GTAm

This story says that the RX7 is making a come back - http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/...oncepts/229430/ ....about time too!

I prefer the Swift. It handles very well while the IST does not handle. The low speed ride of the IST is very smooth but go a bit fast on a poor road and its suspension crashes where the Swift is much better composed. In fact the Swift is quite nice to drive. However I'm not sure about the fuel consumption. The general concensus is that Toyota's are very frugal.

It's simply because hardly anyone in SL knows what a 911 is. They don't know it's history, or even perhaps it's engine layout. Not to mention it's motorsport heritage and status in the rest of the car world. However an Evo 9 is still a Lancer to many Sri Lankans. They've seen them on the road and performing on our tracks. They've seen many look-alikes and it's the more identifiable shape. They are more comfortable with an Evo.....again a sign of being less informed and conservative. You can't dream of a 911 if you don't know much about it. If there were many more 911s on the road and track here the results might have been different. Now before JwesT and the gang get all ruffled up for no reason.....I must say the Evo 9 is a great car and offers more performance for lesser price. And relatively speaking it's not a conservative choice.

I really don't know what you're ranting off about. For a person who's studying the in the top ranked UK uni you seem to get this simple discussion all mixed up. Everyone knows that supermini's and small cars out sell premium, exotic and sports cars. That's general knowledge. This discussion is about are Sri Lankans more conservative than others. And you should bring ratios of non-premium to premium in both countries not to mention matching that with per capita income of both countries.

I just checked out the http://www.rally.com.au ..............it seems that it's only Toyota who have a factory team this year. Others are privateers. So it isn't a big deal that they've won in the absence of real competition.

M3 GTR? BMW?

Well Toyota fans should hope to see what Williams will do for Toyota and not the other way round. .

Aha so no surprise then that the nine smoked the ten on that straight!

Leonardo you're so right. When I was in Oz ten years ago all my Aussie classmates wanted V8 Commodores, when a 4 pot Corolla was available at one third the price and was a whole lot cheaper to run if you consider fuel consumption alone. The second choice if you could not stretch for a V8 was a 4.1L straight six Cortina Mk 4 which with its relative light weight could fly. I checked one out myself but could not afford the asking price and so settled for a Volvo 244 which turned out to be an extremely solid buy. These are not conservative cars for students except my Volvo perhaps . Of course the East Asian Students had really expensive and funky cars. One Indonesian guy had a NSX and that was the 1st time I saw one in the metal. Most others drove a VW Golf VR6 or GTi, Kitted Integras or a Beemer. All my relatives in Oz and the other Sri Lankans in general were insisting I buy a KE50 Corolla or Datsun 120Y which were what most Sri Lankan students bought. It was a set tradition. One elderly uncle who promised to take me to see cars refused to take me when he knew it was something cool. However I when I suggested that I'd rather bus it they allowed me to do what I wanted. The Volvo despite being a bit of a joke in Oz was good on the Freeways and did not try to get airborne like the cars that they suggested. I even checked out a 70's straight six Skyline (I loved that shape) but it turned out to me more of a mega pumping stereo than a mode of transport This is more than proof that Sri Lankans are very conservative. But hey mate that term "Curry Cars".......... I have been laughing all day What a term!!!!

Excellent post Peri........... I'm thinking about the guy in the S-Type........ Does his Italian car he owns have it's engine in the middle?

Great info. I really like the STi Impreza. And I think the hatch shape is perfect for the rally bred car that it is. Great to know it's quicker too.

I think we are going completely off the topic here. How can you bring in Ferraris and Lambos here? They are built in very small numbers for the very rich. You can't say things like "any country" mate without proper facts. The fact that you have listed those 3 factors as the top 3 criteria shows that you believe all car buyers in all counties are conservative. Those are the most conservatite criteria when choosing a car. There are millions for whom performance, looks and handling with the the foremost criteria. And there are so many factors that will detemine this. Also how can you say owning a car is expensive where ever you are? You hacve to take into account an income to expense ratio to determine that. You talk about "huge amounts of money". Do you realize that it might be huge only to you and me? Or the few people you associate? Idon't think you can get the big picture by generalizing things only by listening to the few people you know.

Oh so are you saying that BMW is a non premium brand? Why don't you check prices spec for spec against a non premium brand like Ford and see how much extra ppl have to pay? Why do people pay that premium?

