Would you not buy this car (2012 Camry XLE) because of body damage?

[AllGold]

I'm about 99.5% sure it's just reflections of leaves, but even if it's not, personally, I don't worry too much about cosmetics as long as it's mechanically sound.

If you go to carfax.com and find the car there, it should give you the CarFax report so you can see if there was any accidents or damage as well as whatever maintenance history it has. ... Actually, now that I look closer, the dealer has the CarFax report, maintenance history and other info right on their site. But generally, using carfax.com and cargurus.com is helpful when searching for a car.

The CarFax report shows two minor accidents. It also shows it's a one-owner car with regular service performed by Hoffman Toyota. Oil changes were done every 5K. The only thing is I don't see any particular 100K service performed, but I don't know what the manual recommends (usually there's stuff to be done at 100K).

My only beef with the car is the brown interior with the black exterior, a pet peeve of mine.

[special]

Some cars need a timing belt replacement around that mileage. I’m not familiar with this particular model, but when I had the timing belt replaced on my Civic, it included labor, a new water pump, and I believe a gasket, it came out to around $500 - 600, and that was years ago. These days, I’d expect it to be closer to $1,000.

My mechanic strongly recommended replacing the water pump at the same time. The part was inexpensive (about $30), and since the labor is the same, it made financial sense. If the water pump were to fail later, I’d be looking at a few hundred dollars in labor all over again.

Another thing that worries me about buying a used car from far away is the risk of discovering an awful interior odor once you get there. Maybe the previous owner smoked or had a pet that had accidents in the car, you just never know. It would be incredibly frustrating to drive 250 miles only to find out the car literally stinks.

[RonT (aka Ombligo)]

Also inquire what the out-the-door price would be. My bet is that there are a number of unlisted dealership charges that will raise the price substantially. Prices shown are almost always far below the actual selling price.

[RAMd®d]

That’s 100% leaves reflecting on the pics.

Exactly.

[MarkintoshToo]

I would definitely take a close look and do an extensive test drive. Honestly, getting a prepurchase inspection at 122k is probably going to scare you. At that price, if it's okay now i would drive it until the wheels fall off. The car fax notes two accidents with light damage, but one covers three sides of the car. This kind of damage is "spinout on the snow and kissed some guardrails". CarFax also indicates a lot of tire swaps at about 6000 mile intervals, so likely snow tire swaps. If Connecticut is a salt state, check carefully for rust on the bottom of the car as well as body panels. At one point Toyota was great at corrosion...then they were not starting about 2003 or so.

[SrBigStuff]

IME, about 150K is when Japanese cars begin needing lots of things, like nearly everything that would normally require replacement and then stuff like steering racks, motor mounts, axles, etc. I've had this occur on three cars at least, and I primarily own Volvos, that at least space out the repairs because they start requiring those at about 70k ;-)