RLan

Yeah, best we can do is to stop questioning the system and find other means to go around it. And I agree with you, those days with subpar conditions 70Kmph is pretty high speed limit. I'd fall asleep regardless. My solution is the play the music at a very high volume. That helps a lot. I can't quite agree with you bro. I don't think it's a luxury option. VVTI said his punto has it. Punto is certainly a small car. With too many cops on the streets, driving for pleasure can be expensive these days.

Well you're entitled to your own opinion. For me cruise control would have been pretty useful. Though I agree with you on the pointlessness of lane departure warnings, unless they make proper highways here. No doubt Punto and Beemer having it.

I know that within city limits it's 50Kmph. But I've never heard of such a thing as having a lower speed limit at night. Don't quite get the point of it. And aren't all those bloody laws very old? And cars today can handle well compared to olden days. Hmmm interesting indeed. May be they have that option but just not in asia.

What you're saying has some truth in it. Most people in Sri Lanka either don't know the rules or can't be bothered to adhere to them. But I was actually talking with my personal experience of driving at night (around 2-3am) along the Galle road. There is almost zero traffic and police are there in few places. If I had cruise control I could get it upto 70kmph and keep going like that. (Because after sometime 70kmph feels as if you're just walking and without even realizing we tend increase the speed) Cruise control apparently had been invented by an American. And they've had this technology since 1958 (source: wikipedia) It's a nice story how this guy invented this. He was a blind guy and he was working for a major car parts company in US. One day he was traveling along with his lawyer in his lawyer's car (lawyer is at the steering wheel). Everytime lawyer started talking the car slowed down and when lawyer starts listening the car sped up. Annoyed by this he was determined to find a way to keep a car at constant speed on the highways. After 10 years of research he finally did it and got the patent for it. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I'd like to hear what japanese experts have to say. Totally agree with you bro. It's strange though 95 pajero having cruise control and 2007 axio not having it on. May be your pajero was not meant for asian market. And it's funny that Jetta thing, may be you've gotta bloody lazy Jetta. No bro, it'd be pretty useful driving at night. All it does is to keep that car at a constant speed you choose the speed and turn the cruise control on. It also leads to saving fuel (that might be just too much info. for the Sri Lankans)

Brilliant video bro, thanks for posting.

Is it just me or Japanese cars don't have cruise control? Or may be cars we get in Sri Lanka don't have cruise control. I've driven a Prius and a Axio G-grade neither of them had cruise control. Before all of you start jumping on me saying what's the point of cruise control on heavy traffic in Sri Lanka and all that stuff, I gotta say it would have been pretty useful driving at early mornings where you know cops might be out there trying to get you. Experts shed some light on this issue please. Thanks in advance.

Bloody hell man. You're a genius. Brilliant piece of work.

My pleasure. By the way I used to think same way about small garages. Seems like insurance companies know the trick.

Hey Harshan, well we didn't have an agreement on the parts. Most of the parts I provided him, few parts he provided. It's irrelavent who supplied parts, first the garage has to let the insurance company know that they need these parts for the repair (In the form of an estimate where he only put prices for his labour charges). Then only you forward a quation (including the prices) for parts. If he agreed to supply parts he should forward the quotation, if I agreed to supply the parts I should forward the quotation. I have to say bro, this guy is a one bloody liar. I have taken the 1st estimate A sent to the insurance company. There he is listed all the required parts along with the labour charges for those. But I supplied all the parts, so I took a quotation and gave A to forward (which he promptly did). Repair delay at the second stage only because A kept saying he sent the fax but insurance compnay kept saying they never got it. Funny thing is A never had the original fax he claimed he sent. Because he never sent one in the first place. Bro, I'm 200% sure A's story would be completely different (being the liar he is). Do you think he'd let me take the car away with a balance to settle. Could you ask him how much I owe him? (what a f***ing liar). Look bro, I've paid all his bills. I have all the labour charges requested by A and how much approved by the insurance company. I'll forward them if you need them. I don't get a penny extra from insurance for labour charges. Infact I have to pay extra from my wallet for labour charges. I still don't know how much I'd be getting from insurance. You say quality will be equivalent for what you pay. I agree with you. But if both parties agree on a certain price does one party have the right the change the quality of the work? For example, a painter quotes Rs.100,000/= to paint a car, the car owner says it's too much and asks him if he could do it for Rs.60,000/=. If the painter agrees for that amount, can he say after painting 60% of the car this is what you get for what you paid? It's a similar situation with A, I don't have the documents right now, but I'll give you an example. For some work A quoted Rs.22,000/= (can't remember exact price) but the assessor only approved Rs.6000/=. Then A quote again with a price of Rs.8000/=, the insurance only gave him Rs.7500/=. I gave him the go ahead for that part. Did he mention that quality of the work would be inferior, no. If he said he can't do that work for that amount I would have gone to a different garage. If he says after the all the work is done, this is what you get for what you paid. That's true marks of a cheater. Look bro, I don't wanna tarnish anybody's image. I don't have any personal vendatta against this guy. But I felt so disappointed I couldn't help sharing this here. If I go to somebody expecting a service and it's not upto the standard, I have the every right to share my experience. I understand your situtation as you've helped him a lot. Bro, but you gotta tell this guy to get his attitude straight.

