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  1. The idea behind this document is to create a guide to buying a used car in Sri Lanka. This is just my preliminary draft, and if it's useful I hope the experts here will add/edit it, and create a final detailed guide, which maybe could be posted somewhere in autolanka (if they think its useful) Buying a used vehicle in Sri Lanka (This applies to purchase of a used car regardless of the price/age, and applies to all registered and 'reconditioned' vehicles.) 1. tests you can perform: ================ Engine ==== Before starting: - check the engine oil. Is it at the correct level? Yes: OK/Owner topped up No: Owner does not top up, engine burning oil, etc Color of oil - Light brown/colorless - engine is running reasonably good/recent service - black - engine running bad/never serviced Note: diesels tend to have dark/black engine oil After starting Did it start easily? Yes: OK No: problems in engine/battery/starter motor/tune/etc. does the exhaust show visible smoke (white, black, bluish or grey smoke)? this coud indicate engine problems such as oil burning, worn engine etc. -- note: diesels do occationally smoke a bit, especially under acceleration does it maintain operating temperature? - listen to the engine in idle - do you hear clattering, rattling, or any odd sounds? they could indicate various problems ranging from bent valves to broken mounts? note: diesels are somewhat louder than normal gasoline engines Test drive =========== Lets say you decide to go for a test drive.. .. Step out of the vehicle, and ask the owner to get it out of his driveway/car sale etc. As he does this observe the vehicle, and see if it smokes or struggles during the procedure. Look at the place where the vehicle was parked. If there is visible engine oil/coolant, etc this could indicate problems in the vehicle. (water may be visible from the car's A/C, this is normal). Ask the owner to drive you: 1. Along a rough road (so you can test the suspension) 2. On a good road, ask the owner to drive up to at least 56km/h (or whatever local speed limit) so you can see how the vehicle performs at high speed. Turn OFF the radio and A/C and listen to the car for rattles/hums Tip: a hum from front/rear may indicate need to replace wheel bearings (or what our people refer to as razors) - Stop the car and ask the owner to back up a small hill, and observe the car exhaust for smoke, this is a good test of the clutch/etc. Actual test drive: - First make sure the vehicle has insurance and road licence which are valid. Ask to see them. Then test drive the vehicle very carefully. Make sure you have a good flat road and there is very little traffic. Remember its an unfamiliar vehicle and proceed with caution. First, test the clutch and brakes. The clutch should engage neatly before releasing the pedal fully. If it engages very late, it could mean a blown clutch plate. If there are clutch/brake problems, don't drive any further, and ask the owner to resume driving. And ask yourself whether you are sure you want to buy this car, from someone who couldnt even do basic maintenance. Reviewing the owner How the owner behaves during the test drive can give you a clue of how s/he uses the vehicle in real life. For example: - Does he roll down the window and drive (even though there is an A/C) - this may indicate that the A/C rarely worked. - Does he drive like a rally driver (in which case you can buy the car if you are willing to buy an extra engine, transmission and suspension) How has s/he spent on the car? If he has spent a lot on cosmetics while ignoring real existing mechanical problems, then you should probably consider another car. Is s/he straightforward and honest? Does what the owner says match up to what you see? For example, if the owner said the car had 2 owners in total and the log book copy shows 4 owners, then they could be lying about other things, and you should be cautious. Sometimes owners make mistakes, or simply don't know an answer, but overall if the owner appears to be honest and straightforward, that is a positive sign. [Ask Questions As you review the car, ask questions from the owner. If you see anything odd, ask about it. If the owner is honest and straightforward, its a positive sign. Try to gauge how much of what the owner is telling is the truth. A good way to do this is to pretend you don't know something and ask a question. After the test drive ============ After you return to the owners house/car sale, ask the owner to pop the hood and inspect the engine. - check temperature management. The gauge inside the car should be half or less. Aside from the gage, the engine should be reasonably managing temperature and the fans should be working properly. - Carefully tap the radiator cap with the tip of your finger. If it burns your finger off, the temperature management isnt good. Similarly the engine bay should not be boiling hot (unless it's a Nissan ) Physical inspection of vehicle ===================== 1. Visual inspection: simply look at the car - see if the lines are straight. Look at the paint. Uneven areas could indicate repainting. - look at the wheel arches. Look at the brakes. Look under the car (front/rear) If possible, take the car to a service station and inspect the underneath. If this is not possible, try to look under the car and see what is visible at least - (carry a flashlight with you when you go to see the car). - look for rust, damage, etc. - look at the engine compartment. Are there odd wires and do things look as if they have been messed with? Sometimes legitimate mods (e.g. alarm systems, aftermarket headlamps) require new wiring but if you see a mess inside, it probably means the wiring has been messed up by local mechanics in which case you should think carefully whether you really want this car. - (If the vehicle is cold) carefully open the radiator cap - check if it contains coolant, and if there is any signs of oil (could indicate a head leak) Look at the engine. If it has a slight layer of dust its OK. If it is shiny and has a layer of oil that means it has been washed at a service station. I prefer a car which has a normal slightly dusty engine vs one that has been washed and scrubbed to 'look' new. - look for leaks in radiator pipes. (with the engine off) remove the engine oil cover - if you can see nice clean silver metal with perhaps yellow brown color (engine oil) this is a positive sign. (note: diesels do tend to have dark/black engine interior, this refers to gasoline vehicles only). - Look at the fluid levels of the various fluids (power steering, brake fluid, auto transmission if auto) - if they are not up to level it could indicate leaks or careless owner. - if the vehicle is hot you may be able to open the radiator overflow tank (be careful) and check if he uses coolant. Not using coolant indicates: 1. Owner is an idiot 2. Radiator has leak and owner is topping it up with ordinary water. Either case, don't buy the car. 2. Tap test gently tap the body of the car, with a fingernail (dont rap it loudly) as you walk around. Check the hood, front left and right side and back carefully, also doors (as these are the main accident prone areas). Other general ideas: - Ask the owner what maintenance was performed. If he tells you a list of things replaced/repaired, this is usually a good sign and means the owner took some effort to look after car. - check the mileage? Mileage can be modified - but if it corresponds with the appearance of the vehicle then it could be accurate. - ask for receipts particularly for the timing belt/clutch etc HAS THE VEHICLE BEEN SERVICED/WASHED? If the owner was so cheap that he couldn't service the vehicle before he sold it, then do you really want to buy a car from him/her? *Exception*: Sometimes the owner may be actively using the car in which case it may be a bit dusty but all the same he/she should have washed/serviced/detailed the car within a few days of deciding to sell it. Now Consider the actual condition of the vehicle and make a list of all problems you encountered: Scenario 1: vehicle has major problems which can be fixed ===================================== for example: - Clutch plate gone. - brakes not too good. -minor suspension probs (e.g. weak shocks). - minor engine probs (e.g. poor tune up). Indicates that the seller was a cheap idiot (or typical local) Verdict: Buy with caution, knowing there could be other existing problems, and repair BEFORE YOU DRIVE said vehicle. Scenario 2: Vehicle has minor problems which can be fixed later ========================================= - A/C not running cold enough. - Minor dings, dents, scratches. - Minor cosmetic issues. Verdict: Buy the car, but set aside money to fix those problems later on. Scenario 3: Vehicle has major problems which can't be fixed easily =========================================== - Chassis problems (cracks/bent chassis) - major engine problems (e.g. grey/white/black smoke, burning oil, head gasket leaks) - major suspension/mechanical problems - gearbox problems which would necessitate replacing gear box... so on. Verdict: don't buy the car, unless you own a garage, have a million to spare, or are plain crazy. Other costs Aside from the above, there are a number of things you usually have to do, when purchasing ANY used car. These usually include: - Insurance & road licence. - 4 tires. - full service/oil change/air filter etc. - brake pads/etc - New battery (if existing battery not too good). - Timing belt (if close to 100k km's or multiples of that). Many people will say they replaced the belt, they could be lying. It's easier to spend 10k and replace it than to undergo a broken belt and engine rebuild. If they have replaced the belt, you can get a good garage to visually inspect it. signs of a good vehicle: - Vehicle is clean. (As in, the owner has washed, cleaned, and serviced it.) - is in good mechanical condition (good engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, body) - owner has focused on maintaining the mechanical condition of the vehicle - Vehicle has been maintained properly and scheduled maintenance has been done, e.g. brakes, clutch, timing, etc have been replaced at the proper intervals as necessary. - owner cares about vehicle, services regularly, engine oil is not dirty - owner is upfront and honest about any flaws. - owner uses a good garage for maintenance, and used original/quality components Suggestion 1: To all the experts here, can you please add your comments/suggestions tips on buying a used car. Suggestion 2: Would it be possible for Autolanka readers/Admins to set up a car pricing guide? This could be something updated regularly to show average true market values (like edmunds.com) and be useful to people looking to purchase a car. If any Autolanka readers have suggestions on what they check when buying a used car, please add them here. Update: Top gear have some excellent tips here:
    33 points
  2. Resurrecting an almost useless thread to post my views; As some of the fellow autolankans requested I'd like to add my humble, non-professional, not entirely scientific review on the Nissan Leaf 2013-2015 G grade Well to start off with it was acquired by my father after letting go of a 13 year serving CR51, bullet proof reliable vehicle. Sad moment indeed, Do note all facts and figures on this post are from October 2015, given the rapid advancement in the industry, figures may change in months. Before moving on to the car proper, the leaf charges on a 20A circuit, so you need to have a dedicated line with a 32A circuit breaker and 2.5mm 3 Core wiring (250LKR per metre) to power it, also it uses a non-generic NEMA 20 Plug that can take 20A, however these plugs are exploited by local retailers and sold for ridiculous prices. Also the charging cable (EVSE) itself is costly to replace, as of 2015 - LKR 100,000 Orange electricals produces a 13A Multisocket which so far can withstand this plug mismatch and somehow deliver near 20A with a bit of heat of course. All in all the wiring will cost LKR 5000 to 15000 depending on your requirements. Charging takes 4-5 hours if your capacity is below 20% As for fast charging, the current method is a big exploit and thereby I did not inquire or use that service, also the fast charge takes a toll on the drive battery, therefore I am playing it safe. I am yet to inquire into the Solar net metering system, and the new day/ night charging rate scheme by the government. Anyways my prime concern of this review and the purchase of this vehicle is not economy, so it ends here. My facts about the car will be scattered, in this article, as I believe this is how the average Joe would grasp it during a first drive. On first impressions, the car looked a bit awkwardly styled, but the look does grow on you, It is no ordinary hatchback as the car is in measurement few mm larger than the average townace, in length and breadth, and is just a few inches smaller than a KDH, Almost sounds jibberish, Silly fact indeed but you got to keep em side by side to realize this, and this in-turn makes parking an issue too. Sitting inside, it is indeed very futuristic, with the awkward gear knob, looks copied from a Pruis and a Beamer, it has two displays one for the usual driving data, and one for the "Lorax" in you, I will not go in depth with the gauges as I do not want this to be a user guide. The seats are not comfortable, on a long run they do take a toll on your back, however the leg spacing and the cabin is well arranged, Six footers need no warning thus not at all an average hatchback, the cargo area is also satisfactory, (coming from a guy who hauls his stuff in a pickup) The interior however is almost entirely plastic, even in its highest grade, UK trims do get rewarded with leather seats though. The door cards are rather thick, well insulated and leather lined, strangely! The roof liner is the conventional material pretty much what you get on every Toyota. The multifunction wheel, is not entirely that useful as the interface is in Japanese, a big fan of its premium leather wrap and small size though. Coming to the head unit, the thing is completely integrated into the car ECU, thereby making it impossible for an aftermarket upgrade, and almost all the advanced EV options are in Japanese, so pretty much useless, till you get google translator. To date there is no language conversion for the main unit, the only solution is to replace it with a UK unit. also the unit has a SD card, unique to each car, these cards are stolen during trials and in the harbour, without the Sd card, the entire head unit is useless and needs to be swapped. Otherwise some of the advanced options of the car are never reached. Sadly the cars integrated gps prevents me from setting our local time, locals have plenty of hacks but I prefer to keep this car near stock. However the smaller displays can be converted to english, but as I mentioned earlier, the mudalalis in the industry are exploiting it with various big quotes. My dealer installed the language pack FOC, which works brilliantly. Not a fan of the pedal type handbrake either, Sitting inside, visibility is rather poor around, and rear visibility is just 25% or less, very poor on Nissan's side, given that