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iRage

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Everything posted by iRage

  1. Yeah...the clean ones or properly restored ones are being held on by their owners. Considering the current vehicle situation in the country it is understandable.
  2. Also...when you say hard to climb....is the engine revving or feeling like its suffocating? It could be the transmission...(assuming it down and upshifts normally ?) or it could be something with the engine where its not working properly and doesn't show up unless the engine worked hard. If you shift in to a lower gear and drive with the revs high does the engine behave normally ?
  3. Hope you find a good car. Watch out for the Primera because a lot of them at some point were owned by ricers who wanted to "modify" them. Then they soon found out they were not as cheap as the Civics and ditched them. Figure out which ride suits you better....the Primera is a bit of a sporty drive. 406 is far more comfy. Either way...a good buy is a good car (you will have to be diligent about preemptive maintenance and repairs either way)...a bad buy will be a nightmare.
  4. Mechanically simple...comfortable...and quite a nimble little car to drive. Not the fastest thing on the planet but for its time was pretty decent. Since the mechanicals are simple, parts are easy to find. Body parts on the other hand is a different story. Really hard to come by and when you do its as expensive as parts for like a 2000s car. As with any cars of the period..rust is an issue. Electricals get mucked up because of after market muckery. Body panels, tinkering owrk can be iffy. On one hand a lot of them were improperly fixed where it was turned in to a putty sculpture and/or fitted with incorrect lights, bumpers, etc...as they were hard to find. Again...as with any other car from the period, find a good car it will be trouble free (apart from properly attending to age related part replacements).
  5. Congratulations ! Looks like its pretty clean. Give it a good deep interior and exterior detailing job as well and it will look really nice. Is that steering wheel worn out ? Is that white patch in the middle an actual wear out ? If so the previous owner would have been living on the horn
  6. Corona has always been heavier than the Carina. Mainly because of the equipment specs that were packed in. Since the Corona was aimed to be the more reserved, grown up luxury type version of the two cars, it made sense. This also meant that the car got a reputation for not being fuel efficient as the Carina. On top of that since the T190 series the Corona did not get the 1500cc engine which the Carina got (engine capacity started from the 1600cc 4A-FE engine). So where petrol variants were concerned the Carina was preferred (because anything more than 1500cc meant you were playing with the devil). Diesels were too expensive to be brought down so most of the diesels were government employee permit imports. Which worked for them because the Corona felt more premium than the Carina. There was another reason. That being Sri Lankans (the race that is the majority) are very racist. The Corona was popular amongst businessmen of a certain race/religious faith. So the car was told to have the ****** look. Now...back to the OP's cars...I didn't want to bring up any diesels because....old diesels rarely ride smooth. They vibrate, sound like a tractor and look like they went through a cloud of soot and is being held together with rope. Its mainly because the various bushes, clips, etc get worn out and spoilt because of the vibration and weight. Sadly our guys do not attend to these. Again because being diesel a lot of people bought them in the second/third hand car market to just run it for cheap. Also, if you find a good diesel then you are blessed. But if you end up with one that is worn out you are in for a lot of pain.
  7. So..you are sort of asking to eat the cake and have it at the same time here... Based on your general requirements you would be looking at something like a post 1999 Carina/Corona, Bluebird. However, these will be above your budget. You might be able to score something like a Cefiro, Laurel, Gloria, Cedric towards the upper end of your budget but seeing what is around they will be more or less on the low-end of the spectrum when it comes to condition. Ironically cars like the Mitsubishi Verada go for around your budget. But then one reason these fall within your budget is because you are not going to get that 10kmpl avg fuel figure. For your budget you will have to settle for something a little bit older if you want to go with a Japanese brand. As for Euros...something like a 406 or even an Alfa Romeo 156 would be possible. The latter would actually be a fun little car to drive as well.
  8. Yes ! Toyota Alphard it is ! Over to you Gummy bear So yeah... when we were in SL last June. We were out and about and all of a sudden the kids start to laugh uncontrollably. When asked why my daughter managed to compose herself for a few seconds to point at two guys and say that they are talking about fart matches. Then my son says that the two guys are constantly talking about I'll fart over and over again along with some Sinhala words. Curious, I eaves dropped to find out that the two guys were talking about the luxury features of an Alphard. One guy was actually calling it I'll fart and the other was trying to correct him
  9. @darshana3g Wait ! I just realized my comment made no sense ! A RAV4 would definitely take more than what a Vitz does I don't know why I was thinking of a RAV4. Anyway..RAV4 total capacity is about 8.75L and a drain and fill took a bit less than 6L. No idea what a Vitz would take...checked the instruction manual and the total capacity is 6.23L. SO I would reckon it would average around 3 ? So the 2.5L could probably be ok. The volume stated in the manual is typically close to a disassemble and refill. You should know that in Toyota's actual service manual the (older) CVT unit is a non-serviceable unit which at 100,000km requires an inspect and change if required and the manual shows to remove the transmission :D. However, Toyota's own vehicle care guide given with new cars say the CVT fluid needs to be changed every 20,000km. Go figure.