1. Yeah, like I said I wasn't satisfied with previous work. If I remember right, A kept the car one time 2 days and the second time 3 or 4 days to fix the oil leak which was never done. He gives you lot of hope, but work is not upto the standard. 2. No it's like this, after an accident, you get an estimate for parts damaged externally and labour. Only after it's been approved by the insurance company they give you the go ahed to remove those parts. Only after that you check what's damaged internally. I only mentioned bonnet there, but there were other parts involved as well (front bumper, headlights etc.) 3. Yeah bro, I understand that, but I wasn't talking about all problems. I was talking about known problems which A never fixed. And most of the european cars have their own computer software where you can hook the car to a computer and findout problem you don't normally see. May be A doesn't have them. (Well, if he doesn't have them, it'd be my fault for not finding out if he got the equipment to properly check a car) 4. Main reason I didn't wanna take the car to Carmart was their bad reputation. And A had a good reputation. But now I feel I would have been better-off if I took the car to Carmart.

Ok f*** it. Here is what happened. I'll name the person as A. I directly approached him because I read several posts on AL and he was well recommended. He seems like a nice guy. But his niceness isn't of any use unless he solves problems. From the start of the accident repair I felt he tried to cheat me some money. (Complete opposite of what Harshan was saying) I was gonna get the Bonnet (second hand) from a friend of my brother in law for Rs. 35,000/=. When I told him the price, he told me that he could get it cheaper so no need to pay that much for the bonnet. Then there were some problems with the insurance (getting labour charges approved and such) after all of them were solved, I asked A about the bonnet, he said his supplier doesn't have any bonnets right now and I better buy from the same guy I got the quote from. And when I approached my BIL's friend he had already sold the stuff to another guy who had a similar accident. He told me that if I could wait 3-4 weeks he could bring down all the parts I need. Then I told A about the situation. A, told me he has a brand new bonnet for Rs. 65,000/= but he said it's a Taiwan (or Sing'pore or something I can't really remember) made. I told him no thanks and I waited the 3 weeks. (Insurance company would never pay that amount and it was only one part). Then I gave him all the parts he initially requested. After the 1st stage was completed it was time to the second stage. To check what's damaged inside the engine compartment and such. A needed to send an estimate stating parts he required and his labour charges. A said he sent it. But insurance said that they haven't received it. I told A that insurance hadn't received the estimate. Then he told me he is gonna send it again. The next day I called up the insurance company, they still haven't had received the document. Then I had an argument with the insurance company, then they agree to send an assessor to the garage. When assessor guy went there, A didn't have the document he said that he faxed to the insurer. Some how he gave a hand written document to the assessor. I thought everything is sorted now. Few days later, I wanted to find out what prices A had told insurance for parts required for the second stage of the repair. A told me he can't remember all the prices but told me few approximate prices. I went to A's garage to get the document he said he faxed to insurer, but he said he doesn't have it anymore and it's probably at the communication he use to send the fax. Then I called up the insurance company asking whether prices for the parts has been approved by the insurance. They said they don't have any part approved for the second stage of the repair they only have labour charges approved. I asked them how they approved the labour charges without required parts for the repair, they were dumbfound. Then I requested all the documents they had related my accident from the insurance company. They didn't have the estimate that A said he sent. However they had a hand written document stating only labour charges for the second stage of the repair. (Which I believe the one A handed over to the assessor) Then I called A and asked him for the original copy he faxed to the insurance. Then only he told me that he asked somebody to send the fax for him. And he never sent the fax. Up to this point he was blaming the insurance company. He never admits his mistakes. He lies too much. At the second stage of the repair he needed 5 parts. But he said he's got 4 parts out of 5 I only have to bring him one part. I promptly brought that to him. Then he tells me that he requested 2 parts from me, I don't know if he thinks I'm an idiot or something. I asked him the part no. for that part, he doesn't know it. He said he has the part but only brand new which was Rs.9500/= I said go ahead and install that one. At that point I was exhausted with the whole process. I just wanted to get it finished quickly. Then I went to get the car. I wasn't all satisfied with his work. But I didn't wanna leave the car with him any longer. There was a part in the engine compartment related to airflow, just placed. It was supposed to get locked in place with another part, but it's just there without no attachment, no screws or no ties at all. I had to asked him to tie it with a cable tie or something. And the car battery won't hold the charge. He said it's because it's been there so long without running. (I thought they were suppose to take care of the car including all the parts while it's with them, may be not so in Sri Lanka). I had to replace the battery for Rs. 12,700/= (at a discounted rate). The car had a problem with the silencer (Not related to the accident). I went to a silencer place to repair the car. He found a glass A had used to mix paint underneath the engine. And he also found a metal pipe rusted so bad, it needs replacing and water was leaking from it (don't know much about inside of the car so can't exactly remember what it's called.) I gave the car to A several times to check properly all the time he said car is in excellent condition and no need to worry. Car also had a slight oil leak before the accident. I asked A to fix it but he said replacing the oil seals would solve it but he didn't do it despite he had the car 3 days with him. (He said he couldn't find the seals or something) After all this I got the car checked at Carmart, which I should have done earlier. It revealed all the problems with the car, which A, couldn't find. I'm still not sure if I want to give it to Carmart for the repair. But I definitely don't wanna go back to A. May be I should try the place at Pellawatte. Hope this clears up Dilesh's and other people's doubts.