its such a well thought after car First drive, the amazing silence, thats what gets you, the car is equipped with a flimsy horn, city horn as Nissan puts it, I am awaiting a high efficiency set from Hella which will go in this weekend, deal is with that silence, you gotta be hooting at everyone you see as no one notices it coming and any given speed. Same goes with animals on the roads. The built in fake sound producing device cuts off after a certain speed, ( 30kmph) and even when its in action it is not convincing enough. The steering is amazingly light, almost zero road feel though but very fast responding, and the turning circle is very good, drawing back to its city car roots, The handling is very tight, almost zero body roll, but the car feels heavy ( approx 1500kg unladen), The car is comfortable, the suspension landing somewhere between soft and hard, but the 17" rims and low profile tyre with 36PSI helps me to count the road grain well. potholes are an utter disaster, road noise is very apparent, but given the lack of engine noise, you can't blame em So in the not-so-famed eco mode, the car can range around 215km, provided you drive like you were on the license trial, but if you thrash it around mildly, you can tange 180, But once the eco mode is gone, and heavy thrashing you can do roughly 150km tops. ( all in a full charge that is) Again, getting rid of eco and B mode (engine breaking), it pulls very well, pretty much amazing even to the race car driver, mostly due to the fact that the motor (actually motor!) has a lot of torque compared to HP, All in all a very nippy car, the thing has traction control, and with it off, you can actually wheelspin of the lights! The the instant torque of the motor makes it an absolute nightmare climbing slippery hills, only way is to feather the throttle and hope it crawls through, a well paved hilly road is an absolute joy as it has so much grunt, the artficial engine braking and regen system makes descent very easy, the car has disc brakes all around making it stop very well, but I feel that the regen system does most of the decelleration, and the discs kick in only in an abrupt stop. The VSC does kick in if you push the car hard on slippery roads cutting power off the motor. the brakes seem to be operated by a motorized vacuum servo. The aircon is pretty much comparable to conventional cars with climate control of course, the integrated bose sound system is of course lovely and has the option to alter in volume as the road noise varies. Steering controls and bluetooth work very well. The oem reverse camera is absolutely useless, even with its telematics nonsense. Under the hood the main thing you can see is the charging apparatus, the motor is neately tucked away underneath. The only fluids that need attention/ topup are coolant (Yes it has a radiator to cool the internals and It has blue coolant!), brake fluid and wiper washer fluid. The car has standard fuses and relays. Other than the Drive train, everything else including lighting, stereo, aircon and other ancillaries are all run by a 12v system which leaches from the drive battery and is also trickle charged by the solar panel. The headlamps are equipped with pretty LEDs for low beam and the tail lights are LED too, the high beams are halogen and pretty much everything in the lighting department are standard bulbs found in other cars ( guess whos buying LEDs) The car has very good ground clearance, comparable to a vezel, so you won't be rubbing the road everywhere you go. I've pretty much covered about 300km+ on the thing including two 120km trips, the car never ran out of charge. and the range anxiety never hit me, but I did drive sensibly, between 40-70kmph and about 120kmph max in an overtake (stupid I know, new car blues took over) . Its an absolute joy in the highway as in cruise control, it lost only 1% charge in the katunayake expressway. The fun part is, the lack of noise in that speed, reminds me of an electric train. Also did a few runs around hill stations and always managed home to charge. When the battery hits near-reserve level, some Japanese woman starts blaring god-knows-what through your speakers, which puts the fear of god in you. There is one forum up already with a handful of members, and pretty much a load of facebook 'clubs' for leaf owners. they do share a wealth of information but need guidance to get a proper club together. So at the end of the day, it is a rather satisfactory automobile, Its not the replacement for your trusty corolla, but pretty much it is what your corolla will become someday, I could call it my very own time capsule. Apologies if it was too long though
    27 points
  3. Drunk driving is a serious traffic offence. If the person is drunk, he is not fit to drive. If a vehicle is driven by someone who is not fit to drive (minors, unlicensed drivers, drunk drivers, dogs...) then the insurance company will not settle the claim. Its plain and simple. Also your friend will get his license suspended for 6 months. I hope your friend broke a leg or something. Idiots like that should be shot before they hurt someone.
    23 points
  4. Hi Everyone Recently I went though some interesting details while doing an ECO test. The test passed but I thought everyone should know the details. This applies to both diesel and petrol vehicles. 1. My vehicle has very low emission standards after an overhaul 20,000KMs ago, 1kz-te turbo diesel engine maintained by Toyota and the test was done soon after a service. 2. The test failed when the officer stepped on the engine and reved it over 5000RPM. Simply the guy stepped on the accelerator in 1 second (I timed it). The engine smoked all 3 times because it failed to calibrate intake and output ratios of diesel with the turbo lagging after 1 second rampage to the floor. it was always an under burn because the engine was trying to respond to an overfed intake, By the time the equilibrium was found the test was on the last last few seconds. Therefore the average test reading failed. 3;. Having some knowledge on the subject matter, I started arguing on the test result and the way it was performed. I claimed that the person incharge was not trained on fundamentals. Despite my option to take the test within another 60 days after so many repairs listed to overcome the problem, I opted to do the test again in 30 minutes after the next person in line. The test passed, the engine had fraction of emissions, almost equal to a common rail direct injection engine. 4. I did not go on the easy way of throwing money at the problem of influencing the officers. What happened here? Let me explain. 1. An engine cannot respond to an immediate floor level acceleration in 1 second. The test says - take it over 3500-4000RPM in 3 seconds. What happens is, there is a notice on the computer instructing "ACCELERATE" and the guy ramps to the floor. Engine reaches the red zone of the RPM counter. My 2nd test was done between 3500-4500RPM with proper acceleration. 2. The engine that runs on 5000-7000RPM blows all the smoke dust that is accumulated inside the silencer over 1 year. We NEVER rev engines over 4000RPM on normal running. Not even on an up climb. It is only on an occasional quick deathly overtake and even that I doubt over 5000RPM. The testing should NEVER force an engine to this range. Any engine manufacturer has a warning on red zone RPMS that will definitely damage the engine. The simple colour indicating the RED zone of RPM is to avoid going there. 3. They do the test in this crazy way to reject the engines because there is pressure from the authority (RMV) to stop the smoking. RMV has started penalizing the test officers for passing tests of those engines that are later smoking on the road. This is now going in the typical Sri Lankan viscous cycle of hitting the consumers. Consumers spend over Rs5000-10,000/= to temporarily clean up injectors and replace air cleaners. Some even wash the silencer inside. However the motive behind 1 second floor acceleration is to play safe and fail the engines to avoid penalties by officers conducting the tests. Even if RMV catches on the road the records will indicate that it was failed once. One other reason to rev up is, the actual RPM and the echo based RPM reading on the computer is showing a difference to the lower side. Therefore they floor it to compensate the gap.Instead of doing all this unprofessional over protective conduct of tests, what they really should have is a good software that takes the tester through a good acceleration cycle with a graphical illustration. If the government is so keen on this and care about the environment they should CERTIFY this software and regulate proper usage. if we do not get this properly established like in other countries, lot of innocent people who are not conversant on the detail are going to spend a lot of money when they are already finding it difficult to make ends mean. My polite request - Share is with many people as possible. My intention of writing this is for someone to get this forwarded with proper influence to the Minister of Transport and Commissioner of RMV. For those who go and get into this sad pit, know your rights, show the vehicle manufacturers manual, argue, demand your rights as consumers but be genuine with emissions. We have to protect the world for our younger generation. If your engine is bad get it fixed. Regards Nana
    22 points
  5. Here's a write up on my Daily Driver - the new Civic 1 Litre Turbo - I've so far done just a bit over 1500 Km's and since the engine was new didn't really push it to the max and I have not yet been able to do a really long trip or a drive uphill to BUT I will continue to update the blog based on the experiences as well as services etc. For a start I will touch the basics as well as all the cosmetic stuff and then get into the overall driving experience and later on the services etc. There is also a dedicated thread in the forum that is quite informative. But I hope this blog will also prove useful to someone. First of all the basics.... In a nutshell the 2017 Civic is the 10th generation in the line up. The particular model I have, and is getting popular in SL goes under the model code FK6 and has a P10A2 engine which has a measly 988cc but is turbocharged. The car is made in the UK (at Honda's Swindon Plant). I have heard that the agents now bring it down as well. (6.2M for the SR) There are 3 grades for the 1L turbocharged civic. SE, SR and the EX. The SE is the most basic model with the EX being the highest (the Tech pack is a further extension of the EX) There is roughly a 5,000 GBP (~ 1 Mil LKR) price difference between the SE and the EX. The SR on the other hand sits comfortably in the middle - it does not have stuff like adaptive damper system that comes on the EX. The Honda UK website lists down the differences of each grade under a section called 'Build your Honda' or something. If you're interested do have a look. There are 7 colors available and the Rallye Red is the standard . Every other color will cost around 500 GBP more . There is also the "Orange Line Pack" - which is basically an accessory kit that adds a touch of orange into everything - I've seen a few such cars in car sales in SL. Though I initially contemplated Sonic Grey, ended up with a Polished Metal Metallic specimen. With the 2017 Budget a new tax structure was introduced and under the engine capacity based taxation you'd be paying 17.5 m in taxes (1,754,976 LKR to be precise) for a brand new car with reasonable creature comforts and a bunch of bells and whistles which costs something between 4-5 mill based on the grade ( see above ) First Impressions For me the new Civic hatch looks like someone started designing and spent too much time doing a good job with the front and then ran out of time to design the posterior and hastily put an end to it. This explains the rather weird looking behind. The Sedan version I have to admit looks better. There's also waay too much plastic in the rear so much so that it looks like a joint venture between Honda and Arpico. There's a bit of aggressive styling at the front. The car is quite wide and it has a solid ground hugging look to it. As for the supposed vents you see at the front and the back - well those are fake. They're simply pieces of plastic made to look like vents. And yes it does have fog lights. I like the factory fitted black 17" alloys. Note the SE comes with 16" Alloys as opposed to the 17" found in the SR. Being a brand new car it came with a humongous bible-like user manual (thankfully in English) - along with the wheel lock nut as well as the tool kit and the tire repair kit (glue and the inflator which by now we are used to) If any of you intend to buy one from a regular car sale make sure they give you your wheel lock nut.
    21 points
  6. I'm pretty sure I've shared this before, but I can't seem to find my own post, so here goes again: A few years back, when it was high time I was to give my car a full paint job, I saw this offer on a local deal site where Mr P a i n t offered a 50% off for a paint job exceeding 100,000. The T&Cs said that the maximum discount that will be given is 50,000, which means you get a fixed 50,000 discount for all jobs exceeding 100,000. I obviously thought this was a good deal and wanted to make use of the opportunity. I had previously gone to many paint shops and obtained estimates, and all of them ranged between 80,000 - 100,000. The deal site specifically had mentioned "obtain your voucher here and THEN go to Mr P a i n t" to get an estimate. I did the opposite because I wanted to know how much they will charge for a full paint job. So I went there. Two guys inspected my car from top to bottom and they quoted 130,000 for the full paint job. So this meant that I will end up paying only 80,000 if I had a voucher. I asked the guy to give me an estimate. And he was typing out the estimate on the PC when I started inquiring about the deal they have currently going. He said that it's possible and asked me to bring the car again with the voucher. The guy then paused preparing the estimate and went away for a bit and came back. After coming back, he asked me if he can send me the estimate via fax the next day. Although I didn't notice anything fishy then, I said okay and left. I never got the estimate the following day, or even the day following that. So I called him. After multiple reminders, I got the estimate. With a figure of 180,000. As obvious as it is, they have taken into account the 50,000 benefit that I will be making from the deal and increased the estimate so that they wouldn't incur a loss. I was furious and called the guy who prepared the estimate and his response was "sir giyaata passe api oka gana kathaa karaa, sir ge car eke wadeta kohomath mey gaana yanawa". I totally lost my cool at that response and I rang up the manager and blasted him for misleading customers and trying to rip them off. I also made sure that I contacted the deal site and had the deal taken off before some other soul got caught to their scam. I was lucky I didn't fall for it. This might not be related to the quality of their work, but I personally wouldn't submit my car to a workshop that is known for ripping people off.
