kaushama

Why did not you like the manual? Please tell me the thoughts. I was talking about manual trannys in general. I am looking for a mid sized SUV either 5 or 7 seater. Yet to test drive a Sorento or Santa fe Manual car. Tuscon and Sorento both has car like handling due to their monocoque construction. I have driven the Sorento and Tuscon both. Both have little body roll but tad firm suspensions for my taste. Other two SUVs I find with same ride quality are X-Trail and CR-V. CR-V is more refined though. Only issue is Sorento, CR-V and Tucson are real soft roaders. CUVs! X-trail is a real off-roader with car like handling. But even the face lifted new version retains BOXY, out dated look. Mid sized SUV offerings from Toyota and Mitsubishi share the ladder on frame design and with serious off road ability and Thai made. They probably give some rough ride quality and body roll. Montero Sport and Toyota Fortuner. I have to test drive them. Out of them Sorento is the one that really gives value for money, looks and nice performance! Second is X-trail for its over all qualities.

Hilton fleet is one reason that makes someone off Sorento! A cab in a five star hotel???! So those reps may regret the big sale in time to come. Santa fe has the same engine/chassis/transmission. But it is an out-going model. Next revision is expected to be out early 2012. Looking at new Tucson we may see a nice futuristic outlook. I quite agree on manual option. There was a time people chose manual over Auto. I wonder why it has changed? Driving an auto would never give the same driving pleasure and control of a manual vehicle.

The tranny is sealed type and fluid can not be replaced! KIA/HYUNDAI says the tranny is guaranteed for the vehicle's life time and 300000 KMs.

Some users in above forums reported issue occurring early morning before the car is warmed up in winter. May be a coincidence!

But I have to say the new Sorento is a fantastic vehicle and has majestic looks, resembling a European SUV. It was designed by an EX-Audi designer. It has all the new gimmicks and excellent FC too. Real value for money!

This is what I hear from most people in Sri Lanka. Internationally KIA/Hyundai has won hearts of people and professional reviewers. I am sure they will beat Toyota soon as they did it in other areas like Samsung and LG. There was a period people was not buying their TVs and electronics. Now see where they are! But this transmission issue with new model has been well documented in many international forums. I do not think we get 7 year and 100000 warranty in Sri Lanka. So if the transmission fails it would be a big loss for the buyer. There is no record that KIA/Hyundai has sorted out the issue as well. It seems to be an issue with either the transmission design or electronics part of it. People who has it reported unpredictable gear shifts with grinding sound and sometimes a bang. Some transmissions have totally failed. Just wanted to check this has happened here. It seems to be have a relationship with cold weather as well. But most of the people who reviewed the new Sorento and Santa Fe has praised the cars for quality and performance.

apparently some people have had it just after buying the car and after several replacements of gear boxes. I heard here too some people had issues with Sorento but all hear say stories! It is pity if this is the case. New Sorento is a real nice ride with real value for money! Nice looks too!

There are many excellent reviews for HYUNDAI/KIA SUVs (Sorento/SANTA FE)) 2010/2011 internationally. They have become only third manufacturer to design and produce their own transmission which has fewer parts and better FC. But there are many user reviews and posts about the failures of new transmission. Specially in cold countries. Sorento issues SANTA FE issues Some has even gone to the extent filing Lemon law complaints in US. Anyone in Sri lanka experienced the same?

http://www.chinavasion.com/index.php/cName/car-dvd-players/ Look at the models here Some good user reviews as well!

Vehicle manufacturers eye H'tota

Any reputed HU, which uses Garmin and support uploading of maps? I need to know before I pull the string on this http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/In-Dash/DVD-Receivers/AVH-P3200BT I am planning to buy eBay unit for GPS separately. I have heard Pettah dealers have this for insane prices. Best price in US 350$. Are they fake ones? Thanks for your help!

Should I tell it now? Later!

