Best vehicle to buy post Nov 2017 budget

[dilshant80]

Dear members,

Given the recent changes in the budget, I have narrowed my search down to the below vehicles and would like your input as well. My main concerns are comfort, decent ground clearance and maintenance cost. The Toyota Rav4 was also considered, but I would have to buy a 7+ year used vehicle which I am not keen on doing.

My top picks

1. Audi Q2 1.0 Litre Turbo

2. Nissan Note E-Power 1.2 Litre

3. Honda Civic Hatchback 1.0 Litre turbo

4. Audi A3 1.0 Litre Turbo

5. Volkswagen Golf 1.2 TSI (Update: 28-11-2017)

My low picks

1. Toyota CH-R 1.2 Litre Turbo

2. Suzuki Ignis 1.2 Litre Hybrid

3. Suzuki Baleno 1.0 Litre Turbo

Thank you all

Edited November 28, 2017 by dilshant80

[kmeeg]

  10 hours ago, Nirosha said:

@Supra_Natural Once I requested an importer about the Mazda 3 hatchback, he told that Mazda vehicles facing lot of sensor issues due to climate of the Sri Lanka. Is it true? Do you ever had such a problem with your Mazda?

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My friends 2013 Mazda 3 was a good daily runner. Had few issues here and there.

First the top cover of the dashboard was replaced by warranty (free of charge). It got little melted due to heat from sun. I think they replaced it with much better quality materiel.  Sorry I don't have the paper work for that.

Now the car is running around 45000 miles and had an issue with wiper motor. Attached is the estimate sheet for the wiper motor and few other issues.

Edited February 13, 2018 by kmeeg

[Supra_Natural]

On 2/12/2018 at 10:08 PM, Nirosha said:

@Supra_Natural Once I requested an importer about the Mazda 3 hatchback, he told that Mazda vehicles facing lot of sensor issues due to climate of the Sri Lanka. Is it true? Do you ever had such a problem with your Mazda?

Well I have 3 of them at the moment (a 2014, a 2015 and a 2016) and so far they have all been fine. So I don't know what to tell you, other than the importer was lying as they usually do. 

[Supra_Natural]

On 2/12/2018 at 10:46 PM, kmeeg said:

Attached is what I see on Consumer Reports and JD power ratings. I believe this is true only for US market vehicles. So I guess it's not much relevant for the cars we buy in SL. Again I'm not expert on this, just putting out what I saw..

Very interesting and certainly not in line with what is generally seen in service here. For Mazda (and Nissan, Subaru, Acura, Mitsubishi) to rank lower in vehicle dependability than BMW, Mini and freakin' JAGUAR means that there is something that the data is not telling us. Must look into this more. One thought I have is that people tend to report minor issues like not being able to figure out infotainment systems also as problems in these surveys. Still this raises a good point. 

 

EDIT: Did some reading, the above mentioned issue with the JD power survey has been noted by other sources too. Infotainment issues are also considered "Problems" on the same level as mechanical issues. 

https://www.autoblog.com/2016/02/25/jd-power-rethink-vehicle-dependability-opinion/

Edited February 14, 2018 by Supra_Natural

[kmeeg]

12 hours ago, Supra_Natural said:

EDIT: Did some reading, the above mentioned issue with the JD power survey has been noted by other sources too. Infotainment issues are also considered "Problems" on the same level as mechanical issues. 
 

Ahaa.. I agree we can't treat them equally.

In terms of Infotainment system, yes I've seen a issue with Infotainment system in Mazda3. So the Mazda 3 came with Bose Premium Sound system had issues like getting not-responded sometimes. So we decided to change the headunit. Interestingly we got to know (I mean saw) that the headunit came with it was Sanyo (we were little disappointing about the headunit brand). Anyways we installed a Pioneer NEX (can't remember the number) and having much better quality and no problems so far, despite the menu controls on the steering does not support.