tbird

Honda GP1 cannot run without the hybrid battery, if the battery is dead you need to replace it with a good battery.

Changing from EV mode to Engine mode means, from EV mode animation to Engine power up animation? I used a GP1 4 year till 73000km, didn’t notice such an issue. Could this be related to gear box.

Yes, it is a great engine with good power and torque. You don’t feel it is 1l engine when driving and the low end torque is really great and you can overtake anything very quickly. I’m running this 1l ecoboost Ford Focus and now it clocked 1200km. The eco part of this engine is bit tricky and you have to very very light foot to achieve it. Driving style of a hybrid do a trick otherwise it will give the fuel figures of the Ford 1.6 Duratec engine

You are correct and this is valid for some Sri Lankans, specially in the old days. Now lot of people try to buy something new, to enjoy the comfort, features, ride quality etc. As an example, see the number of new Honda Civic 1Ts, MG ZS were sold in Sri Lanka during this year. So the time is changing and most people love to buy a new car even if it is a small kei car.

True, it is really cheap for the person who bought, I wanted to sell it quickly to buy the new car which I got a 0.4M discount from the agent as the special introductory price, so it was a win-win situation.

You can use an mobile phone App for this purpose. There are lot of free apps available in Android and few free apps available in iOS. You only need to enter odometer value and liters of petrol pumped. In addition you can track the service records from these apps and add service reminders too (time base and odometer based). The records can be exported to Excel and make PDF records for Service. These reports come in handy when you sell the vehicle

75% of usable capacity is a very good value. Also check the owner has the maintenance records as well.

SOC means state of the charge of the battery at the time you performed the check. Usable capacity is the factor you should consider. 25% is not good and you may need to replace the battery in near future and fuel consumption is also not good since the assisting time is low due to the low capacity in this IMA hybrid system. Try to get a car at least over50% of usable capacity or you can ask the seller to reduce the price showing this scan results. Later you can use that saved money to replace the battery

The ridiculous tax system drives the Sri Lankan car market. For an example in 2014, unregistered Honda Fit GP1 hybrid base grade with lot of options was 3.2M and unregistered 1l Toyota Vitz base grade with minimum options was around 3.7M due to the low hybrid tax. So I imported GP1 hybrid for 3.25M and enjoyed it because it was a fun little car to drive with lot of space. In addition I payed less for the fuel than the Toyota Vitz. After 4 years I sold it for 3.05M and the usable capacity of the battery was 75%. The car was manufactured in 2012 and after 6 years the battery degradation was 25%. So the person who purchased can run it more than 5 years from the current battery. If you know what you purchase, know how it woks and maintain properly and price it reasonably, you can sell it without a problem. This is my personal experience and I did not get any battery issue during my ownership. Lot of people don’t know how to use a hybrid that is why they get battery issues, they don’t use it daily and try to use EV mode all the time (specially Prius, Aqua) and they get battery issues sooner. Now I took the advantage of the current tax system and purchased 2018 Ford Focus 1l Turbo for 5.5M which is more fun to drive and comfortable than a 2018 Axio or Premio. (2018 Axio is around 7.5M and Premio around 8.5M). I don’t know what will be the second hand price for Ford Focus but I surely know I can enjoy it really well during the coming years since I have the agent’s warranty. So I maintain my new car really well as I did for my old Honda Fit hybrid and If I price it reasonably, I know I can sell it in the future.

Since Mitsubishi Eclipse is so new, not sure any users available in AL. The agent for Mitsubishi imports the brand new Eclipse and I saw their promotion at Kandy City Center shopping mall. I did not like the front and rear appearance, so did not inspect the vehicle. If you contact the agent you may be able to have a test drive

Do you have dual clutch transmission or 6 speed automatic (6F15) in your Fiesta? Did you import it directly from the UK?

195 km/h? ?

Take it to the agent or any good place who can do a battery scan. Ask them to check the usable capacity of the hybrid battery. I think this mileage is ok according to Sri Lankan traffic condition but it is good to check since EV mode gives only 100-200m

Yes, it is true and when you use it, the usable capacity reduces and you may need repair or ultimately replace the battery. This is a known fact when anyone purchase a hybrid. The problem is asking price for a used hybrid is very high, for an example lot of people advertise 2012 Honda Fit GP1 for 3.4-3.5 M that is not worth. They should price it considering the usable capacity of the battery, then they can sell it easily and person who buy it, can replace the battery if needed.

Apple CarPlay does not support third party mapping applications at the moment in iOS11. In iOS 12, Apple will support third party mapping applications like Google Maps, Waze etc (According to the published information and iOS12 beta reviews). According to the news, iOS 12 will be released in September 2018

This is true, I sold my Honda Fit GP1 in 3 days, Advertised on a Tuesday evening and sold on Saturday morning and you need to give a reasonable price without trying to make a profit. And if you have a good maintenance record, you can sell a hybrid easily because most of the people called me requested the maintenance records and wanted to have a scan to see the battery status. I still see there are lot of FIT GP1 in same vintage available in advertising sites more than a month and asking price is very unreasonable when considering the depreciation and the battery degrade level.

Well see the bright side, the tax amount of 990 CC, turbo charged models will go down from 232000/, earlier the tax was 1732000/-. So the price of the Honda Civic and Audi A3, Q2 1l models should be reduced from at least 200,000

Yeah, will update the fuel figures after 1500-2000 km. At the moment it shows an average between 8-10 km/l in normal traffic and hilly road in Kandy. I expect 10-12 km/l in the city and around 15km/l in long distance after the break in period.

According to some Apple fans site, iOS 12 should be released in September, 2018 and Google maps and Waze can be used in Apple CarPlay as third party apps

Yes, agree similar to BR-V from Honda

If you like a 7 seater, small SUV, you can check all new Toyota Rush. I checked the price one month ago, non permit price was 8 millions and that was an introductory price. Please give a call to Toyota L###a and check the latest price for the permit. If you have a 3.6 millions permit, the price of the Toyota Rush will be around 5.4 millions. The Rush has some good options as well. If you like some other brands, you have very good options such as Peugeot 2008, Peugeot 3008 SUVs, ( Peugeot 2008 will be around 3.3 millions for the permit) or you can go for a sedan like Ford Focus which I purchased this week, a really nice car with lot of options. The non-permit price is 5.85 millions and permit price will be less. So call the agents and the get the price list for the permit or you can check few car sales and check prices of JDM models like Vitz, CH-R, Axio, Aqua etc or some European cars like Honda Civic hatchback, Audi A3, Audi Q2

Thanks, will create an account

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.

It is the normal selling price. Not the permit price. 5.5 is the special discounted. Now the selling price is 5.85 millions. This is the 1.0l Ecoboost model so the tax amount is low (around 1.75 millions.) similar to Honda Civic 1l turbo models.

Yes. there was an issue with Ford dual clutch teansmission, specially for one manufactured from 2012-2015 but it is fixed now with advanced clutch plates and software updates. The one I orderd has 1l ecoboost model. Will update more information tomorrow after getting the car