    21 points
  7. Guys, finally I bought 'FD 1', I was seeking a well maintained FD1 or FD 4 for months but was not lucky enough. After many cheatings and hassles, I accidentally found this red beauty. And also after dozens of negotiations, I settled with her. This FD1 is a brand new import under the permit scheme and registered in 31st of December 2007. previous owner is a doctor & he was the first owner and had maintained her with Sfat#d Mot#rs and had all service records from the beginning to up to date. Two Autolankans were helping me with this. Hyaenidae, B@tman and also I thank full to who wrote threads about FD's. I read each & every thread about FD. Thank you all guys. Here are some photos of her.
    19 points
  8. I've always said Sri lanka is not ready for electric cars. Not yet. As long as we burn oil and generate electricity to barely meet the demands, we will never be ready for electric cars. We will be ready for electric cars once we start generating excess power, after electrifying all the little villages in the country and meeting basic power requirements of industries and people. Until such time, electric cars should be discouraged.... and this is a good move (even if that wasn't the intention). Electric cars bring cost savings for a selected few and harm the masses in general. However, I don't expect Sri Lankan car owners to understand that. We are one of the most selfish people in the world.
    19 points
  9. My fellow AL Guys, I have been an avid autolanka member since I got my first car (Mazda demio) back in 2017.One thing that always intrigued me was how much AL members loved their lancers. So I always thought to my self what would it be like to own one. I have read every posts/discussions related to lancers ( AL Famous BRATT tread- that was one hell of a tread and I read all 32 pages of it) and I always questioned myself "is this actually good as members claim it to be? so I decided a give it a try. Long story short, when I saw this advert on autolanka about a month a back my eyes were completely fixated on this beauty. it was one of the most beautiful lancers I have seen. However at that point I had some other personal issues to take care of and my mind was not in a good mood to concentrate on the car. After sometime back I was surprised to see the lancer was still on classifieds. I thought it would be gone. So I contacted the seller, who confirmed me that the car was still available. I was over the moon and 2 days after I went to inspect the car and that was it. Knew she was meant to be mine.I paid an advance after inspecting and reserved the car for myself. ( hats off to the previous owner who is a Known lancer enthusiast for properly taking care of the car) It took another 2 weeks to sort out the finances for myself ( to sell my Demio and arrange the rest of the funds). and Last Friday I brought the lancer to my rural village. couldn't be more happier. I would like to thank AL members specially Davy,Trinity and the rest of the AL Lancer guys who made me a lancer lover and eventually an owner.So without further ado I bring to you " Evangeline" ( I bought this ride for her.Had to name the car after my daughter). More pics and updates to follow.
    18 points
  10. It's been little more than 4 years with my Hiace and it has done around 76,000kms so I thought its time I give you guys an update on it. Let me start the blog with the basics, Mine is a Toyota Hiace KDH206, this variant of Hiace is fitted with a 1KD-FTV turbo engine with an all wheel drive system. The AWD system in the KDH series is pretty much full time, it runs on all four wheels normally and if any of the wheels experience a slippage, the vehicle stops sending power to that specific wheel. There is a noticeable difference between the AWD variant(KDH206) and RWD variant(KDH201). The KDH206 is around 100kg heavier and you could feel that through the steering when you drive one. In addition, the KDH206 feels far more planted at higher speeds and around corners than the RWD variant. However the downside is that the full time AWD system drinks bit more fuel than RWD version. Cost of Maintenance In short the Hiace is not cheap run, I get fuel economy of around 6km/l in kandy and around 9-10km/l outstation, the RWD KDH201 would return around another extra 2km more per litre. Hiace is originally fitted with 195/80R15 8ply tyres and they cost around 22-23.5K per tyre from brands like Continental or Pirelli, while Maxxis tyre could be found for around 16k. The Hiace requires 0W-30 oil and a regular service which needs to be carried out every 5000km costs around 10K using Toyota oil, I was using Toyota oil filter as well, but now I have switched to VIC. ATF oil must be changed around every 40k kms, I change air filter and cabin filter every year. It requires super diesel and this is an absolute must, if you regularly pump auto diesel you will pay more in repairs than what you saved by pumping auto diesel. The most likely issues you would get from pumping auto diesel are DPF, which costs around 70-80k to replace and injectors, which would set you back around 500k for all four. So far I had to change only a bush which costed around 50rs, apart from that I have not had any repairs. Performance The Hiace pulls pretty well for a vehicle which weighs 2 tonnes, the 1KD-FTV with a variable nozzle turbo produces 100kw at 3400RPM and 300nm of torque at 1200-3200rpm and it is connected to a 4 speed conventional automatic gearbox. Overtaking other vehicles with Hiace is pretty easy, you just have to put your foot down, the turbo will come to life and you would be gone. It is always on the right gear, there's no unnecessary downshifts or up shifts, the gearing ratios are perfectly synced with the power band of the engine although it is only a 4 speed gearbox in a world of 6 and 7 speed gearboxes. The Hiace properly comes to life on hill climbs with the help of low end power and variable nozzle turbo. Handling is fairly good for a van, it handles better than large SUVs. The KDH series has much less body roll compared to the previous LH series, but it isn't great as handling of a car. I notice the difference in handling when I drive the Hiace after driving our Bluebird which has front and rear independent suspension. Comfort It doesn't handle large potholes and bumps as good as a car, but it does manage to soften small potholes pretty well. The diesel engine noise is evident compared to a hybrid or petrol vehicle but the noise reduces when the vehicle gets to the third gear or at around 70+ km/h speed. The A/C is epic on the Hiace, it is one of the best cooling A/C I have come across, I rarely have to set the A/C temperature below 26 degree Celsius on auto mode and that is without the dual A/C. There is plenty of space inside, 7 or 8 people could travel on long journeys with their legs stretched out and not crammed. The second row seat is the best place to be in, you get the dual A/C right in front of you, it is acoustic sweet spot and minimal sunlight enters the cabin. Practicality It is quite a practical vehicle if you are using it occasionally or for long journeys as it can seat 8 comfortably yet carry plenty of luggage(you could fit around 4-5 large travelling bag placed horizontally), it has got atleast double the amount of luggage space compared to a Noah/Esquire. However it is bit of waste of money if you are using it on daily basis as fuel bills are gone be crazy and parking these are not that easy within city limits. In addition, maneuvering these around narrow roads requires some skills especially roads with tight bends. Second hand value and parts Selling a KDH isn't difficult at all, if you maintain them right there will always be people willing it to buy it from you. There are plenty of body parts available but 1KD engine parts are bit difficult to find and even if you do find, it will be expensive Some used parts prices are: Pair of tail lights: 15k for older design and 30k for new design Pair of headlight: more than 100k without the HID unit Rear door: around 40k Fog lights: around 20k What I have done with my Hiace The Modellista body kit came with the van from Japan itself and I added the Modellista grill later on Original Toyota spoiler which came painted pearl white I tinted the fog lamps yellow with Nightbreaker bulbs in them I have also replaced the rear seats which are rotatable and come with a table as well I have done some electronic mods as well, Installed a transcend DrivePro 200 Carrozzeria tweeters with crossover and JBL component speakers with crossover(thanks to @TheFlyingFox) https://streamable.com/ujkce I was planning on installing FIAMM horns, but the JDM side of my brain took over and I went with Mitsuba Alpha https://streamable.com/nbipn Note: click on the links to access the videos My dad had the body kit removed for a short period of time and during that time I drove it through some muddy terrain. It did well.
    18 points
  11. Storing a car: 1. Clean the garage where the car is stored. If possible, remove all cans, bottles, junk, paper etc out of it. Sweep the floor. This is to get rid of rats, which may have already settled in your garage and to get rid of the dust and dirt. Never park the car outside, unless you have absolutely no choice. 2. Wash and vaccum the car once. This will remove dirt like crow droppings, which may damage the paint if it stays on the body for too long. Vaccuming will remove any dirt in the car, particularly food particles such as 'kadala', which may start smelling and attract insects. It will be a good idea to wax it too. 3. Get a trickle charger and connect to the battery. If its an old car (without an ECU), you don't need to do this. You can just disconnect the battery terminals. If you can't do this, make sure the battery is fully charged and its good enough to hold a charge. 4. Some websites will tell you to fill up on petrol. Don't do this. Petrol in Sri Lanka already contains water and chances are that water will vaporize. Also if the car is left in storage for long, fuel rails may get corroded due to the water in petrol. 5. If possible, remove the tires and place the car on jack-stands. If a tire loses all air in it, it might become permanently damaged. You may have to replace the tire(s). This will also remove the strain on the suspension. However, if you are storing the car for just a month or two, you don't need to do this. 6. Keep the handbrake OFF. If you keep it on, you will definitely get a brake bind. Place bricks behind the tires (if you didn't remove them) to prevent the car from moving. 7. Block the air inlet and exhaust pipe. This will prevent rats going in to the car. 8. For a relatively old car, apply some lithium grease (not petroleum grease) on door hinges and similar mechanisms. This is also optional. You don't need to do most of these things if you can start and move the car for a short distance, at least once a week. When starting a car after storage: 1. Give a good look at the surroundings of the car. Check if birds haven't made nests and cats haven't give birth on the wheel wells, under the engine or inside the rims. 2. Open the bonnet and check for evidence of rats. Look for droppings, chewed belts, signs of shavings of plastic. Check the air filter for any damage. 3. If you covered the air intake and exhaust pipe, make sure these are removed. 4. Check the fluid levels - engine oil, gear oil, brake oil, water. Peek under the car to see if you can spot any oil leaks. 5. Check the battery voltage and tire pressure 6. Start the car and run it in idle for a few minutes before moving. Check for misfires during this time. Most likely the engine will misfire due to water in petrol but hopefully it might go away after few minutes on idle.
    18 points
  12. This thread has almost turned into a elephant house ice cream.... pani-kaju to be exact... pani berenawa...
    18 points
  13. Procedure: - Strip the interior (seats, carpets, dashboard, upholstery etc.) and exterior (windscreens, trims, lights, badges etc.) components. For a proper job, the engine bay will also need to be emptied, so that the bay can be painted. - Do body work (repair rust, straighten out panels) - Prepare the body for paint (this will involve sanding down the old paint so that the new primer/paint will stick properly. Doesn't have to be stripped to bare metal IMO). Then prime the body. - Apply paint and clear coat. - Re-attach all components - Do initial polish (a final polish will need to be done after a month or so) Legal issues: - You need to change the car registration with the new colour. For this you will have to submit a "Change of Particulars" form to the DMV. I believe the form is CMT 72 which can be downloaded from here. Search the forum for more info. Problems for insurance: - There shouldn't be any. However, you will have to submit the car for inspection at the insurance company, so that they can update their database with the new appearance of the vehicle.
    17 points
  14. What kinda of cheap fools are you guys?!?!?!?! Just cos the warning indicator comes on, doesnt mean whatever you run after that you get free petrol or anything. And you're not saving anything by running on the last few drops of petrol.. in fact you're loosing out by doing it.. 1- all the dirt and residue lies at the bottom of the tank and that means if ur running on the last few drops of petrol ur sucking that into the fuel system and harming your engine in the long run. 2- when you're tank has less petrol that means there's more air in it. Which means more space for the petrol to evaporate into the air and just float away when you open your gas tank at the pump. So stop being stupid and cheap and make sure you have at least a 1/2 tank in your tank... u dont save money by running on an empty tank...
