How to check out a 1996-2001 Camry before purchase

For Rico on the FB Camry group:

Intelligent Tinkering:

Do all the usual tire-kicking: push down for bounce on the fenders, feel the oil for grit and look at the color, smell the ATF. If it's burned run away or bid it down to less than a K($). You can afford to put a good used or reconditioned transmission in at that, but it's going to cost, so you need the car to be much cheaper. Tires are a pretty penny now too. 

Check them for bad wear patterns that mean you have an alignment issue. Make sure the check engine light is not on or pull the codes and make sure there isn't a bad one. 

Listen to the engine, drive it until warm, listen again, adopt the lotus position and concentrate, listening for a ticking valve stem or a rod knock or a timing chain rumble. Then get it on a lift or jack stands and get a good flashlight or trouble light and go over it. The front undercarriage, control arms, suspension components, steering hub etc, cat-back muffler system, can all be replaced cheaply enough, so even if it is rusty it will all have to be replaced eventually, so don't let any of that scare you if it will be cost-effective, ie, if the car is discounted adequately to allow you to pay for the repairs, but the rear subframe has components that are replaced less frequently if ever and so more expensive and harder to get. 

Paint is expensive too, so, if you don't do your own, it should look nice or obviously be capable of being buffed up. The rockers rust at the front and the back six inches first. Just tap gently with a screwdriver. The front fenders rust out at the back where there's a few inches down at the road level. Lever the fender-liner out there and feel for heavy rust flakes and damp grit and salt. 

Make sure there are three studs of proper length on the muffler-manifold connection. They break when knuckleheads use impact wrenches on them. Manifolds are cheap enough but it's the kind of job that goes wrong because the engine to manifold studs break easily. Get the compression test numbers if you can. Then there's the little stuff that looks bad: The engine may leak oil from the rocker cover down on to the exhaust behind. This can be fixed with a new seal, but it is stinky while driving. A check engine light for an O2 sensor is nothing but looks bad. Make sure the AC works if you have some and the heater fan blows warm.