Ive posted on the forum a few times, about how I ended up buying a 2014 Camry SE four cylinder sedan to replace my 2013 Jetta TDI. I bought the car for several reasons... It is a bigger car, a year newer, over 15 thousand less miles, purchased for 13.8K which allowed me to put around 7500$ into the bank to be used for anything else I wanted....
Also picked a camry because the engine is very simple.... No HPFP, No direct injection, No timing belt, No complex technology, Simple 6 speed automatic transmission. Anything can break, but this powertrain is as simple as it gets in a modern car and should be trouble free for a LONG time! And if something were to break, parts and labor should be cheap and in a worse case event, replacement complete engines and transmissions would be plentiful and cheap from Salvage yards being that there are a trillion Camrys sold every year!
The toyota Camry always has had a strong resale value and is a car that is no trouble to sell if you get tired of it. It gets decent MPG too. I am seeing over 30 mpg in mixed driving and mid 30's on the highway.
Saying all that, I do have some slight buyers remorse. I tow with my car alot.... I ride and race dirtbikes nearly every weekend. I tow one or two bikes on a small trailer behind the car. Towing even just one bike, and keeping the speed with the flow of traffic ( 70-80 mph ) is knocking my MPG down to between 24-26 mpg. Not a huge drop but big difference from the Jetta, where it would get 36-42 mpg pulling the same load, same speeds and routes. Matter of fact, two weekends ago a friend and I went to a place about 100 miles north of charlotte to ride for the day. I drove my camry, he drove his ( I don't know if it is a 2013 or 2014 ) BMW 535 sedan. His car is bigger than the camry, surely much heavier, has a turbocharged 6 cylinder engine with aftermarket performance exhaust intake and tuned... We both have identical trailers and nearly identical bikes. Going there and back, he actually got 2 mpg BETTER than me! At first I couldn't understand why, but I think with the torque of that bigger turbo 6 cylinder engine, he was able to cruise the whole way there and back at a low cruising rpm with small throttle openings.... Where as the camry needed to shift from 6th to 5th and even 4th gear somewhat often, and rev up to 3000-4000 rpms to get up steeper hills and climb grades on the highway. Basically my engine was working harder and ultimately used more gas. So although I am satisfied with the amount of power the car has and how well it accelerates, I do have a little regret that I didn't spend more money and go for a V-6 Camry or something else altogether different. I think I would actually get better MPG with the V-6 Camry when towing and probably not much different when not towing. And unlike the accord, the camry 6 has no timing belt to service... and unlike alot of other cars with turbos and more complex engines, the camry V6 is a simple engine like their 4 cylinder, so reliability should be good and repairs should be minimal. Icing on the cake would be the fact that the V-6 in the camry is the same as in the highlander, tacoma, and many other toyota trucks and suv's and cars. Its a strong engine and would allow me the ability to tow much heavier loads behind the camry than I could with the four cylinder.