    17 points
  15. This is one of the dumbest questions I've seen in Autolanka. Sadly, this is the Sri Lankan mentality. You are only considering fuel economy, while ignoring the total cost of ownership. My neighbour has a KS- series Alto. He spends double the money maintaining it than I do, with a KQ- Ford. (I've seen him replacing clutch plates, brakes, door lock that seems to be breaking every 2 weeks and after all the repairs, the car still sounds like a tractor...) but hey u know what, it gives 16km/litre so he's very happy...
    16 points
  16. let me clarify a few things here: 1. the reason i kept quiet is simply because i didn't want to validate bullying. there is a nice way to ask something. and then you have MD and watchman. i simply chose not to reply since there's a nicer way to ask something than the way in these two, mostly MD went about things. and the initial apathy of the moderators towards this initial attitude was equally disheartening. i'm not blaming anyone here. just simply stating my reasons. 2. i am not a rich man. those who know me, know that well. i don't have my parents' money lying around at home to throw at cars. every cent i have spent is my hard earned own. the reason i stick with this garage is because they offer me the best rates, and an easy payment scheme, and that is why sometimes it takes time for them to do any work. i am not a priority, and that is something i have come to terms with. they too are not this major hifi garage and they make do with pocahontas wigwams when they must. 3. i never once said "this is the way things should be done" on this thread. or that "my tinker is the best tinker in the world" it has simply been a documentation of the work i am doing, because i love doing it. that's all it ever was. so accusations to that end, are quite frankly laughable. the lengths some people go to, i tell you... 4. the panel in question, that has led watchman and MD into a rabid frenzy, and even made JB go to the extent of saying i am doing an injustice to a classic, has been fully straightened, beaten, shape restored, and then primered over. there's no filler filling out cracks there. its just that i dont' have photos of the process because oft times i go there after work, and my battery is dying or near dead. and i couldn't take a photo. 5. this car was never exposed to the elements. it was done panel by panel, and then primered over and kept. the panels which had no rust or dents on them, like the roof for example, wasn't primered. but it was never exposed to elements, and left to rust, like some of MD's post claim. honestly it sounds to me like he's been to the garage to see my car more often than i have. 6. every panel was beaten, straightened, and shaped by hand. i removed close to 15kg of catalloy from this car. what you see is primer. there are supercut cans lying all around the garage. the one in question pointed out by MD is holding some throwaway parts from my teg inside, and was left on the bonnet by me. he may be a slow, useless fellow, my tinker, but he's the only one i've got, and i have no other option right now. so in summary, i would just like to say that the abuse that has been meted out to me on this thread may have gone unvalidated by me but wasn't unnoticed. on this day i have, simply put, had enough. so, be glad MD and watchman. because you win. i'm sure the following statement will make you wet yourself with joy: it was never my intention to mislead people, or to promote a bad resto (oh sorry i can't call it that apparently) a bad tinkering job a good one. it was, i reiterate, simply a documentation of my work, and was always open to honest crit, meted out in a helpful manner (a la forums like the 510 registry or ratsun.net, 510realm.com et al) rather than the abuse meted out here. i have never claimed that this is the right way to do it, or that i am the god of restoration. how can i when the self proclaimed resto-jesus is already here? this is my first classic for crying out loud! so yes, the tinker is bad, yes, he has done a horrible job, yes, i am wasting a car, yes i am wasting my money, yes yes yes. a thousand times yes. this is my last post on autolanka. mods, either let the Don, or whoever else has a 510 continue this thread, or shut this down, and remove my account. i'm out. thank you all for being so kind. i wish all of you every success with whatever your endeavours.
    16 points
  17. for the information of others i will list down the total process. the car was seriously damage from behind. due to sudden emergency braking at wet conditions,the car turned 180 degrees and hit a Telecom post. underneath was collided with concrete ridge by the road and caused severe damage to suspension system which mal aligned the mounting points of all 4 shocks. all 4 shocks were broken from shafts. indeed the driving compartment seems intact while the total body of the car deformed. these are some pictures of the scene. before taken out from the mud rear end the front on next day Had to pay for the telecom post before taking the car out from police. and car was non steerable. the garage people concluded following the controversy starts from there. Asian alliance take valuation of the current model from DE Silva motors and they have given it as 1.45. and insurer was trying to offer me that value. i strongly denied as i had a valuation from 7 months back which is way above the current. and then mine has been insured by commercial bank. so i was writing letters to Commercial bank and insurer. my points were solid. 1- I had uncommon model and cannot be compared with common lemons. 2- I had a proper valuation. 3- Nobody can give a value for wrecked vehicle without knowing previous mechanical condition. 4- the 30% steep loss is impossible to given period of time. 5- there is no evidence of over valuing. 6- insurer has been agreed to 1.85 at the time of insurance. 7- there are no specimens for sale in any classifieds for the given offer price. 8 -If you are so confident about the given market value,Just replace me a similar spec car without a cash pay. 9- Insurer is Violating the principle of INDEMNITY. 10- Manufacturer classify Caldina-Van and Caldina Wagon as 2 different vehicles,not 2 trim levels of same vehicle. went for discussion and with all points in documented. they had no clear explanations other than de silva motors, market value document. so they requested for another day. meantime,the same day i called the De Silva guys and asked what is the rationale for issuing the 1.4 for my car which is rare specimen, their reply was ,"that's the market value" So i faxed the letter with all the facts and warned that will report this to relevant Authorities if you misuse your valuation licence like this. evening that i received a call from De silva guys and said that they will not issue any other valuation for this wrecked car. meanwhile the insurer has taken a Valuation from Mr Godfry Yapa and that was 1.625 . they were offering me the same. i resisted here saying that this is unethical and just a random guy cant valuate my car without seeing it in real and without knowing the condition prior to accident. so negotiate them to send a Charted automobile engineer to see the car and note the technical differences and reconsider the offer for 1.85 insured value.and for which they requested 3 more days and seems its crossing the line of negotiations towards the legal aspects.and my mechanic insists that this is a good offer and settle for it. so i finally decided to stop the battle after 20 days of Emails, Faxes and letters to here and there. But still i Had enough evidences to beat them down in any court. And at the latter stages,that insurer wanted to get rid of me rather than dragging this for long, also they were being so professional at latter stages with very polite manners. in real Gentleman style. i had to read a Small book of Insurance principles to get ready to talk with them, it's difficult to talk if you just don't know anything on their line(Thanks Rumesh88 for the hint),and so easy to tackle them if you know what they are talking about. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Oyn4KEhUaATFZlVGF5UXc0UEU/edit?usp=sharing so thanks to everybody, the simple lesson is. it is not always impossible, we don't try enough thanks for everybody for all the help given.
    16 points
  18. Imagine you bought a luxury 2nd hand car for a lot less than an toyota econ box (eg- Jag X-type-2001 vs Toyota vitz - 2009) Prices - jag (some where advertised at around 3mill) , Vitz (unreg - around 4 mill) Efficiency- Jag - 6kmpl, Vitz - 12kmpl(in the real world, not in the toyota fan club) If you run 12000km per year (should be less considering the mileage these cars show in their meters after some time ) The jag will cost Rs.300k , the vitz Rs.150k. So you save Rs.150k on fuel, But if you have invested the extra 1mill on the bank you get Rs.140k as interest. So econfreaks get Rs.10k off every year. Use it for 100 years and you get you'r money back, How fantastic I should consider an exchange to a vitz The best thing is when you are at the lights and you'r back is aching you'r b*tt is tatooed with the cheap fabric seats and you'r cheap metal watch is rattling due to the vibration of the 1L 3 cylinder engine on the steering wheel, and the AC is blowing louder than you'r cheap aftermarket chinese tv system to keep you from not sweating, a jag parks next to you, The guy in it who hasn't spent as much as you did is indulging in the whisper quiet interior, his b*tt on genuine English leather, arms held firmly on the leather warped wheel, piped music coming from his the high quality stereo. Then the lights go green you understand the mistake you made and try to hit the lamp post to commit suicide, but unfortunately 8 airbags burst out from nowhere and it won't let end you'r sufferings. This is just a description of what i would have felt if i used an econ-box, The names of the vehicles where given as examples only
    16 points
  19. have a little spare time this fortnight so i stepped in to say she's almost almost done. man its been quite a journey. so here's a few photos of the end products and the build summary: ENGINE - L 16 block fully rebuilt - High compression flathead pistons - 219 "peanut" competition head - twin hitachi SU side draught carbs - SSS camshaft - comp cams competition coil - comp electronic distributor - NISMO low pressure electric fuel pump - triple core aluminum radiator - crank fan delete - custom extractor and exhaust by KelumWJ projects - battery delete GEARBOX - 5 speed close ratio dogleg 180B gearbox - WRX 4 rear diff with LSD BRAKES - 510 SSS front discs - 510 SSS brake servo - rear discs from S13 silvia WHEELS & TYRES - BBS 15" mesh alloys - 195/55/15's to match the stock rolling radius SUSPENSION - gecko street spec coilvers front and rear - cusco front tower strut LIVERY - BRE DATSUN 68 homage - BRE OEM "spook" font lip LIGHTING - BMW M3 E30 headlight retrofit - 510 SSS rear sequential turn signals with custom build electronic sequencer an logic circuit by @kalinga INTERIOR - 1968 JDM SSS gauge cluster - SSS japanese oak wood gear knob with custom emblem - 610 SSS steering wheel (just fell in love with it) yes, 610 - equus volt, oil pressure and water temp gauges on enter console - AC retrofit, ducted through existing vents, and controlled by blower controls. - two point retractable seatbelts. i'm still working out a few kinks and constantly ironing out little imperfections. but man oh man has she come along way from when i started out. just thought you guys would like to see her now.
    15 points
  20. Well it's almost an year now so a quick update on what has happened. Ive done 12500 kms at this point and the car has had two oil changes as well as a wheel alignment done by now. By this point the civic is as common as the flu now. Fuel Consumption The most asked question still, and at10,000+ kms we are well past engine break in etc and we can have a fair idea on actual fuel figures. The 12,500 Km mostly consists City driving, a bit of expressway, and the once a month outstation trip. Overall fuel consumption is about 10KMPL. If further elaborated on average City fuel consumption stands around 8 -9 Kmpl. In the suburbs and outstations it will do anywhere between 10-12. Anomalies being about 15 (6L/100Km) on expressways and on smooth sailing road trips like Trinco. The Ground Clearance Issue Honestly, I was worried about this at the start but it doesnt seem to be a big issue. One thing I noticed is that the suspension is much firmer on the Civic hence the lowering of the car even with a load is much less. On one instance I took a slightly elevated railway crossing at a bit of speed (my bad) I thought I may have sightly nicked the Muffler but I really could not see any damage at all and I wasnt sure I heard a slight sound. But as @Magnum (who drives a ground huggin' HiAce) says over time you get used to be aware of your cars height and drive accordingly. The Wide wheels also help on pothole ridden roads as they hardly fall into them...The small unpaved road leading to my house is in a horrible condition (due to a combination of Trucks hauling stuff to the neighbours house under construction+ the never-ending rain ) there are deep nasty ruts that my other ride ( EP71 Starlet) with its tiny wheels fall into but is never a problem for the Civic. Are the gizmos giving trouble? The automatic braking might end up being a life saver but on day to day drives it can be bothersome. The whole thing is over dramatic and the braking is sudden and violent. When a biker suddenly moves in and the auto break kicks in its sudden, violent and introduces the risk of Madushani who was tailgating you in her Honda Dio ramming you from behind. Proximity Sensors are actually helpful specially when parking (the car is wider than your Aqua/Fit etc ) there is though a mild annoyance that has happened to me half a dozen times in an entire year. The front proximity sensor goes bonkers and starts beeping in heavy rain even when theres nothing in front. A forum member suggested that a misaligned License plate could be the culprit - I haven't investigated that yet since I've not seen this behaviour lately. The Rain Sensing Wipers tend to over react sometimes working full speed when theres actually not much rain. All these of course can be manually changed. Automatic Stop Start might not be a good idea for our local traffic and some users complain of the 12V battery prematurely dying. Remember this is no hybrid so the entire stop start cycle is handled by the battery alone ... Also it can be frustrating when your engine stops and you get green in heavy city traffic. I usually turn this off. Adaptive Cruise control and Lane Keep Assist work like a charm. The sensors detect vehicles moving into your lane as well. The motion sensor inside the car will detect movement inside the car when its locked and will start to create a racket - the idea behind this is to prevent locking in a kid or a pet. Almost every Civic user has had the surprise of the alarm going off due to a couple of flies getting trapped in the car. This also can be turned off. Performance I've seen some people assume the car to be slow due to the tiny engine and turbo lag but actually I feel the CVT is the biggest disappointment but in reality I'd settle for the slightly lethargic CVT than getting continuous DCT issues down the line. To have some fun turn Eco Mode off and switch to Sports mode - you can use the paddle shifters but to be honest the paddle shifters are more or less a simulation...CVT and paddle shifters are really not an ideal combo. Another thing I usually do on a cold start is to leave the engine running for a bit (2+ minutes) before actually moving. Do not rev too hard initially. The handling is really nice - the car is made for open roads and long road trips. I drive on E03 regularly and enjoy taking the bends - the car feels really solid and planted. Braking is good. I've seen videos of folk test the cars limits by driving 200+ km/h, braking at high speed etc (mostly on E03) its dangerous and illegal. Mods done Nothing much actually all I've done so far : *Alloygators (19K at the Meguiars place ) * Nano coating (45K ) * Transparent protective film on the Door steps Overall Verdict : A year of trouble free happy motoring. Yes this is no hybrid and requires 95Oct. But thats a small trade off for a rather complete car for a sub 6Mill budget(SR). The car is a bit wide for a hatch (probably in Mazda 6 territory) so you are better off avoiding those mysterious little by-roads google maps suggest. This is no Wagon R .The car will not double up as an SUV so if you regularly travel on some remote jungle path this is not the car for you. If you live in a narrow tuk tuk lane and drive 20Km in heavy traffic you are going to appreciate the legroom and seat position but not getting to enjoy the car that much. The car is at home on the open roads and highways. A slightly wide, attention seeking drama queen thats quite easy to live with.
