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tiv

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Everything posted by tiv

  1. I've seen some doing like 200k KM now, but gearbox has this whine/ various noises but otherwise they seem to be faring well in our wonderful country of poor fuel, bad roads and neglected maintenance.
  2. Hilarious comparison though
  3. my advise would be to hold on to whatever you have or source something that is from a good owner, as the market is flooded with buy and sell buggers and their kids trying to make a fast buck. All the "market fast moving models" have faux mileages and are loaded with impending repairs. If you monitor the classifieds and Fb Marketplace you may notices the same car exchanging hands quite often for low sums till some mudalali takes it and sells it off to a poor fella in the periphery with a lease.
  4. Well these are 3 very different categories of vehicles, each has pros and cons, besides price they don't share much in common. I have extended family owning each one of these so can tell you this; 1. Montero Sport 2008 diesel 4x4 4d56 2500CC engine Pros - Cheap to run, Cheap to fix, ample parts EXCEPT body panels, shares many parts with the L200 of that Era, Very capable offroad, decent fuel economy. These were the last montero sports' that were made in Japan. Cons - Interior bit cramped but not at all bad, as far as I know all imported are Manual transmission (may not be a con to you), expect High mileage cars. 70% of these came in black which I love but not the most preferred in the market. Interior plastics are very prone to cracking due to the heat soak on the black ones. Worst Handling of the 3 They have a faux low market status as 99% came brand new via agents, therefore car sellers have purposely lowballed them into low market, so that they can shed a million mile 120 prado that has more fiber work and paint than a 3 wheel. However they are now picking up in market as they can be modified very well to go offroad, plus the starting cost is much lower than a prado or montero. 2. Toyota harrier 2007 RX300 petrol 4x4 2400cc Pros - Very comfortable, Well Toyota badge : Sri Lankans, Better Interior, Better Ergonomics, Much more luxurious for its period. Best handling of the 3 Cons - Parts are expensive, source-able but not as easy as the others. Poor off road capability compared to others. Not the worst but fuel economy is a not a boon. 3. Montero 2003 petrol 4x4 V6 3000CC Pros - Comfortable, Spacious, Still has the road presence, Parts are easy to find, Can hold its ground off road. Handles better than the montero sport. Cons- Very Thirsty, resale is not that great. much older compared to the others but given their fuel factor you can find cars with lower mileage than the others. Also due to their prestigious status at the time, most were expensive and well taken care of. The 3litre one is not that nippy. It will be a mission to find a good one. All in all I would go for the Montero Sport diesel in a heartbeat, as we had one a while ago, regret selling it badly.
  5. + Kwid = Plastic Sump
  6. Get the battery health assessment at A*W, they have a proprietary scanner for leaf. My input is dated to the 2017 era, when I owned one so peek into the FB pages to see if they still do the scans. There is a possibility that someone did a bms reset or some milaege hack and removed the CAN High / Low pins off the obd port lines to prevent buyers from getting a readout and testing them.,
  7. I'm just gonna wait for the replies😶
  8. I know a guy who's a small time jewelry maker who did some badges in Silver for a classic Jag; for a friend, will be costly as its handmade. Let me know if interested, I 'll get his phone number.
  9. Can one expect to land a miata in sri lanka for less than maruti 800 / indian alto money? (assuming this is a legit miata, which I do not know of)
  10. Thank you for the photograph, If so what would you assume the correct price is?
  11. A certain agent quotes 18.4mil for the new Nissan Leaf, under the foreign remittance permit 🤣🤣

    1. matroska

      matroska

      The foreign remittance permit is set to be abused to the max in the coming days. 

    2. AVANTE

      AVANTE

      I read somewhere that they only issued about 6 of these permits so far. Not sure of the authenticity of that statement. 

      With the current tax structure, I don't think it's bound to become popular. But then again, anyone lucky to obtain it can be equipped with the ability to abuse it, like what Matroska said. 

    3. tiv

      tiv

      Issue is, say one of us got a nice EV back in 2019, by now we'd be in all distress either trying to shed it or looking for a battery. The same would occur if anyone ends up with one in this day and age. I wouldn't trust any agent with an EV here, esp for north of 18mil. The cherry on the cake is that all the grey importers are all ninja on the EV permit as well!

  12. Would love to see a few pics...
  13. Original Noahs came with Chassis Tag SR40 and as SR50 (4wd), so on There are only a handful of original Noahs in the country. Even if you buy a conversion, my opinion is by now all the problems would have been sorted. To be sure do an inspection at Car Checks or Toyota. Noah 5 door models were very rare, so just see if a 5 door one was converted to 4 door by welding a cut panel. The welding bit and closing of the driver side rear door is the place where most issues come. Also get the dual AC lines checked by a AC place to see if the shrouding and things were done properly. Lastly the Noah gauge cluster is different from the stock one, and the harness is also different. Do check if all that was replaced correctly. Inspection will cover most of the above points. Your problems are halved as you are looking for a petrol one, as most noahs in the market were petrol to diesel converted and then noah converted, the diffs, final drive, engine guards, subframe, all had changes which are overlooked during the petrol to diesel conversion. From the chassis no you can check if it was a factory 5 door or 4 door model, so try to get a 4 door van converted to a 4 door noah. They are very basic vans and any issue can be easily sorted. Since you are looking for a petrol one, the chances of finding a better conversion are higher as most of the hacked ones are diesel. The American billet grill model is the one that has issues with ground clearance because of the body kit. My knowledge on the subject is now about a decade old, so follow a few facebook groups and you may get an idea of newer experts and garages who handle noahs.
  14. If anyone is interested, there is a good Deal on a Karcher K2 Pressure washer + Car kit (Not K2 Compact - which is a runt) on one of the famous online retail sites; simple research will show.