Well, I get your point. But my intention was to inform others that I had a bad experience with this guy and if you're approaching him do so with caution. No bro, not the Pelawatte guy, I've never been to his place. Well, shit happens. This is my first accident in 10 years of driving. And it wasn't that bad, but for some reason or the other I wasn't able to get the parts quickly enough. Bro, I'll PM you.

Well many things really. There were parts just placed (literally, no screws, no ties or anything) in the engine compartment. Painting job was poor. I don't really wanna reveal all things. But gotta say this guy is extremely disorganized.

Just a wild guess, may be the speedometer shows Mph instead of Kmph.

My Peugeot 406 is had an accident. I took it to a Peugeot service centre at Koswatte. Gotta tell you guys that I'm extremely disappointed about his service. Car took nearly 4 months to get fully restored. Partly due to his incompetence and partly due to insurance company's fault. Wouldn't recommend him to anybody.

Hey bro, that's the car. I've PMed you the contact details. I'll PM you the parts list today. Thanks.

Hi guys, Had an accident the other day. Any of you guys know where I can get Peugeot 406 reconditioned parts at a good rate? Thanks in advance. RLan

Yes please, Ripper. I'm too very much interested in archery and air-rifle shooting. Thanks.

Nice explanation. I couldn't have replied any better.

At high speeds, (I'd say over 120kmph) 121 handling is pretty bad. Obviously, just my humble opinion being a non-race driver.

Thanks Pericles. I found a guy near Thalangama police station. Throve automobile something. The guys name is Aruna. He seems to be good. Do you know if this is a guy called Aruna? I'm currently getting things done with Aruna. He seems to be good. Thanks 'da coolest'. Thanks Supra_Natural. I'm currently doing servicing at Throve automobile near Thalangama police station. The guy's name is Aruna. Any feedback on him? Thanks in advance.

Thanks LaZyBoY, it's a 1.8l Petrol. Woh, that sounds scary. Would you mind elaborating further? Aren't there suppose to be two places, who are Peugeot expert (or so called)?

Lol, not really. I was exhausted with too many parameters. Anyways, though Peugeot isn't my favorite make. I must say so far I'm extremely happy with the car. Thanks Ripper, I'm going to need Harshana's help. I need to get a check-up done on the car. I heard there is a place in Pelawatte. I'd be grateful if any of you guys could let me know the contacts of that place. Thanks MasterDon. I wasn't too worried about fuel efficiency or resale value in the first place. It's the people (I mean my friends and all) here that were trying to eat my brains out. So far I'm extremely happy with the car. Something I've seen among my friends is that, people who's driven a Euro car for sometime tend to dislike Japanese cars. I don't mean Japanese cars are bad, far from it. But there is something about them that makes Euro cars more desirable. And thanks, now I'm a proud member of the Frenchie Club Thanks shanX. Well, you saw what happened to my researches. They became battle grounds. So I ran away and choose something completely different. Thanks Kavvz. I'll post some photos soon. Little bit busy these days.

Ok guys, I ended up getting myself a Peugeot 406. I still needs you guys' help. I'll start a different topic for that. Thanks for the info guys.

Ok guys, I ended up getting myself a Peugeot 406. I still needs you guys' help. I'll start a different topic for that. Thanks for the info guys.