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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/02/2018 in all areas

  1. Yes. Everyday it starts from Piliyandala and runs around Colombo. The driver employed is very keen to understand the Apps (He said he hasn't used a single app before. That lead me to send him to PickMe as they provide driver training too). Still his learning curve is progressing and it's not that much profitable to run a car for a taxi with a driver. But I can't say it directly because I lack at least 2 months data to analyze. I noticed, during the morning, evening and night are the times it has more hires. During lunch time, the car is idle. So if you are around piliyandala and need a taxi, do let me know. (LOL) I got to know that, PickMe register avarage 60 vehicles a day (All types) and 16000 active drivers are in operation. So you can imagine the possibility to get a hire during the day. However, driver has a major role to play here. He needs to understand the app first and then to see the busy areas and also he must concern the best driving practices to optimize fuel consumption. For past 4 days, The total milage per day to hiring milage ration is around 50%. (Which means if he runs 100Kms he gets 50kms as hiring.) Sometimes, during traffic, it takes too much time to reach to the passenger to pick up. Finally, when you get the loss, it's not entirely the driver's fault. You have to train him and provide him necessary equipments to learn and grow. (I hope younger drivers are better in this case.) These are the some facts I mentioned you to go for a vehicle that is cheap to buy and cheap to maintain. WagonR is good as long as it doesn't give problems. But once it does, the expenses are higher. Yesterday I called A*W to ask for another car to buy (Imagination ) and an area manager told me that they have stopped importing Alto car due to the price increased and last 60 cars in at the showroom and after that, no Altos. If you currently own a kei car, try Uber yourself and see. Go for 2-3 days full time and learn it. That will tell you how you do it. Look at some graphs below. Hope you get more idea about this. The only pleasure I have if I continue this way is if it does not improve is that, 1. I have created one job for a person and I feed 1 family. 2. The driver is helpful for the personal commitment that I will have from next year onward to come to Colombo every day in the morning. If I continue to loss, I will have to make a decision of course but I take these two facts into consideration. In your case, it's different. Hope this reply helps you and not bothering others to read a story.
    4 points
  2. Irrespective of the incident (whether its correct or not), the behavior of the person who representing so called A** M** shows the quality of the place. Thugs are better in customer care than him
    4 points
  3. Exactly what i was thinking. If thats the way they treat their customers inside police I can't imagine their customer service at the site.
    2 points
  4. Hi Guys, Any one using kumho tyres?
    1 point
  5. http://pickme.lk/contact-pickme
    1 point
  6. Talk to them. You can get details. The operator is very helpful.
    1 point
  7. This is just terrible ! Shouldn’t go here even for a wash.
    1 point
  8. So it happened inside a Police station and still they behave like underworld thugs? If they haven't done anything wrong they could have sue the customer or something like that instead of acting like that knowing the thing is getting recorded. And this is not the first time I hear such stories about them so all of them were fabricated by other service people? One of my friends car was installed a cheap replica of original oil filter and still charged for the genuine filter. Not even a gas yata garage would do such.
    1 point
  9. That’s true. I would avoid A$$ M**. Don’t want to deal with these type of people. Thanks for the person who recorded and share this post. Helps others to avoid these kind of places.
    1 point
  10. Pretty sure ST is 6 speed manual only. The Ford Focus ST and RS also come with a 6 speed manual. I have been contemplating on getting a hatch for my wife and the Fiesta is on the list. Been looking at ST as well but had to give up because she wants an automatic and ST was not offered as auto.
    1 point
  11. I used to own a Fiesta imported by the agents. It was a 1.4L 4 speed conventional auto. I think the gearbox was borrowed by Mazda or vise Versa. It’s a very nice car to drive and quite fun. Fuel economy wise It would do around 7-8 in Colombo. Not very good on the highway as well (100kmph @ a tad under 3000RPM). Road noise was a bit on the high side though. The new ones are quite nice but i would stay away from ford’s powershift DCTs and automated manuals. They are not refined. Plus they Have quite a few problems in the long run albeit much better then they used to be . The ones in the Audi’s and even Honda are much much better. Get something with a conventional touque converter as @tbird said. If your not worried about resale value get one ! You will not regret it !
    1 point
  12. No, my Focus has regular torque converter 6 speed auto gear transmission known as 6F15 transmission. My Focus was imported brand new by the agent. If you are going to import your car from UK or Japan and you do not like the DCT, make sure it does not have DCT. One thing you can do, import a Fiesta with 6 speed manual transmission, which is the best in performance and the efficiency. If you know the VIN (vehicle identity no or chassis no), you can check whether it has DCT ( DPS6 ) or conventional auto (6F15) from http://www.etis.ford.com/. Here you need to create an account and enter the VIN, then you can get the details of the Fiesta you are trying to buy. According to the latest information the issues related to DCT transmission are fixed but not sure how it behaves in our traffic condition
    1 point
  13. You have a point here. For 2 days I drove for Uber, that was really an amazing experience to get to know the society we live in. Some passengers do not set actual drop off location and ask the driver to drive more distance may be 2-4kms more. (In this case, passenger is charged more than expected). Sometimes, if a rider cancel a trip after booking, he gets charge a reasonable amount to be paid for the driver for the distance he drove to get the customer's location. (May be riders don't know that and the payment is charged from the next trip he made) The problem with Uber is, they get 25% commission which is too high (For ZIP car gets Rs.30 per 1Km). So those who drive for Uber are either part time drivers or they do both PickMe and Uber. However these days there are many App based taxi service providers coming up which is good in terms of passenger's point of view but none of those are as good as PickMe or Uber.