    15 points
  21. Being an alto user here goes my two cents. Driving pleasure: Not Applicable. Agree with Bullock Cart comment. Safety: Better than a motor bike. Agree with papadam comment Fuel: 13 km/l in traffic and 18-20kml Out station Maintenance: No major repairs from 2004 up to now and for 90k+ milage. Even if there are issues any makabaas can fix it since its very basic. Parts are cheap. Security: High tech security systems not needed. No body is going to steal. At least my one was not stolen for last 10 years. Social Status: Pathetic. Even 3wheel buggers will shout at you. Sikkas at parking joints will show you that they are 'Security OFFICERS'. It is only a reliable means of moving from point A to point B without waiting for public transport. But Starlet is a CAR even it is hatchback. So obviously you have to spend more. So its your call to decide whether you want to spend something more to use a car or spend the bare minimum for a means of transport like me.
    15 points
  22. Just started my most ambitious resto project todate. It's a 1970's Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina. Neglected very badly for many many years the body has rusted to a point that is scary. I originally bought the car for its parts for my Giulia Coupe and even used some bits for my Alfetta GTV. I was thinking of scrapping it many times but I could not get someone to come and dismantle it. However recently my tinker who "retired" after completing my 3 Alfas called me and said he might be interested in doing some work again. I showed him this car and to my surprise he said that it could be saved. I was still quite skeptical though when I thought about the cost and effort required. I slept on it for a few weeks. The more I thought about it though, it was hard to scrap this car for several reasons. 1. It's a classic Alfa Romeo - I mean just how many survivors are around in this country? You can count them with your fingers. 2. Although not a great looking car by Alfa standards, it's an inoffensive 132 bhp 5 speed Sedan with a glorious engine and gearbox. 3. This particular car has some good race history in this country. 4. Almost every fitting and trim bits are intact. 5. I'm a bit mad
    15 points
  23. Guys, Please await the launching of AutoLanka new site with new features and easy access tomorrow !! -Team Autolanka
    15 points
  24. The main aim in creating this thread is to educate people about performance modifications and to share the knowledge regarding them. And also to build a more performance oriented car community rather than one based on fiberglass and huge spoilers Why do modifications? It's done in order to improve things in various departments of a vehicle such as handling,looks,speed,braking etc. A modification can make or break a car,so it's important to choose them wisely. What to start with? It depends on ones preference and what one really wants from his or her vehicle. If it's just the looks a good body kit and a set of alloys would be more than enough to satisfy ones need.But if you are more of a petrol head and into performance one might take the performance path. Performance path is for those who like to feel,hear the difference and not just see it. In my opinion its the best path to take because you can enjoy it at the end of the day. Where to start? It depends on the vehicle one would select for modifications. To make things better the weaknesses should be treated first."Power is nothing without handling" but to start with handling one should know what the final product would be and what figures he is looking for, so for someone who hasn't got an idea about it, starting with engine modifications would be the wiser thing. But for someone who would feel that stock power is enough the brakes and handling is the way to go. Engine Modifications The extent of the modifications depend on what one is hoping to achieve and the amount of cash allocated. Then one would have to choose whether he is going in the NA route or the Forced Induction route.But if it's someone whose wanting to get more power from an everyday car whilst keeping its drivability and practicality it's better to go in the NA route. Some of you'll might disagree but its cheaper when compared to forced induction. The power of an engine is mostly based on air,fueling and ignition,so in order to improve things these departments need improvements. So lets see what could be done. Intake The intake provides oxygen for the combustion of fuel in the cylinder. Therefore more oxygen leads to complete combustion which leads to more power. Colder air contains more oxygen, one might have realized slightly improved throttle response during a cold day or in a cold area like Nuwara eliya. The EFi engines consist of various sensors located in the intake route in order to measure the flow,Oxygen percentage,Intake temperature etc. The values obtained by these will lead to the performance of the engine. If we could decrease the intake temperature more fuel would be added to the cylinder due to the more oxygen present in the air resulting in more power and vise versa. In order to do this most performance engines come with a cold air intake which manages to keep the intake temperature down most of the time Cold Air Intake (CAI) and performance filters Cold air intake is one which is directed in a manner which sucks in air which is cooler than the air inside the engine bay. Normally these intakes are routed through the front bumper or else below the engine bay. These systems have proved to improve the gains but has their down sides. The increase in pipe length will decrease the throttle response slightly and there are chances of water going into the system due to floods etc. If one has a well ventilated engine bay (preferably one with a large front grille) a performance filter will improve the power slightly. A performance filter is one which has better flow than the stock filter whilst filtering the dust and particles. But most of the time the filtration suffers. So one should consider the filtering property too when choosing a performance filter because it would have adverse effects on engine life specially in a country like ours. Cone intake vs Stock replacement performance filter The cone intake would let in more air leading to a slight power gain and also will produce the induction noise which some prefer. The gains will be mostly in the high rpm range and the low end gain would depend on the car and sometimes might be negligible. Also when fixing a cone intake it should be fitted in a place where it could draw in cool air sometimes placing in the stock location of the air box might lead to a drop in power once the engine heats up due to hot air being drawn in. For better performance a heat shield could be used to prevent it from drawing in heated air. The stock replacement performance filter would improve the low end mostly and is not fancy as a cone intake. It doesn't alter the induction noise either yet quite practical for a daily driven car. The gains from these modifications depends on a lot of factors such as the displacement of the engine,compression,flow rates etc. The gain in figures would be anywhere between 2-5bhp (*subjective) Throttle body and intake manifold modifications Increasing the diameter of the throttle body will lead to a gain in some engines while it would kill the low end in some others. The ones running high compression would gain from this cause of the increased amount of air fed into the engine yet it might lead to a drop in air velocities in the ones with normal compression. Throttle body polishing would increase the air velocity which would lead to a slightly better throttle response. Bigger intake manifolds will make a difference in a high compression NA engine or one which is having forced induction but will not be ideal to be used one cars with normal compression ratios. Exhaust The Exhaust system consist of many parts namely the Exhaust manifold,down pipe, catalytic converter,muffler. Exhaust Modifications Before doing an exhaust modification one should know what he wants from it. If it's just the sound a free flow muffler a.k.a Beat barell would do. But if it's performance one would have to modify the components of the exhaust. The exhaust system is based on the backpressure which is needed to some extent for a daily driven car but too much of it will hinder the performance. So the the extent of the modification depends on which rev band power is needed. If one wants to squeeze a bit of power with a tight budget a Cat back system would be ideal. Cat back exhaust It is a system consisting of piping with larger diameter and a performance muffler. But the changes are done after the catalytic converter. This would lead to a better mid and high end whilst keeping the stock low end power. But when choosing the pipe diameter bigger isn't always better. Therefore the piping with the correct diameter should be selected. Exhaust manifold (Headers) These would be changed according to the gain expected. If its a turbo conversion these would definitely need changing. The pipe diameter depends on the application its being used on but they have a gain over the stock manifold which sometimes reduces the velocity of the exhaust gas due to its size and construction. So for someone looking for more power the headers would be a good option. But they should be fabricated by professionals and also it's better to use thermal insulation to keep the engine bay temperature low. Muffler The muffler is used to muffle the sound of the exhaust. The choice depends on the owners preference but most of the time a proper performance muffler which is made by a reputed company sounds better than a Beat barell which is made in Sri Lanka. The free flow is said to reduce the back pressure slightly but the gain in negligible in some cases. The sound it makes depends on the size of the internal pipe of the muffler, The amount of glass wool, the size of the tip etc. A small muffler on a large engine will make is sound real bad while the other way around will hinder the performance of a small engine. There are two types of exhaust setups that could be used in a conventional 4 cylinder engine. First one is known as a 4-1 and the other is known as 4-2-1 4-1 Exhaust Here the 4 pipes on the exhaust manifold is fitted to one exhaust pipe which is known as the down pipe. The gains of this kind of system is mostly on the mid and top end. It is an ideal set up for racing because the engine is running in the high rev range most of the time. 4-2-1 exhaust Here two pipes from the exhaust manifold is joined to a single pipe. This setup improves the mid and low end gain and most suited for street use. Please feel free to share your views regarding these and to correct me if I'm wrong. More information to be posted soon Drive Safe
    15 points
  25. Well it's mostly a straight road and he probably assumed he had sufficient traction on his tyres and I guess 100km/h by motorway standards is not really that fast, so I wouldn't call him a fool, perhaps something happened to make him veer off the road more than just lack of traction. Who knows? But trust me if you drove 20km/h on a motorway you'll be offending other motorists, if you want to drive at that speed get on the galle road and while you say there is no minimum speed on the motorway, these are the things so many uneducated drivers start saying and make driving on that road dangerous. When I was on it the other week, 8/10 drivers couldn't keep to a lane making overtaking dangerous. Perhaps this is what happened: Someone thought 'no offence by driving in the middle, it's safe like that no?' and the idiot passengers probably thought 'no minimum speed limit no, so let's drive in the middle at 60km/h'. A CB3 Lancer may have been trying to overtake them going at 100 (because he has a beat barrel, no?) and finds he can't overtake the moron in the middle of the road. The moron then decides to pick a lane, going to the right, the Lancer then has to swing left, because he's an idiot too and has got too close (can't slow down cos he has a beat barrel) and goes off the road, crumples into a ball and lands on the farmer's cow. The original moron in the middle of the road said "ammatasiri see! Good thing we are going slow and in the middle like this"
    15 points
  26. http://autolanka.com/forums/topic/15723-lancer-or-axio-update-bought-a-lancer-aka-the-bratt-thread/?do=findComment&comment=254150 Thought to start this with a comment I made back in 2014. "Only thing i can say is that owning a Lancer EX is my dream, if i had the capacity of buying a one, i wouldn't think twice about it." We'll that dream came true last Sunday. I bought a Lancer EX a couple of days back!! . I was lucky enough to find a good specimen imported in 2011 which had all maintenance records with the proof of mileage. The previous owner had done all necessary maintenance at the agents. Car drives great and is in great condition. Without further ado,I bring to you,,,,,, trinity's Lancer EX
    14 points
