Klord

@navindra80 Bro, I went through the same dilemma about buying a Pug couple years back right out of the uni. I went on and checked many Pugs advertised but could not find one which fulfills my desires (I was looking for a manual). So eventually I gave up. There is a very active Facebook group named "Peugeot 406 owners club Sri Lanka" or something like that. Suggest searching in fb and joining. I learned a lot from that group and the people there also helped me to search for a car. You will also meet some good enthusiasts who maintains their 406s very well. If you can grab one of them, now thats golden! About the car, I love it. Even though I own a new civic now, still I check on 406s when they are passing by. Its a fun car to drive with excellent handling and ok fuel efficiency too. The only worry which you may face would be the repair & maintenance as your usual maka baas may not be able to handle it. Its a shame those cars have reduced market value in Sri Lanka. If you are looking for a European car with reliability, comfort, excellent handling which will give you the feeling of driving an old BMW, 406 is the only one which will come under 2 mil category. Good luck.

Bro, this topic has discussed numerous times in this site. You can search and find out. FYI, I will include a few here, By the way, as far as I know, there is no inherent gearbox issue for civic ES series. You will have to search thoroughly for a good car though. Most civics of that era should have been used extensively by now.

So, I got her back. Overall, the repair seem to be okey. But, if you look close enough, there are lots of imperfections. 1 - Bonnet painting has sprayed paint on rubber beading of the windshield. This is the top beading near the moon-roof. 2 - There are visible paint droplets in the place where the buffer connects with the body of the car. You will have to zoom and check to identify. 3 - Paint has spread to the alloy-wheels as well. They can be removed of course, but considering the sum they got paid, they could have cleaned that as well. 4 - Windshield has tiny scratches. They are not visible all the time, but can see clearly when sunlight (light) is high. It looks like they have used sandpapers to remove the paint from the windshield. >> Overall impression - I am not satisfied! >> Do I recommend VT*C for someone - Depends ! I would like to know your feedback regarding this. This is the first car I owned myself. And this is the first repair I did on a car on my own. Is this what we can expect from an accident repair? Cant we fully restore a car back to her oldself in Sri Lanka?

Status Update 2: Car is fixed now. But could not get it from the garage as the releasing letter was not provided by the insurance. Hopefully they will do it today, so I can get her out from the garage before the election mess. Thank you for the responses regarding insurance. I will ask about this extra premium for agent repair thing from my insurance provider. ☺️ @tbird, whats your car? Is it also a reconditioned one? Will get it when I take the car out. I was not involved in the claim process. I asked the insurance to deal directly with the garage. I am also curious in to know why the cost is high. Not just high, effin high !!!

Status Update: Car is almost fixed now. Will be able to get her by Wednesday. Repair cost was 7 lakhs! I didnt actually expect that much. I have a question regarding the insurance. My insurance agency is Coop. As I have mentioned, they do not provide full claim for repairs done through agent. My cousin owns a reconditioned Insight since 2013 and is insured by SL I*******. He said, irrespective of whether the car is brand new or reconditioned, they give the full claim when repairing through agent. Is this true? What are the other insurance companies which pays full claim for agent repairs? I am considering on changing my insurance agent for next year. Your comments are highly appreciated. Thank you. ☺️

Yes, it must be due to the problem with the bonnet. Unfortunately my insurance agent (Coop) doesnt provide full claim for agent as the car is registered as a reconditioned. They only provide 80% of the total cost if a reconditioned car is repaired with agent. Since this looks like a hefty repair, I dont think its a viable choice.

As mentioned earlier, you may try Lancer CS. Its a comfortable and reliable car. You can also consider about Civic FD series. But the prices vary a lot according to the trim level.

My future wife managed to crash my car in to a parked bus in Kandy road. ? Front left headlight, buffer, front grills and the bonnet are damaged. I have never done a serious accident repair before as this is my first car. So I could use some advice regarding the process. I took the car to VT*C Motors in Malabe as I have heard a lot of good stuff about them. They said that all aforementioned parts will need to be replaced including the bonnet (which I thought would be fixable by tinkering). My concerns are, Do I need to find spare parts? Or will the garage people do that to me? Can we trust them to repair the car with OEM parts? Auto start-stop function does not work now. Would that be due to damaged headlights? (which is kinda weird) Thank you very much.

