Civic or Camry?

[Immadismom]

DH is considering these two cars. Clearly the Camry is larger. However, he's looking for a reliable car to last a good 10 years. I know both are good cars & can easily last that long. Which will hold it's value more, even if it had fairly high miles? We want to stay in the $20 -$22k range. He drives 40 min to work each way & comfort is also a huge factor.

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

i had two camrys (100 k mileage then totalled in car crash, 215 k mileage 2nd camry till son blew up engine accelerating when oil was low) and now drive a 2008 civic (85k) and husband has another 2008 civic (150k) A civic is like the old tercel. A camry lines up with a Honda Accord. Gas mileage is great in the civic . road noise is more wearing than i thought it would be. We bought the civic for excellent gas mileage and because it had more air bags in the stripped down version. The camry we would have had to go up a couple levels of trim pkg to get the same number of air bags.We have had no problems with camrys or civics except A/C going out in 1 civic after only 7 years.

 

[greentea]

If comfort is a big factor, I think he should test both and see which he prefers to drive. If I were choosing for comfort, I'd pick the Camry, though -- just because it will have more space, and it should feel smoother to drive.

 

[dadtoagirl03]

We just bought a 2015 Camry SE and have about 2000 miles on it so far. I'm 6'4" and fit in it nicely. Drives and rides great and I have no complaints so far at all.

 

[supersnoop]

After 10 years and lots of miles, neither will hold their value particularly well.

 

[Narnia_girl]

We've had both Corolla and Camry. Our 6'2" son drove a Camry and it was very reliable but a bit tight for him. My 6'4" husband sometimes drives my Camry and he finds it comfortable. So I agree with the above, have him drive both. I don't think you can go wrong with either.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

FWIW, I had a 2012 Civic which I recently traded in for a new Accord. My husband is 6'2" and I now have 2 step kids (9 and 11) which we cart around often and we didn't fit well into the Civic. Even with almost 70,000 miles, they gave me a trade in of $9,000 for the Civic which was much more than I was expecting and much more than I owed on it. So resale/trade is very good if you don't run it into the ground. Even with all of those miles, I only needed oil changes and tires. The Civic got about 40 mpg on average (I drive mostly highway).

The only reason I traded it in is that I wanted something a bit bigger so we didn't always have to take my husband's car when we went anywhere so I test drove the Camry and the Accord. The Accord just felt like a better ride and the Accord's gas mileage was listed to be higher than the Camry's. And the Accord's price was about $2,000 less than the comparable model Camry - Honda was trying to get rid of the 2015s before the 2016s hit the lot. Between the cost savings and the better gas mileage AND the better feel, it was a no-brainer for me to choose the Accord. I'm getting about 38 miles per gallon in the Accord (still mostly highway driving).

 

[dmc6469]

I will always swear by a Toyota. Honda’s are good yes, but Toyota’s can’t be beat. My last Toyota went over 190,000 miles before I traded it in and in 7 years it was in the shop one time! (not counting oil changes, new tires – typical maintenance) When I traded in last year I looked at a Civic and another Toyota (I went with a Corolla though – they gave me too good of a deal) nad after talking with 2 cousins who are mechanics I was informed “get the Toyota!”


Good luck in whichever you choose

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We have owned several civics and an accord. DH drove a civic and an accord for business travel so they had a lot of miles on them. The civic was a manual and LX and we sold it private party for $3500 with over 200k miles on it, prob about 250k but can't remember. Was on craigs list for less than a day. It was a 2004 and we sold it in probably 2010 I would guess. We never put anything into it except tires and oil changes.
We then purchased the accord from a friend to replace it. It was a 2007. Can't remember how many miles it started with (average), but we paid $12k. In 2013 we sold it for $7k, again on craigs list for just a few hours. It had about 200k miles. It was an EX-L. It would have run for another 100k miles at least but DH got a new job that requires him to rent a vehicle for travel so he was finally about to get his dream truck and not worry about running it into the ground. That accord we never did anything to either, except tires and oil changes.

We just bought DD16 an accord this summer. I can't remember the year, maybe 2006, under 100k miles, EX, for $4500.

I don't know about where you live, but you can easily resale a Honda or Toyota around here very quickly, even with high miles. They are the perfect teenager car and go like hotcakes. It took us awhile to find the one for our DD. I actually only got it b/c I put out a 'want ad' on the local buy/sell/trade page.

Can't help you with the Camry, but our experiences with Hondas have been very good.