I did not work in the UK. But looking at the economic data of the United Kingdom which is one of the largest economies in the world any intelligent human can work out that people do not have a hard time as they would in a country such as Sri Lanka. I did study in Australia though and I can tell you students over there are spoiled for choice compared to students in SL. Australia's economy is much smaller than the UK mind you. I would have loved to have that loan facility that the Aussie students have. Quite a lot of students may not want to go to Uni but they have many more options and fall back safety nets in a developed country as oppsoed to an under developed one. Here in SL even if you want to go to Uni you can't as places are limited. Btw why are you in the UK? Studying? If you would care to open you eyes a bit more you'll see I refered to an old 325i. It's really silly if you were thinking of a new one. I'm sure if you consider the low purchase of an older car could set off the additional cost of insurance. Maybe you're a conservative bloke, and I have no problem with that. But there are adventurous folk out there. maybe not in your uni, maybe not in your neighbourhood. Maybe you don't keep company with them.

Aha so you have compared an old Punto with a new Corsa !? A bit unfair mate. The old Punto upto 2006 was a facelift of the 90's mk 1 Punto. The Corsa and the Grande Punto (which was launched in 06) share a lot of components under the skin and the Vaux/Opel even uses Fiat JTd engines in the Corsa. And you're talking about a friends' 98 Punto breaking down. Well I'm not surprised. It's an old car and it could be that it's spent its life by Euro standars. U say u don't have time for me but you keep responding..............in anger !

Language language man. This is an open discussion where ppl are meant to express their views. There's no need for you to lose your hair and use bad words. Vauxhall's depreciation maybe high agreed. But you said that the brand which has been no. 2 in UK for years and years was not popular!!!!??? That's a strange statement.

First this is not a Japan vs Europe war. Who says ALL Jap cars are sensible and ALL European cars are flamboyant? There are extremely impractical Japanese cars that cost an arm and a leg to when it comes to maintenence and running costs. These are well documented elsewhere on this forum. I really don't know if there will always be bread and butter or premium motoring. We really don't know what future trends will turn out to be. But we can only make educated guesses. Yes lots of ppl buy Japanese cars (but now the trend is Indian) because they their perception is and in reality is likely that...as you rightly point out it's sensible to do so. Being sensible is close or similar to being conservative. Being adventurous is the opposite. Also our tax system does not differentiate between European and Japanese cars. They are affected in the same way. But you are right, having lots of used spares make maintenece of a Jap car that much easier. And so the conservative individuals will all buy those cars. And that's the majority of our car buying public. But an adventurous or better informed individual will want to stand out and so he'll want something different. Hey I totally agree about the 206 driving position. I could never ever get a perfect one. And yes the Ford Fiesta is the biggest selling supermini in UK. I believe Ford has the largest dealership network and many UK buyers think that the all Fords are UK built which they are not. I think the Fiesta comes from Spain!?

Yes and you are perfectly entitled to your view that Sri Lankans are not conservative as I am to mine that they are! And yes I totally agree that external factors do dictate purchase decisions too. Your example of Africa and Mercedes...... I really don't think it can hold here. Are you talking of new cars? Or a handful of old 123s, 115s and 126s? These could have been junked in other countries and ended up there. Besides I would imagine the car to pepulation ratio across Africa could be very very small. Most people can't afford even a bike. So it is hardly a representative sample of that population. As for Peugeot in Iran, yes Peugeot has had an assembly plant in Iran for decades. That's why they are so popular. But we are talking about Sri Lanka. Yes it makes life easy when a wide choice is within your grasp. But as the original post for this topic states. Both a Corolla and a BMW are within ppls grasp. And the question is why ppl will pay more for the Corolla, when the BMW is a more desirable car.

Ordinary manufacturers try, yes. But premium became premium not by simply having a swanky interior, but that's another long debate. Manufacturers have changed their strategy yes. But they don't do it blindly. They would not simply come up with a new product and force it down a consumer's throat. They do research spending millions of $$$ to identify trends in buyer's needs, wants and behaviour. Then they invest in new models. If there is no need there won't be a product (in most cases anyway). That's the simple theory of Marketing.

Not willing to change is a sign of being conservative. My dictionary says "tending or inclined to conserve what is established"

Is there a weight difference between IX and X?

