This Boring Toyota Camry Is The Best Car You're Not Considering

The Toyota Camry, in its current iteration with its high-tech hybrid drivetrain and competitive price, is about as perfect a commuter car as you can hope for — but it's not particularly interesting. It's not breaking new ground in the automotive scene to say a Camry is "boring." It's like complaining about airline food in a standup set, it's decisively tread upon ground. 

One generation of Toyota Camry, specifically the third generation made from 1992 to 1996, might be one of the best cars Toyota ever made, and it's wrapped in some extraordinarily normcore sheet metal. Four years isn't very long for a single generation of car. Yet, despite that, you will likely see dozens of third generation Camrys still rolling around. They're as much a staple of the 1990s American automotive landscape as the Ford Crown Vic and Catfish-era Chevy Camaros. 

It's not as iconic (in the classic sense of the word) as the Toyota Supra from the same era, but this Camry has it where it counts — stealthy competence.

The third generation Camry was available in three body-styles: a sedan, wagon, and a coupe. In 2025, you'd be hard pressed to find all three in any lineup, much less all being variations of the same car. Really only the Mercedes-Benz E-Class has retained much variety within the nameplate. The Camry coupe, wagon, and sedan weren't mechanically distinct from each other. It was more of a question of how many doors you wanted and how much space you needed. Still, variety is a nice thing to have.

Mechanically was where this Camry proved its worth. 1990s Toyotas have legendary reliability, and this car isn't any different. The fact you still see a number of them driving around today is not only a testament to how reliable the drivetrains were, but also how easy it is to find replacement parts. It was available with both a four-speed automatic transmission and a five-speed manual. The base model 2.2-liter four cylinder wasn't much to write home about as it generated a mostly respectable 125 horsepower. However, the 3.0-liter V6 was fairly "hot" by 1990s standards, making 188 horsepower. 

That sounds lame today, but a 1996 Ford Mustang only made 150 horsepower out of its 3.8-liter V6. The same-year Chevy Camaro only made a little bit more at 200 horsepower. That means that, in 1996, you could buy a five-speed manual two-door Camry that had more horsepower than a Mustang. That's unheard of today, nearly 30 years later, as many cars ditch the manual transmission altogether. 

The sedan and wagon Camrys weren't exactly ground-breaking when it came to design. It generally followed the same understated styling language from a lot of Japanese automakers from the era. However, it's a testament to Toyota's designers that the design hasn't aged poorly in the slightest. Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder (I still miss my 1996 Camry), but it manages to still look at least somewhat relevant despite approaching three decades old. It's so timeless that you can still lose it in a parking lot. 

If you are looking to buy one, you likely don't need to look very hard or set aside a lot of money. For a Supra from the same era, you might need to take out another mortgage, but for a third generation Camry, anywhere from $500 to $2,000 and a Facebook Marketplace or CraigsList account would suffice. They're as numerous as the stars in the sky. 

If you're looking for a Japanese classic that still looks great, has enough power to be fun, is incredibly reliable and easy to maintain — and is absolutely dirt cheap — you'd be hard pressed to find a better car than the third-generation Toyota Camry.