    1 point
  14. If I may share my genuine experience with you guys. (This is my personal experiences and opinions and I may be wrong. Point out that straight away :) ) As I have a family commitment from next year onward to travel to Colombo early morning which I kind of hate driving in city traffic and have no cost effective vehicle specifically for that, I analyzed both WagonR and Alto (Indian). Wagon R are not bad vehicles for city traffic but compared to Alto LXI it supposed to be higher in maintenance costs. (Too many electronics and hybrid and so and so) But Alto LXI is very basic unit and has lower maintenance and cheaper to maintain. (But again, Alto is Manual)Finally I bought an Alto from A*W and it costs 1 million lower than WagonR. My main concern was to travel in city traffic and even for that I employ a driver. Before going to pay someone straight away, I get registered with Uber (Because it's free) and worked 2 days to see how it goes. I noticed people use Uber are different segment than those who use PickMe. (Some says classy - not my idea though) This is because all the foreigners and those who travel overseas are already using Uber and they have their payment plans merged with the app too. But Uber takes 25% from each trip you make and they charge that amount from the credit hires you get. If you start about 5.30AM and works until 10-11PM, you might go for a daily income of Rs.7000-8000 if the day is good. Uber has more hires than PickeMe because it's relatively cheap for the customer. But for the driver, he gets only Rs.30 per 1km which is worse even tuk tuk charges Rs.40 per 1Km. With 2 Days experience, I employed a driver and went to PickMe for registration because I wanted to earn at least for the amount that I pay for the car and for the drivers salary. (Not basically to operate on profit basis because I have a different agenda which I mentioned above) PickMe charges about Rs.24000 for registration and their daily commission is 10%. Other than this a daily fix pay of Rs.100 is also included. Now the driver is on PickMe and still he is under the period of studying. Once fueled, a little amount is saved but that would be enough to pay for the driver's salary. (Still few days in operation, so can't come to a conclusion. At least 2 months data is needed to make a conclusion) I maintain the car at agents to avoid makabaases ( I believe A*W does a good job) and by the time I bought the car, I didn't think the resale value. There is a depreciation and by the time I sell it, I have to bare that. Also, with current SL Auto market conditions, you can't predict what will happen next. May be I have to give the car for nothing. May be I can sell it again in few years with a profit. Who knows? And I don't care as far as I get my works done. But I know, I can sell it more reasonable price than a WagonR. (You know the reason already I guess) My very basic conclusion is, if you plan to hire the vehicle in taxi service, the vehicle you buy should be easily maintainable with minimum cost and should not have fancy electronics. (Security concern is different thing and if it is city driving, I think both of these cars have enough security already because having additional air bag won't help to avoid major crash). Hope this reply helps you.
    1 point
  15. Dude, you are posting this on the WRONG FORUM! I don't believe there are any Uber/PickMe taxi drivers here in AL. I don' t think AL has people who have owned and operated an Alto or a Wagon R for 300,000 km so any answer you get from here will be purely speculative. You can probably get the kind of reply you like to see (not necessarily the truth) from joining an FB group or the forum of inbred retards. The last question on yours should be posted in an astrology forum. Not an automotive forum.
    1 point
  16. Now my Ford Focus 1l EcoBoost reached to 2800 km in the ODO, so decided to add my experience so far. Handling. 1. Handling is really great specially when cornering. The independent suspension works really well. Never felt this kind of excitement from my previous Japanese cars. Handling of the Honda FIT GP1 was also great but this is brilliant. 2. The steering is very responsive and I can feel the road really well. 3. The car feels heavy when driving. Comfort. 1. Even though it has stiff suspension, the ride is very comfortable 2. Dual zone climate control works really well. 3. Rear seat is very comfortable to 2 people, the center seat is not much comfortable for a long ride. Performance. 1. Even though it has a 1l engine, the pulling power is great, I can say it better than a Toyota Premio. 2. Low end torque is really good and you can overtake a slow vehicle quickly, when the turbo kicks in, it provides power can you can keep going without an issue. 3. The 6 speed automatic transmission is bit slow when transferring power. in Europe this Focus comes with Dual Clutch transmission and it has very good performance but Ford do not offer it to the cars selling to warm temperature zones like Sri Lanka and India. 4. In highway, you can easily come to the 100 km/h and you don't feel the speed 5. There is a turbo lag specially moving from a stand still apart from that I felt like I'm driving a car with 1.8l-2l engine. Fuel Economy 1. In city driving, now it gives 10-11 km/l. This is in moderate traffic in Kandy and some up hill driving. Before 1500km it gave 8-9 km/l in the same route and it seems the fuel economy improved after the break in period. 2. In long distance, few round trips Kandy-Colombo-Kandy (including Colombo traffic), it scored 12.5-13 km/l First Service at the Agent 1. First 1000 km service is an inspection only and they did not change oil. Asked me to come at 5000 km to do the first oil change, after that service interval 7500 km or 6 months. 2. They said they use 10W-30 oil. (In Europe they use 0W-20), it seems Ford recommends higher viscosity fuels for 'Warm temperature zones'. 3. According to the Ford ETIS, my car is developed for 'Warm Temperature zones' (Europe is 'Normal Temperature zone' and Middle east is 'Hot temperature zone' Thanks Croswind for suggesting me to create a Ford ETIS account, it provides very good information about the car according to VIN and I can also get the maintenance schedules as well
    1 point
  17. 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.
    1 point
  18. Hi Watercar, Welcome to AutoLanka Forum.
    1 point
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