Hey Don the topic is are Sri Lankans too conservative when buying cars. And I think they are compared to their British counterparts. Remember we are speaking relative to the rest of the world. If you are basing your argument on facts then you should know that the the premium brands of the D segment has been steadily eating into Mondeo man. Just like what happend to the E segment. If people like Fords and Vauxhalls so much, where is the Omega and Scorpio? They are dead and were killed by the 5 series and A6. The same fate awaits the D segment. 3 series/A4 and C class sales keep eating into Vectra/Mondeo/Laguna. And so it is direct competition. (The world has got richer don't forget .) It has been doing that since the 90's - please check the sales trends. This is why Ford bought Jaguar/Volvo/LR and why GM bought Saab. Sadly they mismanaged most of it and did not make it work optimally. Besides they are both now in Financial Crisis. There is a huge hue and cry about Ford wanting to sell Jaguar and LR with industry experts saying that what Ford should be selling instead is "FORD" ! Why is that? Because bread and butter is over. Now they want chocolate and cake and whatever. Premium is the new ordinary. The trend could change but it does not look like it's going to in the near future. Please check the sales trend data. I will try to look for it too. Why has interior quality gone up so much in the last decade? Because that's a measure of "premium feel" and people are hungry for it. VW started it in the non premium sector. And now everyone is onto it. Which brings me to the Golf. One of the best selling cars in Europe. It's premium in that segment. It more costly than the Focus/Astra/308/Civic etc. but people pay extra. Oh I'm sure students might find it hard to pay their loans, but could you even compare a student there with a student in SL? Forget the small upper/middle class minority in Colombo. Can a student in rural SL even consider a car, let alone be adventurous? But a student in UK can consider an Fiesta ST or an old 325i. They don't need to stick with a newer Corolla GL even if that will save them a bit. So because they are richer they can afford to be adventurous about their purchases. Secondly talking about numbers.....I don't have them but I'm willing to bet anything that buyers in the UK have a load more access to information and so use it a lot more than their counterparts in SL. (Example - if you don't know english you cannot be on this forum). Think of the number of news papers, magazines and TV programmes in the UK compared with SL. Now think of the content. This makes them a LOT better informed to make a purchase decision than our folk over here. When we have minimal info we'll always go with the safe bet and avoid gambling. To add to that we don't have money to give us confidence to take a gamble. So Sri Lankans are conservative IMHO when compared with developed countries and there are reasons for that. Sri Lankans a nation of car enthusiasts ????? If we try hard enough we could name all the enthusiasts in our country. There are a handful of clubs with membership rarely running into 3 figures. Most if not all of them based in Colombo. There maybe a lot of potential car enthusiasts, yeah but that's about a couple of generations away !! You're absolutely right we are talking about human beings whether Brit or SLs. But human beings have needs (personal transport - car) and after they've had that they'll want style, individualism, image etc. That's when they want more than just a car, they want a BMW or a Ferrari and that's just human . The current Punto was launched in 2006. And yes the previous model was very ordinary and that is why we chose a Peugeot 206 over it when we had a choice. However the current Punto is highly rated and is a massive hit across Europe and you simply cannot compare it with a Maruti Alto which is a few generations older, a segment lower and is built in India who have yet not matched the quality levels of Europe and Japan. Once again pls understand that yes reliability, resale value etc might be important factors but a buyer in the UK can be a lot more adventurous than a buyer in SL. Apart from the the money factor IMO most Sri Lankans are conservative anyway (again look at the way we dress - hey and not just ppl in Colombo - look at the country as a whole) thanks to our closed up culture.

Aha so you were impressed with the MP3 player ! Where do you live? You say that the brand is not very popular ????? I thought you lived in the UK!? No? To my knowledge Vauxhall has been the brand with the second highest market share in the UK after Ford. Mate I like to trust you......but I can't !!

Well I have to admit I have not driven the new Corsa as its not available in SL. It could well be that the interior quality of the Corsa is slightly better. But I find it impossible to believe your statement that the Punto is "dowright rubbish" , when CAR magazine's verdict is "The Best Supermini on Sale" They give it 4 stars vs 3 for the Corsa. Let me also remind you that "What Car" is a consumer magazine and not an enthusiasts' magazine. The enthusiasts' arm of "What Car" is "Autocar"! And I just checked their tests on it to make sure that I wasn't missing something here! But their tests also talk about how great the car is with the only flaw being lack of steering feel which I fully agree with. Both cars are rated with 4 stars . What's really scary is that you compare the Punto to the Maruti Alto. I am 100% certain any member in this forum who has simply sat in both cars will disagree totally!

Well 3 series is prestige for your info. BMW is a premium brand that charges a premium price. The M3 is the top of the range 3 series and is one great sports saloon. What is non prestige is your gorgeous Vauxhalls and Mondeos mate. Buyers in Europe are turning away from non-prestige. That's why prestige is outselling the ordinary now. That is also the reason why prestige brands are moving into smaller segments. For example - Merc A and B class, 1 series, Audi A2, Volvo C30 etc. Yeah mate I know the govt. gives student loans and you have to pay it back. But once you get a job it's nothing to pay them back. Besides that there's very little inflation in a developed economy and interest rates are very low. So you'll hardly break a sweat paying that loan. Sri Lanka is at the other end of the scale. Contrary to your personal experience I am certain that cars are a very high priority in Britain after all its the 2nd largest purchase they make after a house. They are a nation of car enthusiasts. They have the most number of car clubs in the world. They have race tracks througout the country mate. They have motoring events throughout the year. Heck there are guys there who do not ever own a house but own expensive cars. You can read about them in Classic car mags mate. Folk who never bought a house but saved to buy an Aston.