Thank you for your suggestion. Have taken a note on your comments. We need more views of members like you before we take the decision. And Mr. Pericles and the other senior moderators, who run the forum. And majority view of this forum too. For the future you may have to screen the members, before they come here to join the community. A suggestion would be, though it may sound silly, to screen their views in a junior section under strict scrutiny, before allowing them to post in exclusive lounge. That will give the select members peace of mind too coz they will not have the displeasure of listening to people of out of their caliber. And they can behave the way they know to among themselves. They can post only in executive lounge. A south African model (Pre-Mandela era of course) Sounds bit silly, but that is what probably I feel happening! Thank you anyway

Very good morning to you Mr. Pericles! Not to fight with you or to have a flame war with you. On a very friendly and polite note, may I request you to not to be harsh to people here and not take things personally? And avoid expressing your personal perception on people coming here? As people in a community discuss and communicate, you may come across people with various views. Whole idea of discussion is to share knowledge and concepts to achieve a common goal. Otherwise the discussion will not bring any outcome. Some may have very different yet practical or impractical ideas. But if the objective of this community to only have people who share certain behaviors, which had been preset by you all, still you may ask them to leave politely. They will! But as a moderator and a leader of this community, you should have a tolerance and leadership qualities to reflect the quality of this great community. What you reflect here along with other senior or junior members will be a reflection of the whole community. Just a very friendly suggestion. It will do a world of good for your image here and the image of AL. If you dont agree just ignore this post. I do not have any personal ill-feeling towards you, as I have an entirely different mind set.

Edited and removed on second thoughts!

I think review articles of popular models of cars would be very helpful. You can get user and expert input and cover the areas of popular interest like maintenance, comfort, performance and FC kind of stuff. The experts here would be very helpful to do it. And head to head comparison of popular models too will be helpful. Like the Whatcar magazine but for local models, http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews You may have a poll or ranking of the models in each section for people to have an idea. What about some facts about popular and useful mods and where to get them? A current market price guide would be very helpful. Like lowest and highest ranges for second-hand and unregistered. if you could gather price information, it would give a better guide for people, who hunt for a car.

Will not "feel" is a relative term to me friend. I did not go through the Dictionary when I wrote it as I never expected a fight over the literal meaning. If you are a Buddhist you will know it. Feelings are relative. Social and financial perceptions can be relative. Pain can be relative. There are different thresholds people feel pain. Some tolerate it better than others. When someone don't like me, the way I perceived it can be disliking whatever the word is. When taxes are tolerable to people who can buy high end cars, it can be quite intolerable to people who buy Marutis. That tax structure will not burden high end cars users. Taxes "will not" burden people, who need a second hand car if the state can bring it down to a level, that common people can buy a reasonable car without much strain. That was what I meant. Anyway it is past now. I do not want to fight here over literal meanings of words. Lets talk on second-hand car market!

And of course it is up to you if you want to comment continuously and thrash me all the way. But I do not want it and never wanted it in this forum. Period!

Mr. Peri As you said I just aired what I know and what I think. "Will not" is a relative term unless you wanted to confront me for some reason. If the tax system allows people to tolerate the tax burden without much strain relatively, (Concept of thresholds) it will not burden people compared to present status. When the strain is tolerable, people will not feel as it is now. That is what I meant. If you go through statements of many here you can find hundreds of sayings you can interpret literally the way you want, provided you want to start something. I did not start it. Then if someone follows the posts following it will be obvious to anyone, whether I was the one who started this or not. Then people will decide whether you don't like or dislike me. I felt you dislike me the way you started this out of blue. People who followed the forum, would know where I committed the original sin, and why I do not deserve the respect. I have saved it if anyone want to see it. And I do not want your respect or your love or liking, if you do not like me for some reason. I do not want to beg you for it as well. It is up to you and the people see this to decide what is going on. I am not going to comment on any more to your thoughts. I may become a troll by definition. Whether some people here, gives the respect to people coming here, is again matter of fact people will notice, if they have followed the forum. Perhaps I aired my opinion strongly on that once. I like to participate in a friendly forum. Not in a mob! So Mr Peri lets stop this and I never wanted this. If you wanted it you got what you wanted. Happy? lets be cool and continue the discussion on the topic and other things related to automobiles. If you "do not like or dislike" my posting here just PM me and I will stop coming here. It would not look good on you and forum if you suggest it here publicly.

