Toyota Camry Years to Avoid (and the Best Years to Buy)

Ask any mechanic for a "buy it and forget it" used car and the Toyota Camry is almost always the first name out of their mouth. It has earned that reputation — but "the Camry" isn't one car. It's four decades of model years, and a handful of them are genuinely worth skipping.

We pulled every NHTSA owner complaint and recall on record for the Camry and ranked the years by how much grief owners actually reported. A few years stand out — and it's not close.

The Toyota Camry years to avoid

By raw owner-complaint volume, these are the model years that generated the most trouble. One year towers over the rest.

Source: NHTSA complaint records, aggregated by ForCar across 20,067 total Camry complaints and 149 recalls.

Why 2007–2009 are the problem years

The 2007–2009 Camry (the XV40 generation with the 2.4L 2AZ-FE four-cylinder) is the one to be most careful with. Three issues stack up:

• Excessive oil consumption. That 2.4L engine is notorious for burning oil — some owners report a quart every 1,000–1,200 miles. On a neglected example it can starve the engine.
• Melting / sticky dashboard. In hot climates the 2007–2011 dashboards go shiny and tacky, creating windshield glare. Toyota extended warranties on it, but many cars are now well past coverage.
• Unintended acceleration. The 2009–2010 cars fell inside the floor-mat and accelerator-pedal recall era — verify the recall work was completed.

The early-2000s cars (2002–2004) show high speed-control complaints too, but at 20+ years old those are cheap enough that condition matters far more than model year.

The best Toyota Camry years to buy

Flip the data around and the cleanest years are obvious. These generated a fraction of the complaints — the 2022 came in at just 57.

If you want the best balance of price and peace of mind, target the 2015–2017 generation or the 2018-onward redesign once you're past its first-year (2018) powertrain complaints.

How to check a specific Camry before you buy

Model-year averages get you in the right ballpark — but the individual car in front of you matters more. Before you hand over money on any used Camry:

• Run the VIN through a free VIN check to pull its recall and title history.
• See the full recall, complaint and reliability breakdown on our Toyota Camry data page.
• Check what it's actually worth with the Camry value estimator before you negotiate.
• On 2007–2009 cars, check the oil level cold and ask for service records showing regular oil changes.

Buy a clean year with proof of maintenance and the Camry lives up to every bit of its reputation. Buy a neglected 2007 on a "great deal" and you inherit someone else's oil-consumption problem.