Bring A Trailer is starting to get a bit wild again. This time around, it’s not flippers trying to make some dough on recently purchased, new cars. It’s low mileage basic cars coming out of nowhere and going for big money. Take this 2002 Toyota Camry that just sold for over $20,000.
There is nothing special about this Camry. In fact, it is a quintessential Camry. As Camry as Camrys get. Like if you googled “2002 Toyota Camry” this exact car would either be the first hit or at the top of the search results.
It’s beige on tan. Or rather, Desert Sand Mica over Macadamia cloth, forgive me. It’s an XLE trim meaning its top of the line, so it has that going for it. It has fake wood trim, a sunroof, 16” alloy wheels, a JBL sound system and most importantly a V6 under the hood. Power for this gen of Camry came from either a base 2.4-liter I4 that could be had with a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic or the 3.0-liter V6 and automatic that comes on this XLE. It was good for 192 horsepower.
It’s fine. It’s A Car. So why did this thing sell for just a few grand off of its original MSRP?
It has 17,000 miles and the interior is clean. Really clean. Other than that it’s a boring old Camry. It’s not like someone went and swapped a V8 from a Lexus LS430 of the same year or anything like that.
On one hand I get the longing for the simplicity of the cheap, basic transportation of yesteryear. Automakers don’t see profit in making cars that basic or simple anymore, so we’ll never see stuff like this again. On the other hand, $22,000? Seriously? The price is more absurd when you consider that for just $50 more (before destination and handling), they could have gone and purchased a brand new base model Corolla for $22,050. They could have even splurged just a bit more and went for a new Corolla Hybrid ($23,500).
Seriously, I need to know who exactly purchased all these basic cars and never drove them. From Saturns to Honda CR-Vs and Ford Escorts and now this. What’s next, a high-priced, low-mileage Nissan Versa?