes everything from gas to depreciation to whatever). So, going with that, and assuming you get 20 mpg at $3.50/gallon and an oil change is $50 every 4,000 miles, the average cost is ($.175/mile for gas + $0.0125/mile for oil) we will round up and say $0.19/mile to drive. That leaves $0.36/mile for depreciation to zero which at $1500 only takes 4167 miles to get to.

Also, I love to show up in a [expletive] car. Yeah, everyone else might be driving BMWs and lexuseses and cadillacs or whatever. Not me. I'll show up in a Hyundai or 90s model silverado or nissan or whatever. [expletive] it dude. Cars as a symbol of status or wahtever are stupid. And I don't know why anyone that doesn't think so would spend money on a car above a couple thousand dollars.

I don't know if you are picking up what I am laying down. I'm not calling a Camry a crappy car. I'm calling it a boring car.

I'm sorry if that offends Camry drivers.

I'll put it this way. If I need an umbrella, I don't want it to be colorful or expensive or even the best umbrella. It needs to keep the rain off, and last a decent amount if time. It's boring and I don't care that its boring. That's the way I feel about a car. On the other hand I'm sort of a music/movie snob, and I don't care for chain restaurants. Everyone has their thing.

That's pretty much what I told my late thirties sister when she said she had recently gotten in to mainstream country music.

I'm not even sure what you're saying. What makes a car "boring", specifically?

I kinda agree with AW............. people who think of cars as status symbols are probably lacking some self esteem.