  27. As wonderful the previous true-life story is…on the 31st of May I applied online for contract negotiations, roughly about 1 month prior to close of applications; and finally signed a contract on the 3rd of July for a GR Yaris RZ High Performance 1st Edition. Delivery day was estimated to be towards the end of March, 2021. It was going to be a grueling 8.5 month wait. I will spare you the general specs of the car as it has been posted all over the internet. However, one thing needs to be made clear...many peope (especialy in export markets..specifically Europe), have gotten the idea that the GR Yaris is a limited edition car with just 25,000 units produced. Not the case at all. Toyota has always claimed that they need to make ATLEAST 25,000 units for WRC homologation rules. The 25,000 is not a cieling limit. So Toyota would make as many as they can and makes sense for them to do so. Now..back on to the specs....The 1st Edition was offered in two trim levels. RZ and RZ High Performance. The RZ is similar to the base variant you get in other markets. Howeverm the Japanese market High Performance has a slightly different spec sheet compared to equivalent grades in export markets (Circuit Pack in Europe and Rallye in Australasia). The High Performance comes with the Torsen LSD, large brakes and stiffer suspension which also comes in the CP and Rallye variants in other markets, but it also comes with a water sprayer for the Inter-Cooler, plus the 8 speaker premium stereo setup with Active Sound Control. The RZ comes with softer suspension, minus the LSD and the premium stereo and has different seats. In other markets other markets if you want the mechanical goodies you need to order the Circuit Pack (no mechanical upgrade package was offered for the RZ) and if you want the stereo and things like seat warmers you need to go for the Comfort Pack (offered for the RZ) but you cannot order both packs. Being the First Edition, the car was offered with a slighlt different set of option selections and finishes than the RZ High Performance you can go out there and buy right now. The most significant of which is the FINISH of the carbon fiber roof. The roof was offered in either a marble finish or in the traditional weave finish. The latter being a wrap and the former being the natural finish of the carbon fiber panel (manufactured by Mitsubishi). The marble finish looked very dull and resembled a mossy black stone with white on it rather than black marble. So I opted out of the 200,000yen marble finish feature. Also for the first edition, the black trim and the 18” BBS forged (18x8J +45) wheels were in matte black (only for the RZ High Performance). The RZ high Performance 1st edition was offered with what is called the Premium Sport Seat with Emotional Package (there was some weird name for this which I cannot remember). However, this is now being offered at a premium for regular High Performance orders as well. With the feature, all the stitching in the interior is red and the perforated holes on the suede of the faux-leather + suede seats has a red effect to it. Right now the only true differing factor between the 1st Editionand the standard edition is Morizo-san’s signature. My specific car was ordered in Emotional Red with the Emotional Sport seat. Other options included visors and carpets. That was it....pretty bare-bone at the time of ordering. I got a test drive 4 months after ordering my car…at which point I decided to add Toyota Safety Sense which is an option on the GR Yaris. The car’s standard safety features include TRC/VSC, ABS and 8 airbags. Two factors changed my mind about not having TSS. First was the fact that I could not see anything out the back and with no reverse camera or sensors; parking in a narrow garage would have been an issue. With the new Toyota DisplayAudio system fixing an after market reverse camera is an absolute pain and Toyota did not offer a reverse cam only option for the Japanese market. Secondly, it has a lot of oomph, and if my wife was to drive it, I felt driver aides would be a good idea. Toyota Safety Sense adds, a reverse camera along with the usual sensors for preemptive braking, accidental acceleration mitigation, rear cross traffic alert, etc.. plus a heads up display. The test drive was a RZ High Performance variant, but not a 1st edition. As you can see the trim is all shiny. The wait went on... First came a key tag… Then came a VR kit for a special event for 1st edition customers on the official launch date for the car, 16th of September. At its official launch, Toyota released two additional grades for the GR Yaris for the Japanese market. RC, a stripped down RZ High performance, with smaller brakes and wheels and minus the intercooler sprayer. Instead of the standard Torsen LSD, it was offered with a mechanical LSD which was more suited for gravel and tarmac racing. The idea of the RC grade was to offer a high performace, low cost version for tose who wish to race the car and customize it at their own will. The second new grade was the RS, locally teased as Really Slow. It had the GR Yaris body with smaller brakes, wheels, softr suspension and the 1.5L NA engine out of the standard Yaris mated to a sport tuned CVT. This was obviously the cheapest GR Yaris starting at just 2.4mil yen. Apparently it is also the least sold grade for the GR Yaris. At thi point it is interesting to note that the RZ 1st Editions along with the RCs and RSs were being delivered around the first week of October along with a very few RZ High Perf. 1st Editions. The latter apparently takes a lot longer to make so delivery of the high spec versions was quite long. The additional grades, especially the RS seemed to be a desperate attempt to make it to the 25,000 minimum production requirement (which was now not needed) as well as to spread out the production cost of the GR Yaris by transferring it across on to a cheaper, mass market variant (Toyota has hinted that they are hardly making any money on the car and that it was done just to meet race participation rules). Then came a special mini car model of the GR Yaris made specially for those who pre-ordered the 1st Edition... Its an amazing casting and the details are extremely good. Then in late November, we received a call from our dealer stating that the car will arrive at the dealership on the 18th of December. Nearly 4 months ahead of schedule !!! Apparently order volumes were not as overwhelming as Toyota had originally aniticipated. Thus delivery dates had moved up quite substantially. As I write this, there are shortages in some markets in Europe and Australia but that mainly seems to stem out of sales quotas that each of these countries had negotiated for. 18th of December came about...coincidentally, the Corolla had some maintenance work scheduled for the 19th so was able to see the car at the dealer...and there she was...tucked away in a corner at the dealership. That is a wide..wide...grill. I definitely do like the matte finish on the trim. Now the whole registration proces had to start. As a foreigner, doing anything and everything that involves a government process in Japan completely and utterly sucks beyond words. So the registration took 2 days as opposed to the usual day (so that puts us on Sunday...this does not include the time that was taken to register and certify parking space for the car and other things which was done before the car was delivered). Now the insurance subscription can take place..that took another 3 days and finally the car was picked up on the 24th of December. The dealer had accidentally charged us for a custom number for the plates...so selected 17.37 as a homage to the very first Toyota our famiy owned, 15 Sri 1737. A metallic blue, 1985, AE80 DX which my dad picked up in Japan when he and my mom came here for some training program in 1987. The thing costed us like 300,000LKR at the time after duty. It was also the first Toyota I drove..in 1987... Some of the JDM-holics will notice the 3 (category) number as opposed to a 5 (categor) number you would expect in a hatchback. Although the car has a 1600cc engine and weighs just 1280kg (which apparently is spot on based on weigh-ins many have done on the internet), the car's width, at a whopping 1805mm, puts it in a standard passenger vehicle category. We finally took delivery of the car on the 24th of December. After dropping the Corolla off at home...it was straight to the local Autobacs store for some rubber mats as snow was expected on Boxing day weekend. So life with a yaris begins....
    14 points
  28. Hi AL, Thought I'd share photos of my KE72V. Technically it's my father's but unofficially it's mine A little history on this- my father imported this KE72V DX in 1989 with 40,000kms on the ODO. It's been with us ever since! The milage now is a little over 141,000kms and it still purrs along without any issues. I'm in the process of restoring it to factory original specification but I'd love to replace the stock K40 transmission with a k50 (5speed) transmission. I would if I could find one for cheap! I've even got the original seat covers! (I'm looking for another set, let me know if any of you good KE72 owners want to sell yours!) Instrument cluster- Future plans- I've already wet-sanded the entire body with 1500grit sandpaper in anticipation of a cut/polish job. Sadly that was a few months back and I spent all the money I had on another project! I'm hoping to cut/polish the paint soon. Both rear lamp lenses are cracked and missing bits so I'm searching for new lenses. My car is missing the fan shroud (better known as the 'radiator cover') that is essential for the factory AirCon to work. I've given up looking for an original so I'm going to try and get one scratch built. That's about it, hope you enjoyed my ride as much as I do! Thanks for stopping by and regards, Jay. EDIT: I moved all my photos of the '72 to a separate album in Photobucket so had to repost the direct links. Hope they turn up!
    14 points
  29. Think you are in love with that aqua. If your sole purpose is saving money. Just buy jap Diesel. CE110 CE 108 COROLLA. CT 190 corona or carina. With a 2C diesel engine. You will get same running cost 7rs per km. And it has so called 2airbags and ABS. maintenance will be pretty easy. Parts, should i mention? Gearbox is 25k. Engine is 150k. Every body panal is damn cheap. You have spares from various brands. Compressor is 15k. Radiator 15k. You can replce all parts of car and 2 engines at a price of hybrid battery. Plus it can repaired by any local garage so you will not be ripped off by hybrid specialists. Believe me ,currently im touchering toyota 2C engine with eight (300km weekend) long trips per month and all A to B on weekdays during whole month. I pumped 21500 worth of diesel and travelled 2800km during last month.(mix driving) It outrun your Aqua and maruti too unless you run in heavy city traffic with bumper to bumper stop. A decent diesel will cost you half price of aqua. Buy a land from remaining 1.8mil. See the profit after your 10 year run.
    14 points
  30. are we hypersensitive to that level? he simply states his intent and that is enough to be taken as "ridicule" and "offensive"? to consider that the fiber community are "mentally handicapped" simply because OP wants to sponsor a different ideal? where are the offenses in that highlighted statement? i have said more offensive things about the homeega civic on facebook, and MD has been very illustrative in pointing that out. now there's true offense. go see that thread on the honda club page. are we superficial to that level? MD posts a photo of OP's car, and we are all in a hurry to judge it on its visual merits? without having seen the car in person, or having any idea of what he has done with it? which, having known kelum for some time, i know to be a lot, considering his age, financial status and experience. are we egotistic to that level? there are accusations here of him copying and pasting from wiki etc. but i'll have you know, i was never a good hand at mechanics. i learned a lot about tuning the car from OP. yes. i learned stuff i didn't know about honda engines, ECU's gearboxes and suspension from an 18 year old A level student who knew better than me. and as a result i have project R. he was one of my sources of knowledge, if i had let my ego get the better of me, i'd still be driving around in a riced out automatic GSR, deeply unhappy with myself. are we judgemental to that level? yes kelum knows godzi well. he was in the car when harsha pulled his famous 2nd gear pull. but does that put him in that lot? i know MD well. hell we've raced go karts and had hissy fits together! but does that mean i am a supporter of all the visual mods he has lauded? people please. let's save our ire for idiots like rotaryhead who come here with ammi's and appi's money and waste our time. kelum's a good kid. he may be a greenhorn but his knowledge on motor mechanics is on par or superior to most of us. let's give him a chance to say what he has to say.
    14 points
  31. I have a different way of looking at this. Despite my taste and judging by almost all posts on this thread seems to lie elsewhere... whoever the owner of this car, put a lot of heartache, money, time and effort into building these things. They have horrible design taste but you gotta appreciate the sheer effort to get something like this done. We all know how hard it is to get something simple done here. So i'd say kudos to the effort! Just wish they had the exposure to learn about proper styling
    14 points
  32. Mr Money Maker, I m not sure you have instilled the right name for yourself and since you seem to feel you have the capability of calculating car prices by looking at the internet let me give you a lesson on the duty and price of this particular car Valuation given by the customs - 23 000 Pounds Price of a sterling pound on the day of duty calculation- 205 SLR Age of vehicle for duty calculation - 1 year Depriciation scale- 80% Duty Percentage for 1600 cc vehicles = 200% Duty for this vehicle on the day of clearing = 23 000 X 205 X 0.8 X 2 = Rs 7,544 000 And the dealer price of this car would be between 19 000 -22 000 pounds depending on the mileage, condition and year of manufacture If you take an approx figure of 20 000 pounds then the SLR Price would be approx = 20 000 X 205 = Rs 4,100 000 Which would give you a landed price = Rs 7,544 000 + RS 4 100 000 = Rs 11 644 000 This price is also without shipping and insurance which is another Rs 150 000 approx These price have been calculated at a pound rate of 205 and the current rate today is 208 for a sterling pound You obviously do not seem to know the difference between the standard DS3 and the DS3 racing. Mr money maker i would not waste my time explaining to people like you, but on a public forum if you come and try to teach BRJW on your knowledge of the local car imports with prices without any proof then someone like you should be dealt with. And my advice is you better not take to car imports any time soon cause with the prices you offer you can name yourself Mr Charity. And for your information the car has been sold.
