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Guys, I'm looking to buy a Mazda 3/Axela 2014. I spoke to colonial motors and they have Mazda 3 2015 for 5.9 million, 6.9 million for the full package one with skyactiv. Car importers are bringing the Hybrid axela with Skyactiv and price is between 5.2 - 5.6 mil. Colonial said that they are not bringing down the hybrid. Hybrid sounds like a good deal, but since the agent doesn't sell the vehicle I'm bit worried about special services I might be needing. I have first hand experience dealing with a rat attack to the hybrid system in my Aqua and thanks to Toyota LK I was up and running in no time, so I'm counting on agent's service. What would you think?

any second hand parts shop in delkanda or almost anywhere in this country. tailgate struts (that's the correct term) are very common items and will fit many vehicles. Once I fitted a pair from a hyundai to a peugeot without any problem.

Actually Don youre quite right on some but the name of the game is preventive maintenance and really timely maintenance. Currently using my 3rd 3 series - went from 320d E46 preface to 318i facelift with an N42 engine and now a 318i E90. Used the 318i E46 with the N42 for 8 years - car was rock solid - daily runner never gave me any grief but I did my maintenance on time. After about 6 years replaced the valve seals at the agent - got the parts from UK agents and prest*ge charged me 22k to fit - they had no issues with me supplying the parts. Also as of many years ago there really isn't any special tropicalisation process. (did the research here) but the cars they used to bring down including my E46 petrol were de-catted with no euro 3 emission control system and the same ECE spec as is sold in UK sourced direct from Germany. They do even have something called the rough road package for this part of the world but its really only a set of shims for the front and rear suspension which lift the front by 2 cm and the rear by .65cm to give a bit of additional ground clearence. Actually the suspension is fairly simple the usual suspect on the E46 is the lower end bushes but this this only about 12-15K and need replacement every 3-4 years - used poly bushes here with very good result. You need access to the BMW diagnostics as the cars will self diagnose - no need to resort to maka bass's. !! Also not easy to turn milage on this as the milage is stored in 6 computers and if its tampered with you will get a red dot appearing on the dash (tamper dot) If you source your parts from UK and have access to the diags - you can easily maintain these without breaking any banks and the genuine parts in UK are actually cheaper than the bloody toyota parts that you get in SL ! The petrol service interval is actually 25K km;s or preferably once a year and the agents cost for that is actually quite reasonable ! I guess everyone has their own preferences but moved from japs (having owned nissan / toyota and honda) to BMW's and never looked back Of course my first car was a Mini minor so was always partial to euro's and was familier doing small repairs thanks to the lessons learned in the mini Just my 2 cents worth. Cheers,

I guess you hate it because its a 1300CC. IMHO, its a mistake made by Nissan to release that model with a 1300 power-train. But you knew its a 1300CC and bought it anyway, so you are to be blamed! I owned a N16 1500CC manual and it was a nice car. It got me from point A to B, never failed on the road and did OK on fuel. For routine services may I suggest A*W P*tStop. Those guys know their Nissans . And they have many oil options, including synthetic, semi-synthetic and a variety of mineral multi-grade oils. Things to look for & do: Front lower arm bushes (they break no matter how careful you drive). Check them during regular services when the car is on the hoist. Any garage will replace just the bushes for a fraction of price quoted by the agent (agents replace the whole lower arm ). Maintain a clean air-filter. The car will reward you with better mileage per every liter of fuel. Maintain a clean AC intake filter. (this is the filter which you can reach after removing the glove compartment) Wash it with soap, rinse away the soap thoroughly & dry before re-installing. Replace it if necessary. Even better mileage per every liter of fuel. Based on the engine condition, if possible, use a semi-synthetic oil like GTX Magnatec. I have personal experience with that particular oil and car, is a match made in Nissan Heaven Every 25000 km or so, do a throttle body cleanup and tuneup from A*W or any other respectable garage with proper equipment. If you drive a lot, you will recover the tuneup cost from fuel savings alone. Besides the car would praise you by running smoother. Do the regular servicing. That's it! Drive on!

As far as I know there are only less than 5 bravo's in sri lanka.. its a cool car.. Well fiat GP doesn't have a gear box issue .. The issue is with the hydraulic clutch unit. Grande Punto has a manual gear box. The hydraulic clutch is operated by a 'salespeed' hydraulic pump which will change the gears adjusting the pressure. The salespeed pump is pretty expensive. This problem only exsist with the petrol ones. In the diesel version this issue was fixed. If ur not bothered go for the diesel. It's a turbo engine. There is no permanent solution for this. There is a temporary solution but it's not costly. Proper maintainance of this pump will increase it's life span. Use only tutela salespeed oil for the pump. Its a must. other than that there is a issue with the electronic power steering system. It's not common though. Parts are available. I have my guy who will manage to find any part for the punto. So far i don't have any issues. Any part is available online ; only if u can find a way of getting things down here. Personally I'm in love with this car. It's so thrilling to drive this. Switch off the eps and its magic. I can recommended a guy for u, but can't expose details here. It's not powerful as the bravo. GP has a smaller engine. Hope it's ok with u.. Did lot of research on this car before i bought mine. That's how i managed to gather the information. Hope this will help..