    Bought one last month, amazed by the capability.

    This is my 3rd Karcher machine (broke 2 previously, cracked head, overheated)

    I do not work for Karcher or any retail chain, just sharing my honest opinion - this works wonders on cars and carpets.

  15. We had a CR51 for like 20 years from new, Auto 4wd, did turbo engine with M/T swap later, ground clearance is almost similar to a Hilux Vigo if you put it on 15' Tyres and 4wd system was very capable. Being low market you might be able to find one for cheap, then again selling is also difficult. There is no major difference in fuel economy between both. These models are still preferred in the hill country markets around nuwara eliya, lot of one owner vans there.
  16. Something interesting I noted, maybe a good topic for another thread. I'm a big fan of car checks, taken in several cars myself. But lately not so much of a crime but more a less a unnoticed negligence has turned up in the used market, let me elaborate; 90% of the people I know, colleagues, friends, family, kin whatever have somewhat dropped down a few notches in the quality of care they gave for their car. Be it a Merc, Audi or a Toyota Given the inflation, tyre prices, oil prices, filter prices, majority of people are skimping on services, going for cheaper oils, cheaper parts, cheaper fuel so on. Not that this didn't happen before but the odds were fairly less unless you went for a car from the 80s. Sadly unless something has really gone south, the most technical and elaborate inspection cannot detect such negligence, except of the owner is honest, then again this is Sri Lanka. This has become very apparent in some of the 1000cc turbo civics of the 2017 era, few vehicles thereafter as well. As paranoid as it sounds, In the event I would go to buy a used car, I would prefer to purchase a known vehicle off a known person, in exchange for some guarantee and peace of mind, that it was well taken care of. Not a remedy but to play safe, stay well clear from car sales to avoid a lemon.
  17. Not entirely relevant to your post but; Current market is a good time for buying as the car salesmen have successfully conned the public into believing that we'll get to go open season on new imports from next year.🤣 The real truth being they are hoarding cars at low price; for a killing profit starting April 2023, thereafter to survive the rest of the year. Certain companies are getting down EV's starting a north of 18mil, so when the get advertised Brand New, or Unreg, the car sales crew will passively increase the prices again. In a nutshell - People are selling cheap now
  18. Use the car for atleast 1000km on low RPM, keep the receipts in the car, usually cops allow a grace period of 14 days to renew the license, incase you get pulled over, you can justify something. Another way is to cover let the car idle whilst varying the RPM for atleast an hour daily, and then do a highway run, at varying RPMs. Do not allow the emissions fellas to touch the car until you cover that 1000km. Also do not forget the sequential oil changes during the break in.
  19. There is a facebook group, Montero Sports Enthusiasts Club of Sri Lanka, join that, there are a few freelance importers of parts for the montero sport. You ll surely find your part there. Thank you, not the expert but on the job trainee during ownership!
  20. They wouldn't go digging either as incase something comes up they might have to honor the warranty. They'll just let him drive away the 100,000km or the warranty span. IF the warranty was over; I would suggest a compression test, its very unlikely for such a low mileage brand new car to consume oil. A very blunt test given the day and age but still a worthwhile diagnosis. It if was me, I would secondly switch to 5w30 or 5w40. The same brand would do. There used to be heaps of threads on the weights of oils and how they fare in our climates. I'm sure the agent is bluntly copying what they use in Japan, to suit their weather. 0w20 in my opinion is too thin for a turbo engine, also given the heat they produce, there is a high tendency of it loosing its properties in the heat range, also the thin nature making it seep through the rings.
  21. Is he sure that it has done 32000km, coz most imports that came in the past decade has mileage tampering, also what type of car is it? Was it the last model of the Civic that came in? I've heard that the 1000cc civics are having premature engine wear but nothing on the 1500cc models, this looks like the car has done a bit more than 32k, or he's running very high boost. Better to go with a compression test as well, FYI the agent should have done that. What you see here is almost like the dipstick Hi level to Low leve been consumed during services, which is approx 1L Also 0w20 is not the recommendation for a conventional turbo small engine car, should be 5w30 or 5w40.
  22. Can be done, but no experience on how it will pass the emissions test afterwards. You will need to physically remove the DPF, then proceed to ECU software alterations to delete it, a good tune might also save you emissions trouble as well. As for the environment, its not going to be that good. As for using Normal Diesel, your injectors might not be compatible with normal diesel, so before you run into it, do more research on that.
  23. There is a gem merchant I know who owns a diesel sorento, the car has done 600,000+km, replaced only turbo once, one set of injectors replaced apparently, current turbo also spewing oil so bit of white smoke, front 4wd diff mechanism is shot, but otherwise the car has done the miles with no issue, just brakes and tires apparently. The block has still not been opened. He runs on whatever diesel he can find, and doesn't care an ounce about the car. Daily driven from Beruwala to Ratnapura and Kandy by numerous drivers. The reliability of these cars are really underrated. Sadly he says the agent is now failing to cover the brand and people are at a shortage of parts. Same with KIA.
  24. Both my Mitsubishis, i've owned from new, never been on Normal Diesel, but given the circumstances I had to use normal diesel, no issues to date, checked with unimo, they said all the state owned ones were on normal diesel since new and no issues.
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