Anything we can do from our side? We cannot expect this or any future government to do any viable thing in this regard. Unless some entity keep pushing them to take actions.

Do you own one? I dont think we have any manual CivicX in Sri Lanka. I was plotting to import one from UK. But the agent said the cost is more or less same, so I settled with an AT at the end.

I fully commend the 1,2 & 3 but I have doubts regarding the 4th. I think its too much of a burden to authorities to track and worry about individual cars every day. Maybe I am biased because I also commute to the office by car. I believe usage of personal vehicles will automatically get reduced if there is a quality & reliable public transportation. As noted, I would happily take a bus over shifting in standstill traffic. Biggest question here is, how can we influence the government/ authorities to take actions? We can argue/ discuss and come up with possible ground breaking solutions, but they are of no use but just words if they stick to this forum. We should think of a way to convert them in to actions.

No trouble from tuks? Today a bugger glanced my left side mirror. He wanted to squeeze through cars and almost got stuck in between. He drove off quickly when he realized that he had scratched the car. It was a slow moving traffic or I would have stepped out and teach him a lesson. Noted down the the license details, looking forward to meet him again in the road. ?

@Pericles Anyway that we can form a civil organization and lobby authorities to take actions/ or create awareness among general public to be better ethical drivers? Something like "Sri Lanka Good Drivers Association". Just thinking out loud...

I would happily take a bus if the service is at least marginally acceptable. Instead we have to travel in lorry chassis buses packed with people, sweating, getting screamed at by conductor while experiencing stunts from the driver. This is where we can improve. If government or a public private partnership can introduce an air conditioned metro bus service with disciplined drivers/ conductors which has a regularized schedule. I bet many people who spend hours shifting in stuck traffic will switch to bus. Unfortunately, I dont see such an attempt from the government or I have no idea how as general public we can contribute to initiate such a course. This is a good alternative solution. But we need regular commuting times for this right? I myself has a chaotic work routine with abrupt travel requirements all around the country. So not good to me. ?

The problem can be related to wheel alignment/ balancing. Get your wheels checked from a good workshop. My fathers wagon had a similar issue, then he swapped the front & rear wheels and problem got fixed more or less. Still recommend doing a proper wheel balancing/ alignment correcting from a good mechanic.

Euro NCAP.

So I met with a minor accident from my CivicX. I forgot I’m not driving my fathers Toyota and ran over a small concrete slab while parking the car. Now the engine under guard is cracked open to the right side. It’s a minor damage but since insurance is covering the repair cost, thought of getting it fixed immediately. Can someone please suggest a good reliable body repair shop to get it fixed? P.S. Cant go to Honda agent as insurance is not covering the full claim for agent. Car is registered as a reconditioned.

So I took my car to St###### in Boralasgamuwa for a full service. Though she is a brand new unit, the service reminder was due - 86 dates, so thought of giving her a full treat. This is the first time I am doing a car service on my own as this is the first car I own. Long story short, I wasnt satisfied by their service. I know I dont have much previous experience to compare. But from what I saw, I decided not to get a service done from them again. The way they treat vehicles is very bad. All the owners are chilling in a waiting area while cars get washed/ oil changed out of their sights. I doubt most of them have ever witnessed the actual process at least once. I thought of having a walk around in washing area out of curiosity and was not happy about the way they did the service. The process in a nutshell, Use high pressure water to soak the car, spray some cleaning agent, quickly rub the surface with an old piece of towel (hey where are microfiber cloths?), and done. Also, I dont know if its ok or not, but the service guy applied some foam and washed it away with some liquid which I think is water.Then he applied high pressure air to the engine bay to dry it up. I felt the pressure was too high for smaller engine parts. Worst that he did it in a hurry and I am not sure if he dried the engine properly. I went back to the office and inquired a service adviser about my concerns and he told it is the usual process of servicing. He said it is a special chemical to clean the engine bay and it is not water that they use to wash the engine bay. But I am certain that I saw steam coming up from engine (why is there steam, if its not water?). I am not going to go in detail about my entire experience, just wanted to share what I saw and how I felt. In a positive note, they have a very good front office and good system established to make appointments and gets the job done on time. But the quality of the service is highly questionable. I dont think this is an isolated incident, so thought of sharing to make people aware. Maybe I am being paranoid, maybe I am thinking too much, but it doesnt harm you for being a bit more vigilant about the way others treat to things you love.Thank you.

