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I got negative reps in Ela*ir* for saying that.

Hi Everyone, Thought to start this topic to keep a record on maintenance and repairs if any. The car referred here is my Lancer EX (for those who don't know) and the details of it could be found here. I bought the car just about an year ago with a mileage of 108000kms on it clock. Car had all following things done at 94000kms when I bought it. 1.Replaced all four shocks and dampers. 2.Engine Tuneup plus new plug set. 3.Alternator Belt replaced. 4.New tires installed. 5.New Battery installed. 6.Fron RHD bearing replaced. 7.Auto Gear Oil Changed. All the above except for the battery had been done at the agent (Unit#d Mot#rs). When I bought the car, I didn't have anything to do actually. Feel lucky about this and thankful to the previous owner. (Maybe a merit of selling my previous car in the same condition) Anyways, I'll list down the repairs/maintenance the car underwent during my ownership along with the details of pricing and all. All you guys of the Lancer EX Auto Lanka fraternity, please feel free to use this thread to share details of repairs & running maintenance of your cars as well.

No, in the EX it’s located to the dead center of the dashboard and mounted towards the firewall. In the CS Lancer though what you said is possible. That was how the cooler was removed from the CS when I had to replace it back in the day. What I’ve seen is the in most never cars they remove the entire dashboard to access the cooler. That’s common irrespective of the manufacturer.

That price difference as someone else mentioned is probably for the purchase of a permit (so essentially the car will be brought down under a permit if the person does not have one). Do the math.... A 1.2L WXB is going to be about 2.5mil yen without any fancy equipment which is about 4.1..CIF would be about 4.3mil....if you add what you claim is to be the taxes, 4.16 mil..then don't you think the car should be 8.4 mil atleast ? or under the old taxes where it was 3.7 mil or something....8mil in total if you import it without any special permit. So the 6.8mil should be a car imported under a special permit. You keep on saying "not using full value of the permit", but I do not think you understand that the above prices are there because the permit was used to its full value.

Anyhow, after all that trouble and a full day got it fixed. The issue was the cooler which had a small leak. Replaced it with again a Taiwanese one. Total Cost for the repair was Rs.25,000/- 15k for the part and 10 k for the gas and labour. After this, cooling got improved drastically but I must say CS was better..

WTF can't even remove the last photo.. feels like a f**king amateur.

2.AC Cooler Replacement. (June 2019) I'm a huge AC addict. My CS Lancer was having super cool AC and in fact I've rarely seen a car that support that much cool. You just can't run it with dial turned to the lowest temp for more than 10 minutes as you would freeze to death inside the car. Ever since I bought the EX I had this lack of cooling inside the car which was bugging me a lot. It took time to cool the cabin to a decent extent and I was partly blaming the faded tint for it. One day it was jut blowing hot air and it happened in a bit of a troublesome time as my mom was hospitalised at that time. So I went to my trusted AC workshop (Himara Engineering - Panadura) and re-gassed and drove away happily. Ran the car like that for couple of moths and I noticed the lack of cool again. So during a drive by, I stopped at the AC Workshop and asked them to do a refill again. Having known me for a long time the owner of the shop refused to do that and blamed me for running with an AC gas leak. He further stressed that with gas, the oil also leaks from the compressor eventually causing a busted compressor as well. So that was enough for me to realise to cost that I'm gonna have to incur if I was to continue to drive like that. So on the next weekend I went to the workshop to get this checked. Actually first I was in two minds as to where I was gonna get this done as I knew that entire interior required to be removed to check the cooler. Not that Himara Engineering was bad but this was my new car. But having seen the vehicles they do repairs and knowing the workers standards I went there finally. So as anticipated they started removing the interior bits one by one, at the end it was like a gutted animal carcass. Here are few phots for you to see how it was.. (Im having trouble getting these phots correctly oriented, could some admin please correct these)

1.Front CV Axle boot replacement. (January 2019) So this was the first thing I had to do as a repair. I noticed CV boot is leaking during a regular service and immediately arranged to have it replaced. Unfortunately I've deleted the photos of the leaking boot which I've taken back then. Anyways, I wanted to get it replaced at the agent but to my surprise they didn't have the part with them. Asked me to wait about 3 weeks if I wanted it imported from Japan. Since waiting that long could cause serious issues to the CV joint (as the car is a daily runner) I Opted to go for a Taiwanese import boot. Got the repair done at Auto Box union place. Cost for the boot - Rs.1,850/- Labour - 1,100/- Wheel Alignment 2,250/- Got all done within an hour as they were quick bringing down the part and they did the alignment in-house as well. That was an easy fix .

The difference of 2.1 million is the price they pay for a permit in the black market.

I would endorse what everyone has said here- go with the mazda3. I agree with iRage that the Civic 1.0 is a compromised variant - but then again so is the Mazda3 which we get here to a certain extent. Remember the standard car comes with the 2.0 Sky-activ and you get the Sky-active X variants. What you are getting here is the previous generation 1.5 Sky-active which powers the Mazda2. Its not the most engaging engine. Also you will be missing a few options on the 3 like the I- Activesense, leather, sunroof. push button start, Bose stereo if those are important for you. Go check the car out the agents-I believe they have a got a new shipment recently. Saw one on the road recently and it looks stunning especially from the front.

With a 1.2 you get the full value for your permit as the tax is 3.85 million and the permit is only 3.6 million. If you go for a 1.5 gasoline Axio the tax will be very high and not worth it. There was a 1.3 gasoline Axio but it is not as good to drive, not that economical and probably has a lower 2nd hand market.

Well..how much your Axio will be at auction will depend on the car you are looking at itself.... But...the new Corolla sedan is a much nicer car to drive and has much nicer features. Also, the seats and such a much nicer to sit in. Only think I do not like is that in the rear it was a bit dark and felt a bit claustrophobic. The old Axio with its boxy top half "feels" more roomier..

Uhh..based on CNX's reply don't you think the 1.2L option is actually pretty good ? You would have used the full value of your permit and out of pocket you have to put only 250,000LKR. For a 1.5L car you would have to put the permit plus a lot more money towards the tax. With the 1.2 you can have more money for the car. The 1.5L engine is getting phased out by many manufacturers. In fact in the class of vehicle you are looking at, the only manufacturer who has a 1.5L engine is Honda. The other options are look for a Premio/Allion at auction ?

For a budget of 5 million assuming you have the 3.6 million permit, you can go for a zero milage 1.2 T CHR or the 1.2T corolla manual transmission. The 1.2 gives the best value for the permit as the tax comes to around 3.85 million so you end up paying only 250000 as taxes out of pocket. The other options are hybrids such as Vessel , Axio hybrid.

Yes...that is what the business model grade is now. In the past the business model had a X and G grade with cut down feaures and some added features useful for fleets, roadies, etc... Well...I don't believe you will find any "0" mileage Axios in auction anymore...even if it was bought from the Toyota dealer yesteray it would have about 40-100kms on it...but since the Axio stocks were sold out a few months ago..it is highly unlikely that the 0 mileage ones are still lying around. But you should be able to find low mileage ones around still. If your importer is good..they will give you access to the Japanese auction house website where you can see the cars that are coming on to the auction block. The documents you will see on these sites can be trusted. Better yet...see if you can check the same car from different auction sites...You can pick the cars you want to bid on and they will do it for you. You cannot trust the documents when you don't have this access.

Yes...the JDM variant comes with a 1.2L in sedan and touring form but only with a 6MT. The 1.2L Corolla Sport on the other hand comes with both CVT and 6MT