Should I comment on this? Hmmm Well peri I like you though, for being our moderator, who shows us the PATH as to how we "should" think properly and "perhaps" showing us the limits of our knowledge. In fact I like all the friendly members here, who has various views however annoying they can be, in comparison to mine. That is the mutual respect and dignity for others being members here. So honestly I am very sad that you dislike me for my crooked views in your eyes, a moderators view point. So probably best for me to stop commenting and posting in the forum, if it irritates you to the extent that you dislike another member and a human being. But I don't dislike you at all as you have great knowledge and better vision on these than me, "perhaps". Even you have other views, I do not have an issue to dislike you. You are another respectable person and a senior moderator here. that is my narrow viewpoint. I rest my case now. ............................................. Everyone has something to say. Very few have the maturity to listen to.

Well Peri I agree on what you say. But We are going to have so many Free trade zones in future. For example in Hambanthota we will have some FTZs. I know that Toyota will not build up a plant here to sell cars for SL exclusively. We should get some manufacturers to invest here for Asian market models. But they do have plants in Malaysia and even in Bangladesh, I think. But perhaps we could get investors to come here for FTZs. And perhaps government should encourage local companies to get involve in such a deal and a collaboration. What about Micro then? India has many of their own versions of popular brands. That is one way to introduce affordable but good cars for majority, who can afford only a cheaper car. Perhaps cost effective cheaper versions. I know we are in a country and in place, where some people think an AXIO or CIVIC is a soulless car and beat up them, while majority will not dream to go in a Maruti in their life time. But government should think beyond and big perhaps to change things. Singapore did that few years back. Anyway who am I to give suggestions like this? I just wrote one of my silly ideas so forgive me. (-: I can give very good suggestions on my trade if I am asked yet people may dislike it. LOL I know that is not the price for an E class Merc in UK and price starts there. I have used those buttons to configure the models few times just for fun!!! LOL! In UK there are systems, you just pay monthly amount to use a Brand new Mercy and move on for the next model in two years taking some of the value you have paid. Say £800 for month. They have systems like that. Majority of Sri lankans, who want vehicles need cheaper yet cost effective vehicles. Not mercs! Not even a soulless AXIO. That is why people shout for a reduction in second-hand market. For that government need to ease off the end-user, perhaps mostly people who can't buy Buggatis or mercys. Those people who travel in marutis need more concessions. Still it will burden them but in relative terms there will be less strain. Well You sound bit upset there in your comment. You are not angry with me for some reason. Are you? Anyway I have given up on second-hand cars and bought a soulless car just to go from A to B. But I still feel for people who can afford a Maruti only and they deserve more I think.

Other way is to allow popular manufacturers to assemble popular models here in Sri Lanka. And then it would bring down the cost and there will be an economical gain too. Perhaps better recycling for the obsolete vehicles. India is doing this in big way now and it is becoming rare to find imported vehicles there.

Tax system like in developed countries. http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/content/unitedkingdom/mpc/mpc_unitedkingdom_website/en/home_mpc/passengercars/home/new_cars/models/e-class/w212.flash.html Road price £27000+ ( App around 6 mil ) Well if we bring this down we will have to pay several multiples as taxes. I think Sri Lanka has go long way to have such system. But government has to strike a correct balance between taxes and retail road prices. And perhaps encourage importing more brand new vehicles and economical versions.

Could anyone please tell me where to buy a fog light system for an AXIO? I need to install one and make it HID as I like to have normal lights as main head lights. It is not nice to blind people if there is no real need.