 

[supersnoop]

Even with almost 70,000 miles, they gave me a trade in of $9,000 for the Civic which was much more than I was expecting

How much was it new? That seems like a 60% depreciation on a three year old car.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

How much was it new? That seems like a 60% depreciation on a three year old car.

I think it was $18,000 when I bought it (a 2012 LX) so that means about a 50% depreciation on a 3.5 year old car with $70,000. The trade-in valuation has always been like fictional math to me and hard to guess what you might get but it felt like a good deal to me.

 

[Anthony1971]

I can not compare your exact models however I can tell you my experience with Honda and Toyota..
I love Honda and bought 2 back to back accord EXL V6 models that are great driving comfortable and sporty but are not the most quiet cars.
We bought an Avalon about 8 months ago we also looked at the Camry. By far the Toyota is a much quieter car but at the sacrifice of an type of sporty feel.
If you are doing mostly highway driving the Camry will give you a much better ride however if you are driving country roads with turns it may feel a little uncomfortable at first as you need to get use the dead steering of Toyota. With country roads the Civic will have a much better driving feel but on the highway you will have more driver discomfort. There is a cure with Camry as they have 2 versions SE and XE the SE has a tighter suspension and will do better on country roads but a harsher ride than the XE. If you however went up the Camry line to the XLE it will have what the Avalon has which is an Eco mode, Regular mode or Sports mode which adjusts the responsiveness of the car as well as the steering which helps a lot for different driving conditions.
My opinion is the Hondas do better than Toyota over all driving conditions and considering all... but if you are looking for quiet than Toyota is the better choice.
Take both for a long test drive and consider all roads you drive on... Both have good resale values.

 

[Paticake]

I just bought my second Civic. My first one was a 2002 with about 150,000 miles. I loved that car. It served me well. My new civic is much larger and my DH who is 6"2 and 250+ fits very comfortably in my civic.

 

[sanfran22]

Camry, hands down my wifes favorite car. The Honda civic is like the corolla if that's what you were interested in. Honda's seem to hold value best, but we've owned 2 Camrys and got decent value.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

I've owned three Civics. My current Civic is a 1999 and I haven't had any major issues. I agree with a PP about the road noise though. It's awful. I don't recall this problem with my 1985 and 1987 Civics. In 2003 we made the 1000 mile trip from Portland to Disneyland and brought a book on CD to listen to on the drive. The noise was so loud it was difficult to understand what the narrator was saying, so we gave up and switched to music. In spite of that thought, I would consider another Civic when it's time to trade mine in. The reliability factor is more important to me than listening to audio books.

 

[tvguy]

After 10 years and lots of miles, neither will hold their value particularly well.

I agree. If you get YOUR money's worth out of a car, resale value shouldn't even be a consideration. Either car will serve you well. Keep them up, drive them forever. I practice what I preach. My commute car is 12 years old, my wife's car is 15 years old, and our family car (long trips and vacations) will be 28 years old next week.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

My family has always been a Honda family and we love how reliable they are. I would recommend the Accord though if you are thinking of driving long distances. Much more comfortable. You also get more for your money IMO since in toyotas, there are more options you have to pay for versus having things just included.

 

[Mickfarland4]

I'd go with a Camry for room. I have a 4 door civic and it is too small for the 4 of us. If we go on vacation, we have to rent an SUV. But, it is paid off and I do not want a car payment. Civics are reliable but, I believe you would find a Toyota just as reliable. I've had this car for 7 years and no complaints other than size and noise. Road noise is loud.

 

[Immadismom]

I should add that DH used to drive an '03 Civic. He now has an '06 BMW 328i. So, I know that he's ok with the smaller size. We have a Honda Odyssey as our family car that I drive all of the time. But, our plan is for him to drive it until it is paid for, then it will become our daughter's car. I realize it won't have a lot of its value left if he racks up the miles, but we still would like a vehicle that holds as much value as possible.

 

[tvguy]

I should add that DH used to drive an '03 Civic. He now has an '06 BMW 328i. So, I know that he's ok with the smaller size. We have a Honda Odyssey as our family car that I drive all of the time. But, our plan is for him to drive it until it is paid for, then it will become our daughter's car. I realize it won't have a lot of its value left if he racks up the miles, but we still would like a vehicle that holds as much value as possible.

BMW's are pretty popular with people I work with. They love the design, how it drives, the engineer, but none of them bought them, they all lease them. One of them said, they would never want to have a BMW after the warranty expires. I think I would be afraid to put my daughter in a high mileage one.