    14 points
  33. This notion of "fun" and boasting of excessive speeding has started to concern me a bit. From one hand we have a two lane motorway with a lot of bends with an inadequate hard shoulder. From another side we have inexperienced drivers experiencing a motorway for the first time. I am starting to worry our first pile up with multiple casualties is only around the corner ..... Stay safe boys and girls! A motorway is not for joy riding and remember its not only your life on the line! Most people when they venture south go with their families......
    14 points
  34. I don't have pictures (I probably do,I'll dig them up) But I have a story about: My 2004/5 Mazda 3. So what>you guys may ask? Its a Mazda-f-three. No big deal, we see them all the time. Yes true, but this car taught me one of the most important life lessons: Living within your means. It all started one fine afternoon when I was zooming off to pick up my wife (then fiancee). She had called and asked if I could pick her up after work and I, eager for any chance to meet-up, had promptly agreed. I grabbed my keys, jumped in my newish Mazda3 and zoom-zoomed off. The weather was great, the car was on point and doing all the zoom-zoom things it was advertised to do. I was on my way to see my love, things were great and I was in a fantastic mood. So naturally, like for most car guys, my exuberance spilled over into my driving and I started to think I could drive better than I really could: My car was not a Mazda! It was a race car, and I was Schumacher! It was great for a little bit, but unfortunately no one had informed the general public that they were on a race-track, and driving along at full tilt, I soon had an upstart: I took a blind corner a little too fast (to the car's credit it whipped around the corner just fine) and bang! I rear ended a white Toyota, that was around the bend pottering along at a leisurely pace...I was already into the corner when I saw the car and I had no chance at any sort of evasive action for my instinct was to slam on the brakes. As soon as I got on the brakes, the car started sliding as it was already pivoting around the corner and I slid right into the back of this poor old Toyota that was just rattling along minding its business, and knocked it forward. Shit. Shit. Shit. I slid to a stop and sheepishly jumped out from behind the wheel to check on the car in front. Thankfully, things weren't as bad as I thought for it had ended up being a relatively low speed collision. The brakes (and the involuntary slide) had done their job and dulled the impact down to a fender bender situation and it was not the full on shit-show that it could have been. I assessed the damage to the car I rear ended, and made my way to front of the car fully expecting an earful of choice words from the driver as the fault was irrevocably mine. Thankfully, the driver was an easy going sort of uncle who was more bemused than angry, and even seemed to think that I had rammed him because my brakes failed or something. Little did he know my brakes were working fine and that it was only because they did such a spectacular job of slowing me down that he wasn't Schumacher-ed from the rear harder! We sorted it all out: I took pictures and quickly agreed to pay for his rear fender that had dented in and then sort of popped out from the sides. I was appropriately apologetic, and the gentleman who was modestly dressed, seemed to take it well. Thinking to reassure him I was a bit expansive, and effusively promised him that I would do what it takes to fix his car for him. Looking at his older car that had a bit of rust and general wear & tear, I promised him it would look better-than-new by the time the paint guys were done with it etc. He seemed relieved, and by the general state of his car, I assumed it was because he would finally have a rear bumper that didn't have multiple dings and scrapes in it. Well the cars got repaired, and while I paid for his repair at the garage of his choice, I also wanted to meet him again so I could apologize and thank him in person for being such a gentleman about the whole affair. So I called and made arrangements to meet him and rolled up as arranged. Pulling up, I was a bit surprised as the bugger lived in a fancy neighborhood. One that was much, nicer than the area I lived in ( I was renting at the time I think too) and I was a bit surprised. I did a double-take but no, it was the right place, for I spotted the old Toyota sitting pretty (sans a bit of rust and looking shiny around the rear-end, but still looking tired around the front). I pulled in, rang the door bell and there was the old boy himself beaming, happy to welcome me into his home etc. So I palmed him the little gift I had for him, expressed regret for my actions and did the whole: "Thank you for being such a Gentleman" bit I had rehearsed. And being the crafty bugger I was; before I left, I worked around to complimenting him on his house and told him (frankly now) how amazingly beautiful it was. And get this: The bugger looks me dead in the eye and tells me: "Yes, Thanks! I live in this house because I have been careful with my money. I've invested most of my money, and putting it into this house, was part of my investments. Look, I bought that car outside AFTER I finished building this house and see, while this house is as beautiful as ever, the car is hardly worth selling in that condition". Feeling a bit bemused, I drove away feeling I had learned a number of lessons that day: Mainly not to judge people by how they are dressed or by the car they drive, as the guy I rear ended was a solid chap - morally as well as financially! But I also reflected on how I drove a nice new car, while living in a rented house, yet this smart bugger did the complete opposite. The lesson hit hard, as I pretty much cleared out my savings account to pay for the repairs on both the cars; yet this chap driving an old Toyota, was obviously much more liquid than I was...It was an interesting day, with lots of little life-lessons for me. The moral of the story: Drive a Mazda. It's totally zoom-zoom. And even if it zoom-zoom's you into rear-ending someone, you'll still end up learning something.
    13 points
  35. Alert : This is not the awe-inspiring blog where a 60-year-old rare car gets restored. This, non-existent ladies, and gentlemen unfortunately is much much more mundane. So bear with me. Everyone needs a beater car - you could come up with many reasons why... but deep down another set of wheels is such an alluring prospect. Time to time it feels so good to keep your daily with all its techie bits aside and just rattle down the lane in a simple box on wheels with just a speedometer. Three years ago me and my father bought a 1972 Datsun (B110) and since I was broke then and had no space in my house which was being built it fell upon my father to fund it and keep it in his garage with his Beetle. I drove it on the weekends for short distance trips and let me tell you that car was fun to drive. However, cars of that vintage need a lot of TLC. It's not a beater car at all and you need to develop a bond with the car to keep it running - you have to know exactly how much gas it needs to stop it from stalling and when and when not to use the choke (yeah choke....remember?) So clearly it's not the type of car that you can throw the keys to a close friend (yeah I'm a little picky when sharing the car keys) OR even the wife (who by the way is quite a competent driver) and expect them to figure out to drive it in case of an emergency. I've always had a soft spot for the boxy little cars from the 1980's - you can read about that infatuation here. Under these circumstances I decided to save up a bit and get myself a beater car from the 80's .Given that I have little parking space under a tree in the garden(the Civic sits in the garage) my choices were limited to hatches. In a sense the 80's was a decade where hatches gained popularity so a 80's hatch was an ideal retro-relic that would double up as a reliable beater car. My budget was quite limited ~500,000 I was ok with a car with a bit of work to do and . The most tempting option was to go for the definitive hot hatch : a Golf and I entertained this idea for quite a while and did a fair bit of research. The other temptation was to go for a Fiat Uno. However, all the research I did gave me doubts. Golf's at that budget were disasters waiting to happen and the Fiat - as much as I loved it (one of my first die casts was a Bburago Fiat Uno and as a result I grew up loving Fiat Uno’s) didn't seem a very practical option unless I was really really into it : I'm talking about "Get on an illegal immigrant boat from Negombo and swim the last 100 miles to Napoli and walk to Turin and steal parts from a Mafioso's uncles Fiat" level dedication - since I can't swim anyway I gave up on that too and shelved these ideas under 'When I grow up'. By now Japanese flags were appearing in my mind and some usual suspects came up - Toyota Starlet EP71, Corolla2/Tercel, Nissan March K10 and Daihatsu Charade G11 .Yes the Honda fanboy in me screamed 'Civic' but Civic hatches are rare and unmolested ones are even rarer. One look at the Civic hatches for that budget with their garish Nilkamal plastic mods and hideous color combinations (that only a guy who smokes too much KG and listens to bus-Ajith can think of ) gives you cholera that screams 'Hondaaa' when it exits your body. So, I eventually narrowed down to basically 4 models and the hunt began. As usual the Toyota’s were overpriced and the only EP71 within my budget was mysterious car that had some work to be done but had the YOM as 1981 (the first EP71 rolled off in 1984) and the Corolla2/Tercels were well beyond budget. At the same time, I’d been floating the idea of an engine swap and having read a few threads on 4EFTE swaps on Charades and March K10’s in Pakistani and British forums I started focusing on them. After many weeks and many futile trips, (and weird encounters - including a persistent and scantily clad lady insisting I wait till her husband comes and make an offer for a car that was on the verge of collapsing into a pile of rust and a small child beating a poor Charade while I was inspecting it with a wooden stick until the flaky paint started coming off ) I realized these once-honest hard working engines were basically gasping for life. Then April 21st happened, and things were put on hold for a few weeks. I continued to do more research on engines, repairing, parts availability as well as engine swapping along with my friend and realized that the easiest 80’s Jap hatch to live with will be from Toyota AND when and if I wanted to do an engine swap it would be relatively painless putting in a Toyota Engine that was easily found. As for the budget well – it was a bit above budget ( dad came to the rescue). In September 2019 I ended up with this – a Toyota Starlet EP71 from 1985 registered in 1989 with a fake Soleil badge. There were various grades for the EP71 and judging by the equipment of this car I'd place it at either XL or DX however the DX had Fender Mounted Mirrors so unless someone installed door mounted Mirros on a DX the car was probably an XL. The A/C worked, there was some minor rust issues, and the suspension apparently needed a bit of attention, The interior while not pristine was acceptable and just like that I had my beater car which was a little bit older than me. So how was the ride? – The car is quite light and for a car without power steering it’s extremely maneuverable. The driving position is low and quite nice. There was a few rattling bits here and there expectedly, and the breaks were rather weak. The 35-year-old 2E was quite tired by now and to be honest when you must keep coaxing it to keep going like asking an asthma patient to keep breathing well it’s not that enjoyable. At the same time the car developed a very specific issue : The car would start without fail every morning – BUT once you drive somewhere and switch off the engine it would not start for an hour. Keep it for an hour then it starts again and runs well for the whole day. Basically, the second start will not happen sooner than one hour after the first start of the day. I had to arrange my timetables accordingly! By December I was running out of patience with the 2E and at the same time I’d been yearning to put in a 4EFTE as it seemed quite straightforward. However, Recon 4EFTE’s from Japan were now going for 250,000 and having spent more than intended already on the car I was already on a very tight budget. Ok that was too long for the first part – I’ll get back with another post on the mechanical mods done on the car to date. Ciao! Here's a few pics of the car from last year:
    13 points
  36. Excellency, I believe I'm not worthy to provide my humble opinion for thy request. I am but no engineer -though I'm aware of issues . I hath but owned one car that falls in your excellency's budget of the proximity of 3 million, which is the Honda Fit GP1 which hath been extensively discussed. Would your excellency care to do a search for that particular car? There are many more models I could suggest to your excellency but sadly I'm not qualified to be worthy to provide input. The current car I own exceeds thy budget hence I'm unqualified to be honored in providing an input for your excellency. Please pardon this humble peasant.
