kush

If you are even thinking about 1-3 stick to your Japaneese

Man Rs. 55 Mn. is lot of money for a car even now As you mentioned is it a good time to invest in a car? I don't think car at that price could be considered an investment. At your budget you can get a good Merc or a Rang Rover What is your preference Car/ Suv/ Coupe/ Hot hatch High end market has crashed due to economic issues and there are good bargains if you look around and prepare to wait. Is is Rs. 55 Mn. or Rs. 5.5 Mn.

Agreed 100% By the way Swift RS Turbo is a good option. Descent performance, economy and handling with Jap reliability and ease of maintenance. I would rate it above the Vitz that would be the other option Interior is very plasticy (so it is Vitz) if you don't mind that sort of things.

This is the whole idea. When you are in Rome you have to be a Roman. Driving my Macan as a daily driver to work was rather painful affair due bumper to bumper traffic and the stress of having look out for the tuk-tuks and the occasional Mazda / Lancer guy who wants to do fast and the furious (no offense intended for the Lancer, I was one on the first to get one of the EX's down in 2007 and had a wonderful 3 years) Wagon R will keep up with the traffic up to around 50kmph which is more than enough to keep up with the city traffic and due to the size you can manure darn thing around people who hog the road not knowing which lane to keep on to. It can use the lane in parallel with motor cycles which a large car will not be able to do. It is at home with the tuk-tuks at busy city traffic. And parking, size, the turning circle and the ease of getting out of either side of the vehicle. I can't even recollect the number of times I had to park and walk due to not having a large enough parking slot. Believe me it is the faster in traffic and I have kept up with much faster machines with 3-5 times the power. Wagon R or any Kei car should be used for the purpose it was designed which is not the case in SL. Agree it is a pain to drive in the highway, for what ever reason if i get in to it I keep it around 80kmph at the curb side led let the faster traffic overtake me. It will do 100-120 kmph but at that speed if you will not have control over the vehicle. It accommodates my three kids with their school and sports gear. They are allowed to eat/ drink change believe me which is a requirement when you huddle them from class to class or practices. Once the seats are folded it can accommodate large appliances, small furniture (Wagon part) It is all about the intended purpose and how it fits you life. When it came to a decision which car to keep my wife choose the Wagon R over Kia Picanto. Picnato was much fun but the Wagon R was the more practical sensible option. It has given me 5 years of reliable service and sadly I have no alternate to replace. So most likely it will stay with us until the imports open up.

Why don't you buy a Wagon R. I have one and it is pretty fast from light to light in Colombo. Because of the size it could keep up with the took tooks Handling is not too bad as you do not have enough power to get in to trouble and you can drive at the limit at decent speeds. In way of a 2CV body roll and under steer can be controlled if you carefully managed the speeds and the throttle. Once in a while you get this other car guys in so called super Axios, Lancers, Mazdas who get embarrassed and wants to race with you when you over take them. especially when my wife is in the driving seat. Sometimes I beat the s**t out of the poor thing in so called sports mode which allows you to rev up to 7K (if you can bear the engine drawl) After all it is not the number in inches that matter it is what you do to make the best out of what you got.

Sunroofs gives trouble in SL. They leak when the rubber is get harden especially if parked outside In my view troubles it gives out weight more than the occasional use.

We have a 2018 FZ Premium only does 15-16 in the City (School run) driven with very heavy right foot. I have seen 30kmpl when driven leisurely early morning with absolutely no traffic. Highway does 35kmpl @ 60kmph, 25-30 @ 80kmph, less 25kmpl @ 100kmph if the fuel economy gauge is correct. Average calculated by the car economy gauge is generally correct. I have checked full tank to full tank. It is all about your right foot. 🙂

I was told that you can check the mileage from the ECU and that it cannot be tampered Unless of cause you change the ECU it self I may be wrong any thoughts on this. In my case I go by the condition and the service records etc. And I always keep records of my vehicles including any accident repairs I tell the truth to the buyer and had no issues selling any of my cars at market rates or slightly above. Even emission test cannot be trusted these days as I have heard of vehicles that do large annual mileage (hire/rent) being clocked annually prior to emission test

IMF might condition to relax import restrictions that might allow vehicle imports However Duty might be increased Dollar/ Yen unlikely to come down to 2020/21 level In the world market vehicle prices have increased. Corolla that was around Y 2.2 Mn in 2020 is now Y 2.8 Mn No permits will be offered at least for a considerable period until we get our reserves build up At the moment vehicle prices have comedown due to High interest rates no one can afford to finance unless buying for cash Those who were on personal loans and floating rates are on trouble due to high installment and they are down sizeing High cost of living and taxes forcing people to look at alternate transport/ down size/ sell the 2nd vehicle etc. Lot of business are in trouble and they are forced to sell their vehicles to payback finances Migration of middle class In my view vehicle prices may increase if at all when the stability comes Anyone with cash this may be a good lime to buy.

