Buying an "inexpensive" car in 2025
Last year, I decided to purchase a second vehicle for travelling around Sri Lanka, as well as regular use.
I set a modest (by Sri Lankan standards) budget of LKR 3m + 10%++ for restoration.
In this price range, I had a choice between Indian and Japanese vehicles
I ruled out the Indian ones, because I wasn't satisfied with build quality and comfort in this price range. I could have got an Alto but I don't consider them safe (too small).
This left a few Japanese and Korean vehicles.
I steered clear of the Korean ones, not for any bad reason, but because I simply don't understand them. I suspect there may have been some excellent vehicles by Hyundai/Kia.
Among Japanese vehicles, I steered clear of Mitsubishi as I have seen rust issues with these cars (older ones).
One of the most important things for me was the availability of spares and body parts, as well as the simplicity of the vehicle.
I shortlisted the following vehicles:
- Toyota corolla - AE100/110, Carina, Camry, Corona etc.
- Toyota Station Wagon (90s-2000s) mostly the van variants.
- Nissan FB14/15 and N16s
- Cefiro/Bluebird/etc
I decided not to go with a Carina/Corona simply because I couldn't find a good example, also, being rarer cars, I figured out the body parts may not be available (internals are mostly shared so I didn't foresee major issues there).
With Nissans, the FB14s I saw were mostly salvage grade, I saw a few decent fb15s but most had absurd prices in the 3.5-4.5m range.
I looked at quite a few N16s but they were either wrecked or the owners wanted high prices.
To expand on pricing, I preferred to buy a simple corolla Vs one of the more exotic cars, as I believe these are simpler to maintain.
I saw a few corolla vans (wagons) but these were in poor condition.
The ae100s I saw were in poor condition.
I finally found an ae110 and selected it, as I felt it was in reparable condition.
I'll provide more updates on the car here soon.
I want to sincerely thank a number of people in this community for their mind help and advice. In particular, @iRage and @matroska
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