@matroska here is my source of information for Civics. You can find a blog entry under his name about Civic hatches. It will give you an overall view of the car. No idea about the fuel economy of new Civic. But am sure it will not perform as other smaller hatchbacks in Sri Lankan market. Specially comparing to cars like Vitz or Fit. But as @matroska said, most cars perform well in fuel economy in long distance driving.

I also went through a similar process not so long ago. My budget was 6 mil and was looking for a brand new or reconditioned (import) car as I don’t trust the second hand car market in Sri Lanka. The problem is due to recent tariff changes, it is very difficult to bring down a vehicle from Japan or Europe. My initial thought of bringing down a reconditioned Fit GP5 which was supposed to be around 4.5 mil mark ended up in 6.5 mil. ? The tariff changes effect the higher engine capacity vehicles more. So GP5 went out of the window with other similar cars like Aqua. The only contemporary car remaining was Swift RS as it had a smaller engine. But I found the car to be too small for my liking, and as you noted, it is not as good as other hatches in terms or safety according to reviews. The Swift also said to have stiff suspension system which gives better driving experience in Highways but not so much for comfort in bumpy Sri Lanka roads. So I extended my budget a bit and bought a Civic hatch last week. Too early to comment about it but looks like ground clearance will be an issue according to forum members which is one of your prime requirements. ? Also I think not only the Vezel, but CHR too is out of your budget range. They are priced 6.5 M+ as per online advertisements. Unfortunately this price bracket seem to be a dead end for new/ reconditioned cars unless you have a permit. I am not a car expert, just sharing my two cents. Happy hunting. ?

@kush nope brother, its - 86 dates. Sorry my english is not very good, I might have mislead you there. Anyway that means recommended maintenance date is passed - 86 dates now. It was 83 when I bought the car. I checked the engine oil using the dip stick and it was in pristine condition (appearance wise). No debris whatsoever and the color was gold-transparent looking to the level that it was difficult to even identify the oil level in the stick. My thought is since the car was sitting duck in the sale for many months with random engine startup when buyers inspecting + mild check drive running, the service reminder might have miscalculated the time period. (Not to mention the outside hot humid temperature). Anyhow, according to Honda experts, the factory oil should be used in the engine for first few thousands Kms to help in break in period. I think the factory oil is a petroleum based oil which contains Zinc and Sulfurr additives to help the break in process.

So I bought a new Civic hatch (2018) last week with just little over 100 Kms in the odometer. When I was driving it to home, I noticed that service reminder (wrench icon) is displayed in the dashboard. The console indicates that service is due by -86 dates now (this civic calculates service period by dates, not kms ). The dealer said it is normal to appear as the the car was idling in the sale since last September without proper driving. He recommended me to do a service done which he will pay for. I dont mind taking it to a quick service at Staf#### and do a regular maintenance to get the service reminder reset. But Im worried that it will replace the factory oil which helps the engine in the break in period. What should I do here? P.S. Do we have any "Break-In oils" available in the market to replace the factory oil?

Thank you everyone for their inputs regarding these matters. I pushed my budget a bit more with the help of my girlfriend and bought a 2018 brand new Civic. Going to get the car from the dealer today. He did the registration, but the number plate has not arrived yet. I printed and laminated the reg number on A4 papers. Is it okay to drive around with a paper printed registration number until the official plates arrive? Can someone shed some light regarding the law related to this? Thank you.

I would say both...if possible.

What do you think is the best car management application? There are many more available for both iOS and Android. Cannot think of the most suitable one for Sri Lanka. I found an old thread in the forum, But it looks outdated now.