    13 points
  37. I'm babysitting (or is it Car-sitting?) member @milindu's baby this week. Some pics...
    13 points
  38. My Montero Sport Saved my life today. Took a T bone collision to the rear quarter panel, from a lorry, the thing came straight to the drivers door. I accelerated and saved my self, just got discharged from the hospital after a checkup, No matter what new fellas say about crumple zones and what not, this thing is proper weight to weight. Just realise how strong these suvs are. Just a large bump and I drove it home. Amazed realising it took tg awhile weight and was shoved to a side. The lorry was a proper mahiyangana sand lorry, full load, the c**t was driving on a learners permit, couldn't control his reverse into the construction zone, lost control and rolled right onto me down a slope, face first. If I was in my vitz or a smaller car, I'd be in a morque now. Cops took over the lorry momentarily but I deferred them. Repair cost approx 100k, given I need a new wheel arch and tail light. And its pearl white, expensive bitch to paint. Despite my parents and friends deciding to ruin his life legally, the driver is in the hospital after negotiations but I am not pressing charges or taxing him for the repair, as he will loose his livelihood and be in jail. Best part is, if the car rolled over, I would be in the mahaweli river. Dear friends, please give up smaller cars when money permits. Get something large and safe. Due to privacy concerns I am unable to share pictures.
    13 points
  39. Hey that reminds me of my last car selling experience- So I advertised my previous car for sale alright, the first buyer who agreed to pay the asking price was a queer one - he didn't even take a good look at the interior, much less a test drive - he just fell in love with how good the exterior looked- "brand new wage thiyenne mahaththaya!" was what he said. He was right - I know a thing or two about paint protection (wax, people, wax!) - so the very next day we travel to the bank, do the paperwork, he deposits the agreed amount while I fill out MTA forms and stuff - while all this is going on in comes the protagonist of the story. The buyer introduces the newcomer to me as a close relative of his - a professional astrologer. He had calculated the best auspicious time for the new owner to get in the car (or hand the key over- I can't remember which) so anyway, after a wait of more than half an hour we do the deed on the auspicious time - the new owner wanted to take me home, didn't want me to take the bus, bless his kind soul! We were on our merry way when he suddenly remembered he needed a photocopy of some document and we kept an eye for a "communication". You see where this is going now dontcha? Le wild communication appears - driver slams on the brakes - a poor sod who was riding his CD90 too close rear ends the car - gets airborne - lands on the rear trunk and leaves one of his incisors on the trunk lid. We all get out - the very first thing the astrologer told me was "hondha welawata nekathata waahane paarata dhamme, naththan apey passen enne bike ekak nemey tipper ekak!"
    13 points
  40. Hello Gents, After months of research and patience, I have finally found "The One". A car I have been waiting to own for as long as I can remember... a 10th Generation Lancer. What I managed to get is a Lancer RalliArt. Since this particular model isn't available in Sri Lanka (to my knowledge), let me give a brief introduction to the car. Mitsubishi introduced the 10th generation Lancer (Referred to as the Lancer EX in Sri Lanka) in 2008 and it was certainly a different Lancer when compared to previous models. From the hooded brow over the headlights that give it an aggressive look, to the matching rear end, it was a brand new look for the Lancer. Back in 2008 when Mitsubishi launched the 10th gen Lancer, they only really had two variants: The Lancer EX (GLX, GLS, GT) and then the mighty track monster Evolution X. While the Lancer EX comes with engines ranging from 1.5L (4A91) through 2.0L (4J10 and 4B10) to 2.4L (4B12), the power of all these engines were in the range of 109 - 170 horsepower while the Evolution X has a 2.0L Turbo (4B11T) engine that outputs 276 horsepower (The FQ400 in the UK has a massive 403 hp!). That's a pretty big gap right there and Mitsubishi introduced the Lancer RalliArt in 2009 to bridge the gap. The RalliArt also has a 4B11T 2.0L turbocharged engine - the same engine that comes in the Evo X, de-tuned. It outputs 237hp - that's 54 less than the Evo. It's basically ideal for day-to-day use as well as a drive along a twisty road or a track if you are keen. To put it into perspective, if the Evolution is compatible with the Subaru WRX STi, then the RalliArt is head to head with the WRX. Throughout this thread I will try my best to log detailed information about the RalliArt (strengths, weaknesses, comparisons etc.) and also share information about the journey with my car. Hope this will be helpful to someone some day. Before going into any more detail, here she is...
    13 points
  41. Finally I received my Ford Focus. It is a generation 3 model and generation 4 will be released in Q3 in Europe but the agent in Sri Lanka import 3rd Generation model in Titanium trim. However it seems this Titanium trim is customized for Sri Lanka or similar markets since some of the options available in UK titanium model cannot be seen. (Examples, leather seats, Auto breaking, B pillar key pad etc.). It has 8'' touch screen Sync 3 infortainment system with Apple Carplay and Android Auto. The Carplay works well but have to wait until iOS 12 to use Google maps in it. The model comes with 1.0l ecoboost engine and 6F15, 6 speed automatic transmission (not the dual clutch transmission). The engine has 123 bhp and 170 nm torque. Will update the fuel economy after 1500-2000 km and minimum 95 octane should be used. Yesterday I picked the car and drove to Kandy from Colombo and I did not feel it as a car with 1l engine. The engine is refined and you cannot feel the vibration common to 3 pot engines. The acceleration is also good and you can glide in 70 km/h less than 2k rpm. Did not do any hard accelerations since the engine break-in period is around 1000-1500 km but I had to overtake one 40ft container once and when the turbo kicks in, the the car performs really well. The build quality is great and it is a really nice car to drive. Very comfortable and handles well. My old car was a Honda Fit GP1 and missed the magic seat arrangement in it but Focus too have good rear leg space. Some of the pictures are given below. The color is Blazer Blue. I purchased this for a special discounted price and the current selling price is 5.85 millions.
    13 points
  42. Whenever I see those dipshits behind me with strobe lights (even if they drive defenders, prados and whatnot), I consider it as my duty to hog the road right in front of them and not let them pass. I am happy to say that I was successful in agitating one of those dipshits to have encounter with a lamp post.
    13 points
  43. In our childhood, at wedding parties we were keeping our eyes on balloons used for decorations, to own them soon after party finished. Our Polytikkas also have same feeling now ,I guess….
    13 points
  44. Ive just signed up for this site and all ive been seeing are that anytime someone puts up a question about a hybrid, flocks of users keeps insulting them on their vehicle. I really dont see what they have to hate them so much?? I own a prius 3rd gen and i can tell from over 2 years of use that although it may not be in the same class and far from the of looks as an exotic or be anywhere near a sports car in performance it does serve its purpose better than any other car ive used so far. Ive been using a 121 and ive been using beemers and several other US models and ive experienced first handed that this prius is much more reliable and much economical in every sense compared to other cars of the SAME price range. I am an avid lover of tuned modified cars and the prius does not make those come true but it still is one of the best cars ive ever driven. To anyone looking for a car which is reliable or economical i would recommend a prius although if looking for a cheap car it would not be bad to get a used 121 or civic (i am not a environmental freak btw though i do care for it :| ) The prius saves me a lot on gas and i mean a lot. i drive over 3000km per month both in colombo and to outstation locations. during long distance driving i ususally get over 20kmpl but if not going agressively i can get around 30kmpl while going at 50-70kmph. in rush hour traffic i get varying mileage while sometimes it may drop to 16kmpl but usually about 19-22kmpl. and considering the price of fuel it is a great saving considering i dont even have to use 95 octane. i was going to buy an allion 2011 but decided against it as the prius was full of options unlike the allion. someone here suggested that i test the pre collision system by driving at a wall or tree... and i did try it. but i instead drove it at a pile of cardboard boxes and for their info it did stop automatically without hitting it. and the radar cruise control is also a useful feature but i dont use it much considering our three wheel drivers and motor bikes. other maintenance stuff is also lower as the service has to be done only every 10000km and there is no need to change ATF oil or any belts. ive been using it for 40000km and the brake pads are almost like brand new. (in the corolla i would have to replace every 25000) the only problem is the stock ture size that came in the touring mode. the 17" 215 tires are a bit expensive but this problem is not there in the regular JP prius. ive yet to replace a single mechanical part and there have been no issues at all except that i drained the 12V battery once by listening to the radio in ACC mode for too long. another benefit is when the car is stopped you can use the AC without burning fuel. the performance is nowhere near a BMW or an american car but it does provide more power than the majority of vehicles in sri lanka (outside inner colombo ) and the acceleration response is better because of the motors. and in PWR mode it feels much better than an insight in S mode (though the sound of the engine is not at all sporty... sounds like an aircraft taking off) On the contrary to what people say, the battery is as reliable as any other part of the car and the chance of your battery failing is almost nil unless you treat it badly which is the same for a gasoline car if you do not maintain the engine it will be damaged. and the battery can now be repaired by changing damaged cells which are about 7000 rupees only. and i believe a reason people insult hybrid owners are because they drive slowly. thats the fault of the driver, not the car.. driving slow will not make it more efficient and ive seen people in jaguars and BMWs going slower than that. to all who think hybrids are cheap vehicles. just because they are relatively cheap here, in japan they are about two time more expensive when used than a brand new allion.. AND i know some here are going to say im jobless to be typing this yeah. true. im doing this just because some people dont care about saving their hard earned money that doesnt mean they should insult others who do try. anyone who has any questions im willing to provide answers to the best i can. and im open to any comments why your'll hate hybrids so much (P.S i did hate them before i bought one... so you should try it without being prejudiced)
    13 points
  45. Machan "pdeeban" don’t blow your own trumpet too much. Just because you got a permit and you go for a beamer will not make you special. Obviously I cannot afford 11mil, but honestly from the way you commenting, my guess is that the permit is not something you earned by your hard work and also you are one of those soda bottle millineries who got rich suddenly by favoring the ruling party, or by illegal business or you’re a dumb ass son of a rich father. So my advice is more you maintain silence, more you’ll doing a favor for yourself, especially in a forum like AL.
    13 points
  46. Bullsh*t. Sad to see that you haven't changed that shortsighted mentality of yours even after all these years. Once a blinkered idiot, always a blinkered idiot I guess. To The OP, Most modern diesel engines are completely differrent beasts than old lumps like the Toyota C, L engines and the Nissan QD's etc. Stuff like common rail injection, Variable geometry turbos and so on all lead to an engine that has much higher stresses put upon it than the diesels of old. That is partly why modern diesels are very powerful and even more economical than ever before. All in all, this means that durability is reduced somewhat compared to the older lumps that could take 200-250,000 Km between rebuilds. This is not a problem common to the koreans either, even modern Toyota common Rails like the D4D's found in the Prados, hiluxes and so on can do maybe 150,000 Km before they too need to be redone. So contrary to what the so called "engineer" who replied first tells you, this is a problem common to most modern diesel engines, simply because of the stresses put on them. Another factor (In SL at least) is the quality of our Diesel. Most modern engines need clean diesel with a very low Sulfur content. Even our Super diesel is not quite good enough compared to what you get in other countries but it is certainly WAY better than the normal diesel. This is why all agents who sell modern diesels generally say very clearly to only use super diesel. Unfortunately, because the Korean SUV's are pretty reasonably priced, most of the time our donkeys (like the "engineer" up there) decide that they know better than the agent and the manufacturer, and pump normal diesel. Which of course leads to the engine getting buggered early on.
    13 points
  47. There used to be a time in this country where people raised hell when they got ripped off. Now they just open autolanka accounts. When you look at these people, it's really no wonder that the government can do what ever it wants. Welcome to Sheep Lanka. A land like no other.
    13 points
  48. Seems there were some other things mentioned which Peri has kindly cleaned up. And I agree with you as well, common decency has to go both ways. But as it is said in Buddhism, anger breeds anger. There is no point of trying to fight fire with fire. I think my advice to anybody on this forum is, if somebody posts something factually incorrect point it out, if you have a different opinion feel free to air it and everybody must understand by virtue of you publishing your opinion you are also inviting others to challenge it and that is how a forum works. We all have to learn to take criticism without restoring to bad language name calling and personal attacks and accept the diversity of opinions that exist But there is still such a thing as etiquette and if you don't like an individual or what he has to say, I think the best way to deal with it is just ignore that individual. Anyway, since Sylvi and Watchmen have both had their say, its time to move on..........
    13 points
  49. Since its an aqua, the potential buyer will see a value in the number plate. In fact, the potential buyer will see a value in everything except the mechanical condition of the car
    12 points
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