46/365 - Toyota's 3.3L 3MZ Engine
Have you guys figured out how much I love my car? It may not be the quickest or best handling sedan out there, but it sure is a dependable and efficient. All I do is feed her with fuel and perform occasional wear and tear maintenance. It has never gone to the shop unexpectedly. The two times it did fail to start on me were because of dead batteries.
The reason I bought the Camry because my family and relatives had very good experiences with their Toyotas. I wanted something roomy with plenty of power. My sister has a '99 Corolla and that car is just too small even for me. It has great power for a little 1.8L. I've taken it on road trips with it fully loaded. It'll return close to 35mpg on the highway with plenty of power to maintain speed in the hills (notice I didn't say it will pass easily in the hills). I drove a '95 Accord LX before my Camry. Around town the Corolla was more torquey. The Accord excels on the highway at higher speeds. Getting to higher speeds is a different story. The Accord's engine only made good power above 3,000 RPM, so it had no low-end torque. I've also driven several Civics from friends and the are gutless around town unless you push the engine hard. When I was a young adult I didn't mind revving the engine till redline because the engine note from Honda's are pretty sweet. But I am an adult now and have calmed down. I rarely push my Camry's engine above 3k in normal driving conditions. Even in the hills going to/from Vegas it has no problem maintaining speed in top gear (5th gear). It is a torquey engine. During the 2004-2007 model years in Toyota, this engine was also used in the Sienna, Highlander, Lexus RX330 and ES330. When I do push the pedal to the metal, the engine will push you back into seat (published 0-60 is between 7-7.5 seconds). With 91 octane, the 3.3L 3MZ engine outputs 225 hp and 236 lbs of torque @ 3,600 rpm. I use 87 octane cuz the manual says it is ok to do so. It says to use unleaded fuel 87 or higher. There is a note that says for improved performance use 91 or higher. I don't notice any difference between the 87 and 91. I was hoping I did, but I didn't so I fill her up with 87 octane. I probably don't feel a difference because I don't really drive her hard.
My dad had a '80 Corolla that ran about 290,000miles before giving it to his brother. Then his brother drove it for a while. Then he gave it to one of his friends. We last heard that it had over 400k miles. My dad bought a used '86 Camry LE that we drove till about 280k before he sold it. A bunch of my other relatives also had Camry's (A couple of them had the Lexus ES300 cousin) in the 90s that went over 150k with no issues. We drive a lot. One of my uncles (He's in his 50's) probably is very close to or even over 1 million total driven miles. He had a '85 Accord that he sold at 390k. Then he had a '91 Taurus that he drove over 400k. Now he has a '06 Camry that has like 120k. That adds up to about 910k miles. Who knows how many miles he drove before his '95 Accord.
46/365 - Toyota's 3.3L 3MZ Engine
Have you guys figured out how much I love my car? It may not be the quickest or best handling sedan out there, but it sure is a dependable and efficient. All I do is feed her with fuel and perform occasional wear and tear maintenance. It has never gone to the shop unexpectedly. The two times it did fail to start on me were because of dead batteries.
The reason I bought the Camry because my family and relatives had very good experiences with their Toyotas. I wanted something roomy with plenty of power. My sister has a '99 Corolla and that car is just too small even for me. It has great power for a little 1.8L. I've taken it on road trips with it fully loaded. It'll return close to 35mpg on the highway with plenty of power to maintain speed in the hills (notice I didn't say it will pass easily in the hills). I drove a '95 Accord LX before my Camry. Around town the Corolla was more torquey. The Accord excels on the highway at higher speeds. Getting to higher speeds is a different story. The Accord's engine only made good power above 3,000 RPM, so it had no low-end torque. I've also driven several Civics from friends and the are gutless around town unless you push the engine hard. When I was a young adult I didn't mind revving the engine till redline because the engine note from Honda's are pretty sweet. But I am an adult now and have calmed down. I rarely push my Camry's engine above 3k in normal driving conditions. Even in the hills going to/from Vegas it has no problem maintaining speed in top gear (5th gear). It is a torquey engine. During the 2004-2007 model years in Toyota, this engine was also used in the Sienna, Highlander, Lexus RX330 and ES330. When I do push the pedal to the metal, the engine will push you back into seat (published 0-60 is between 7-7.5 seconds). With 91 octane, the 3.3L 3MZ engine outputs 225 hp and 236 lbs of torque @ 3,600 rpm. I use 87 octane cuz the manual says it is ok to do so. It says to use unleaded fuel 87 or higher. There is a note that says for improved performance use 91 or higher. I don't notice any difference between the 87 and 91. I was hoping I did, but I didn't so I fill her up with 87 octane. I probably don't feel a difference because I don't really drive her hard.
My dad had a '80 Corolla that ran about 290,000miles before giving it to his brother. Then his brother drove it for a while. Then he gave it to one of his friends. We last heard that it had over 400k miles. My dad bought a used '86 Camry LE that we drove till about 280k before he sold it. A bunch of my other relatives also had Camry's (A couple of them had the Lexus ES300 cousin) in the 90s that went over 150k with no issues. We drive a lot. One of my uncles (He's in his 50's) probably is very close to or even over 1 million total driven miles. He had a '85 Accord that he sold at 390k. Then he had a '91 Taurus that he drove over 400k. Now he has a '06 Camry that has like 120k. That adds up to about 910k miles. Who knows how many miles he drove before his '95 Accord.