  10. Should be pretty straight forward. Posting it because I really really want to share a funny story.
  11. Yeah....it usually is closer to 6L. You should double check with them EDIT : This is wrong ! For some reason I was thinking of a RAV4 when making the comment. RAV4 with a larger transmission would take more fluid than a Vitz with a smaller transmission.
  12. KE72..okay..although Sri Lankans call it "wagon" it is actually a van. Which means it was the variant made for commercial use. We only have a very few wagon variants in the country (KE73). KE72 is the commercial variant with the 1.3L engine and a 4Spd gearbox. KE74 is the commercial variant with a 1.5L engine with either a 4spd or 5spd manual. Before going any further....a E70 Corolla van is not going to come anywhere close to a Lancer Box, Trad Sunny, E80 Corolla or a Lancer of that period in terms of refinement or comfort. Even something like a Starlet or Charade will be nicer. They are hardy cars. The simplicity of it in a light-weight body with a RWD drive-train makes it somewhat of a hoot to drive. The engine and other mechanicals are quite simple. Comfort wise...nothing to write home about. Rear seats are bench seats and since the rear suspension has leaf springs it is not the most comfortable. It is not bad...just that it is not as nice as the other cars we talked about. Even if you get a late 80s KE72, remember you are technically buying a car from the late 70s. Because the Corolla range was going FWD Toyota didn't have resources to design and build (retool factory) to make a FWD Corolla wagon in the late to mid 80s. So they kept using the van/wagon from the 70s with minor updates to the body. As I said...car is simple. Mechanical parts can be found quite freely and even a monkey with a hammer can fix it. This is also its downfall. Sometime in its life these cars were bought up by people who were first time car owners (I see the irony here) or those looking for a budget car to run cheaply. There was also a time where getting a DX wagon and putting boku alloys and fixing weird body kits, lifting them up were the modification trend in SL. Same goes for fixing body panels too. Therefore 99% of these cars were not taken care of properly, repaired properly or serviced properly. While some had the misfortune of going through a stage of unholy modifications. Also, parts are getting hard to find (as with most other cars of the 80s...). So..if you find a good well-maintained car it will last 10 years or more. If you find a lemon, you will be running to garages every other weekend. Which is more or less the same with every other car.
  13. Since you are not using it as a daily....I would say fuel consumption would be towards the bottom of the list of your priorities. So...why not go all out ? for a 4mil budget (keeping a side 500,000 for miscellaneous expenses) you should be able to get a B15 Sunny, T200 Carina/Corona, Galant that have been well taken care of. If you are lucky you might even be able to find one of those rare one or two owner Galants imported by the agents. The 4mil budget is usually the upper end for these kinds of cars which typically are the ones in good shape. If you go newer then you are going to be looking at cars in the lower to middle spectrum in terms of price and condition. Lancer CS are an option too but I think for your budget you are looking at a CS2 with a 1.3L engine which might not be the most efficient. But you do get agent imported cars in really good shape too. Saw a single owner car advertised on the quick site a few days ago. I would stay away from the Wagon R. Too small...under powered and really ineffective and impractical on long journeys. The Swift (Beetle) is a nice car but you really should be getting a Japanese market variant or a fully loaded Indian variant with all the safety options (quite rare). Thus, I think you really should be going for the older and larger sedans.
  14. Really ? At first I thought it was a Datsun pickup from the 70s/80s...you know..the one that was quite popular back in the day with Ministries.....but now I am not sure.
  15. For most (myself included) the concern is will there be a sight of the end for our kids? or even our grand kids? As parents we are willing to undergo whatever hardship and make sacrifices to create opportunities and better the lives of our children (age old human trait...we want a better life for our young). I don't think anyone can say our kids and theirs are guaranteed a better tomorrow (especially since from education to the moral standards of our society are more compromised each day). For an entire generation (and a half) we have been a developing nation. There seems no change to that...being in the dev aid sector it is quite heartbreaking when countries that were in a worst sh**h*** than us are surpassing our country socially and economically. Instead, we go running behind pipe dreams of building our own car thanks to stories yarned by politicians (sorry but I do not see the point in reinventing the wheel at such high costs just to hold on to a tiger's tail). We already have/had the skill for component manufacturing to a few other niche' segments as well but our buffoons just threw it all away.