If you are no concern much on handling Vitz will be the best provided you do not drive fast on twisty roads. But GP5 may be bit more planted on twisty roads and will have more power for that critical overtaking a lorry or a bus and will have much more room in the back seat and the boot. Economy will be more or less same. However GP5 is a much more complex car and expect higher maintenance costs.

what was the performance drop power or economy There can not be a significant drop due to difference in viscosity. 10W-30 should be ok for the ALTO, 0W-20 will give you little more economy and better emissions. However if the car has run on 10W-30 for the last 80K km it may have got run in for the thicker oil and changing now could increase oil consumption. 40 grade would be too thick for your car and i would not recommend it at your current mileage. It may be ok for a older high mileage car when the oil burning stats to kick in. My view is your issue is not oil related

That may be the case why the Caldina CT 196 was categorized as a Van. Anyway they were mostly used by sales teams I guess.

We had a CE 100 sprinter 1991 manual and Caldina CT196 1996 auto both with 2C engines. Terribly under powers around 80nhp or so but lot of torque and once it starts going you can maintain the speed. But hardly any acceleration. Going uphill overtaking needs lot of planning. But they were much better than contemporary offerings from Nissan or any other Japs Built was bullet proof and they kept on going year after year

As I remember HRV was much better and did as well as the Civic of that era. Hopefully you should be able to manage 8-10 city and 12-14 outstation

I have a Wagon R and Amaron works fine with start-stop. Battery is over 2 years old now with no issues what so ever. If your car does not stop start frequently should not be a big issue. Generally if the battery become weak the car will prevent stop start to save the battery.

To my knowledge wagon R newer came with cruise control So it might create more issues than solving. Why do you want cruise control in a wagon R

Mine was running on 92 for most of the time when I had it (2008-2011) did not notice any difference in economy or performance.

I had a 1.5L EX it had a bit more different engine note than a typical Jap. But not a hum Averaged 8-9 in city 15-16 outstation. This was pre highway era

If you are using octane booster you will have to use it every time you pump 92. You will need to mix the booster in right proportion to boost the octane by 3 numbers. Container will tell you on the proportion required. Generally it is around one container for 50 liters for 2-4 number boost.

agreed, Only very few of what you mentioned are on the road hear. I'm sure any one who owns them know a thing or two about the fuel requirements. For over 30 years of running vehicles in SL I was may be fortunate not to have any issues with fuel quality. Not even a clogged filter. The only time i recollect of the bad fuel was couple of years back when there was a bad stock where fuel pumps in both stations and vehicles got busted. That had nothing to do with the octane rating but rather foreign substances that should have not been there which could even happen on 95. Yes there is lot of talk about 95 and 92 having less ratings. I believe it could be the average rating and there is a possibility of +/- 1-2 difference in a lab test. So far I have not noticed any running issues with either 92 or 95.

There is a big book that come with your car which is generally in your glow box or compartment under your driver/ passenger seat. If you care to read it that will give you the fuel requirement of your car. If it is in Japanese please use google translate. I have yet to come across any Japanese domestic model that required 95. Most of them run on regular octane which is 89-93 in Japan. This includes Turbos like CHR, Swift Turbo & CRV. (Personal and family experience, we have been running on 92 for the last couple of years with absolutely no issues) Your Euros and UK imports may need 95 as they are generally design to run on 98 and will run on 95 with little power / economy loss. As mentioned please refer user manual. Even if you pump 95 your car will not self destruct immediately. For a start it will start knocking if the electronic timing adjustment go out of range. You might get engine indicator / waning messages. A octane booster should solve this issue. You generally mix one can to a full tank of approximately 50 liters. (again read instructions in the can for the mix ratio) If your car is running on 92 without knocking or power/ economy loss most likely it is designed to run on Regular/ 92. There is no correlation on fuel quality and Octane rating. High Octane fuel has more additives to reduce knocking and hence the higher cost. In SL most of the people has this misconception that higher the price better the quality and hence has been wasting money on 95 for no reason.

There is a big book that come with your car which is generally in your glow box or compartment under your driver/ passenger seat. If you care to read it that will give you the fuel requirement of your car. If it is in Japanese please use google translate. I have yet to come across any Japanese domestic model that required 95. Most of them run on regular octane which is 89-93 in Japan. This includes Turbos like CHR, Swift Turbo & CRV. (Personal and family experience, we have been running on 92 for the last couple of years with absolutely no issues) Your Euros and UK imports may need 95 as they are generally design to run on 98 and will run on 95 with little power / economy loss. As mentioned please refer user manual. Even if you pump 95 your car will not self destruct immediately. For a start it will start knocking if the electronic timing adjustment go out of range. You might get engine indicator / waning messages. A octane booster should solve this issue. You generally mix one can to a full tank of approximately 50 liters. (again read instructions in the can for the mix ratio) If your car is running on 92 without knocking or power/ economy loss most likely it is designed to run on Regular/ 92. There is no correlation on fuel quality and Octane rating. High Octane fuel has more additives to reduce knocking and hence the higher cost. In SL most of the people has this misconception that higher the price better the quality and hence has been wasting money on 95 for no reason.

I used 92 throughout the time I had my EX from 2008-2011 did approximately 75K km without any issues. There was no noticeable power loss or economy. Mine did not even needed a throttle body clean up or a tune up that were required by most of the EXs serviced by the agent.

We have a Wagon R which does around 13 - 15kmpl in the city when driven with blatant regard for fuel economy. So in my view your Vitz is a better option

Get your battery shop to give a backup power through a parallel battery and swap the new one. They usually does this with new vehicles.