  16. The HB11 has the poorest suspension of all the FWD cars of the period and its class. 60s, 70s the Sunny was the class leader (at least in the Japanese market) followed by the Lancer. The Corolla was a cjeap econbox trying to catch up to the Sunny and Lancer which had much better performance, build and tech. The B11 was the first time the Sunny became the worst and gave way to the Corolla taking the lead. The engine...decent...nothing to write to home about. Features/accessories/comfort : Nissan tried to spec it out in such a way that it would appeal to different market segments at different price points. To be honest,it worked,you get high-end variants like the Laurel Spirit and basic ones. In SL most of the ones are basic. Which meant things like the seats, etc are also not very comfortable. Now here is the biggest problem...the suspension. They used a reverse A arm for the independent rear suspension. This works for RWD cars but not for FWD cars. As a result...when going over bumps or on bad roads the rear end literally bounces up. The ride is bad and also the rear loses traction. If you want we can talk about how reverse A arm systems work and why it makes the rear end so bad..but that is a different topic for another day. Isuzu Gemini....nice solid cars for its time. They were quite well built...almost like a truck (hmmm..ownder why that is). But also like other cars of its time they did rust. All fine for what kind of cars you are looking at. Issue is the mechanical condition of the vehicle around these days. Both mechanical and body parts have always been hard to find. As a result a lot of these cars were fixed in the typical mana baas way by trying to adapt different types of parts. So the good remaining cars are hard to come by and if you do find them it probably will exhaust your budget. They are cars the average person does not want to buy and the ones who have good examples don't mind holding on to them either (as a nothing lost nothing gained sort of way). T170..Carina or Corona ? Either way, the pre-facelift came with a 5A-F engine and facelift the 5A-FE EFI engine. So try to get a facelift if you can. There are a few T170 Coronas that were imported by the agent (mostly for the UN offices) that had a 1600cc 4A-F (carb) engine. The 2C diesels were somewhat popular as permit imports. Compared to a E80/E90 Corolla/Sprinter and even the T150 Carina/Corona the car feels a bit bulky due to its weight. However it also made the car more comfortable. Sadly we don't have the nicer grades with velour seats and stuff. Only the mid level grades. Again...as with all cars of this era, especially Toyota, the electronics got a bit hokey with age. It was a time the manufacturers were starting to put electronic features into the cars and they didn't have everything at a very high level of quality and resilience when it came to build. So check the electronics (but then these cars will run just fine mechanically even if you rip all the electronics out). Also...body parts for these cars are hard to find. It is the same for cars like the E80 Corolla, B11 Sunny, etc...as well. But the Carina/Corona is a bit harder. I would say the Carina would be the hardest as the Corona, Corolla, Sunny still have aftermarket parts from Taiwan, Thailand, etc... Out of the three your better choice would be the T170 Carina/Corona. But might be over your budget. So personally I think the best options would be
  17. This is a general response and applies to any car...especially older ones. If and when not properly maintained and with time..the cooling system will lose efficiency and at times develop issues like rust in water lines, water hoses getting weak, radiator getting spoilt, thermostats going bad, etc.... With older cars this might be a bigger issue as until the late 90s or so we Sri Lankans had a habit of using plain water in the radiator (water + metal = not a good situation). So the cooling issues were more likely...and if things were really worst if the engine overheats it could have even gone to the extent of cracking the head, warping, etc...Also, when you look at vehicles like Corollas and Sunnys they were bought by people looking for a cheap run around. So...on one hand they were more likely to use water as a coolant or a bad quality coolant and if things went bad fix it using substandard parts.
  18. and if I am not mistaken they were proper lockers...the Pajero iO also was the same.
  19. Here is a plan...does anyone want to buy a LiteAce/ TownAce / Noah anytime soon ? We should spread the word that it was made by Daihatsu and that the only thing Toyota about it is the name
  20. As @matroska mentioned these cars were prone to rust. On top of that the paint and paint tech/methods were not very good. All cars of the period are so. Given this, it is very very likely that these cars would have had some sort of tinkering for rust/accident/etc..and painting done up. Make sure that they have repaired these properly. There are a lot of cars of the period that look pretty nice but upon closer inspection you realise that they are sculptured in putty/filler/catloy. If you get any of these cars with a carb..make sure that the carb has not been screwed up by a maka baas. Secondly....electronics...make sure they are not screwed up by a makabaas Cars of this period didnt have much fancy electronics but people loved to fix stereos and lights and stuff which resulted in wire harnesses getting screwed up. Also..after nearly 40 years the wires and connectors might have gotten spoilt. People who fixed them might have taken the cheap, easy way out by doing hack jobs.
  21. Actually its neither...The Rush is NOT a Terios and the Terios is NOT a Rush. It is a misconception carried on by its predecessor the Toyota Cami (and one brewed by the Lankan car sales guys) that the Rush was an OEM of the Terios. The Cami, was a rebadged Daihatsu Terios fully developed and supplied as an OEM to Toyota.The Rush on the other hand has more or less everything Toyota except for the design which was done by Daihatsu. The platform itself was a derivative of the platform used for the Vitz and the Corolla. It was a time where Daihatsu and Toyota were starting to co-develop cars (as opposed to one building it and slapping the other's badge on it). So depending on how you look at the car, it is a Toyota..or it can be a Daihatsu. The car was manufactured by Daihatsu Auto Body - Kyushu for Toyota/Daihatsu. Now...before you jump the gun...you should know that just because Daihatsu built it in their plant it doesn't automatically make it a Daihatsu either. Quite a few Toyota cars have been built by Daihatsu in the past and at present...including the Toyota as Toyota can be Probox/Succeed. and guess what ??!!! The TownAce/LiteAce !! Yes ! All generations of the TownAce/LiteAce (even the R40 series Noah Lankans get orgasmic about) was built by Daihatsu So..not entirely fair to say the Rush is a rebadged Daihatsu or that the Terios is a rebadged Rush.
  22. A close family member had a Rush...it did about 9-10. You need to realize that the Rush and the Vitara you are looking at are in two different categories/classes. The 2010 Vitara is more in line with the RAV4/CR-V of the period so you would get more car than the Rush. The Rush was a smaller entry level "crossover", which is pretty much a tad larger than a Vitz inside. So that also needs to be factored in when comparing prices. Also, the Vitara is a bit more off-road capable than the Rush. The JDM Escudo came with a switchable AWD system with 4H,4L and even with a rear (or is it center ?) diff locker. The Rush was..well just a simple real-time AWD system. Also...don't forget the Rush has a 1.5L engine (3SZ) with like 105hp and 140 Nm torque...so it is quite weaker than any of the Vitara variants you can get. This is okay for sitting around and crawling in traffic but when on the highway or under load the engine can get a bit under strain. In fact the engine performance feels just like an E140 Axio....
  23. With the E140 series the Corolla for the export market increased in body size (i.e. the 140 Corollas that Toy#ta L#nka imported). However, the Japanese domestic market preferred a narrow body version. This was mainly due to the vehicle registration classification system. With a narrow body and an engine less than or equal to 1500cc it fell in to registration category called 5 number. This category has a slightly lower tax rate than a slightly lower than what the larger global Corolla would have been called a 3 number category (3 number cars are cars with an engine capacity between 1501 - 2000cc OR those that measure more than 5 number car dimensions (so even if it is a kei car if the body is large it will get the larger 3 number car tax). The E140 Axio, global Corolla, Premio/Allion all used the same platform (or some derivative of it). So the E140 Axio was quite nice. The E160 Axio (the one with the Hybrid) changed all of that. The E160 series Axio actually used the Vitz platform which was much smaller and things like suspension setup was not very good. So the E160 Axio feels quite cheap and unrefined compared to the previous gen E140 series Axio. Toyota released the latest Corolla series in Japan in 2019/2020. The company intended to stop the E160 Axio one year after that after all the orders for the car had been fulfilled. However, the E160 Axio ended up being the only 5 number sedan in Japan (as the Honda Grace was pulled out of the Japanese market and Japan never got a small sedan from any other manufacturers). As a result sales of the E160 Axio saw a sudden spike. The car found a new level of popularity with fleet owners, especially driving schools, and old folks. So 3 years after its planned death, the E160 Axio is still being produced. Oh..and when the E160 was first released the motoring community hated it. Reviews of the car had headlines such as Japan's car to the world is an embarrassment to Japan.
  24. Kike I said...has its pros and cons....basically all the cars you are looking at for your budget will have "tin" body
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