My First Car

[sajcolombo]

Hi All,

I am planing to buy my first car and expect your valuable advises/ Ideas for the list of the cars below.

My budget is around 1.6 -1.65 M max

Suzuki Estilo - 2008- 2010

Kelisa 2005-2007

Alto K10 - 2010-2012

Wagon R -2005-2008

Highly appreciates your help to choose a best one and any suggestions most welcome.

Kind regards,

Saj......

Edited February 1, 2016 by sajcolombo

[Kavvz]

Can a moderator change the topic from 'fist car' to 'first car' please? I keep thinking I've landed on the wrong forum again when I see that topic thread!

Much appreciated!

Edited February 1, 2016 by Kavvz

[Crosswind]

Kelisa - without a doubt. Get a manual one.

Far superior build quality than any of the Marutis. Spares are interchangeable with Japanese stuff from Daihatsu Mira.

[matroska]

Can a moderator change the topic from fist to 'first' please? I keep thinking I've landed on the wrong forum again when I see that topic thread!

Much appreciated!

fist...

Hi All,

I am planing to buy my first car and expect your valuable advises/ Ideas for the list of the cars below.

My budget is around 1.6 -1.65 M max

Suzuki Estilo - 2008- 2010

Kelisa 2005-2007

Alto K10 - 2010-2012

Wagon R -2005-2008

Highly appreciates your help to choose a best one and any suggestions most welcome.

Kind regards,

Saj......

you can get one for below your budget. It maybe older than the other options but beneath all those innocuous looks lies an angry little car that is eager to please. Have so many fond memories of it.

watch out for excessive vibration ( a bit of vibration is normal) as the engine mounts tend to go off in these and non-original ones do not quite do the job. Other than that a very reliable car which is fun to drive and easy to maintain as there is nothing complicated.

Edited February 1, 2016 by matroska

[sathyajithj99]

Can a moderator change the topic from 'fist car' to 'first car' please? I keep thinking I've landed on the wrong forum again when I see that topic thread!

Much appreciated!

Lol

[sajcolombo]

Hi All

Sorry for the spelling mistake......Much appreciated your valuable comments....... Crosswind and matroska...

What is the price tag for Kelisa 2005-2007 auto car and how about the fuel consumption....pls let me know....Thank you.

[Kavvz]

Hi All

Sorry for the spelling mistake... ...

No worries. It happens all the time. My posts are especially prone to spelling mistakes... ! It was just coincidence that your first one was especially entertaining, but is a fine way to introduce yourself to autolanka

Welcome to the forum 'sajcolombo' !

Edited February 1, 2016 by Kavvz

[Kavvz]

fist...

Yeap I guess 'sajcolombo' has a lot more on his mind than buying a car...

For what its worth, and in somewhat of apology for whoring up this thread with my sick mind: My vote would be on the Kelisa 2005-2007 too.

Why ? Well its cheap and I like cheap, easy to maintain cars. And the Kelisa 2005-07 in my opinion its a good jump off point for a first car as there's many available to pick through at a decent price, meaning that if you take your time you should be able to source one in good condition.

Fist-lover-colombo, err... I mean 'sajcolombo' for your purchase I would recommend getting the help of a friend who is mechanically inclined or a trusted mechanic to help you pick through the weeds and buy a car in good condition no matter what model you decide on as car sale buggers and some if not most private sellers are not to be trusted. They'd gladly pass off a lemon on you stating its a gem, if they figure they can get away with it.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Kavvz

[sajcolombo]

Thank you very much for the valuable opinions......

[SamG]

'sajcolombo', you became a overnight super star in the forum

Jokes apart, I too vote for Kelisa 2005-2007.

I was looking for a Kelisa 2007 Auto recently. As Kavvz mentioned it's cheap and easy to maintain. It's better built compared to its Indian counterpart. That's why I considered it.

Biggest challenge would be to a find a well maintained sample. Most of these cars are very poorly maintained. Therefore, follow the advices given by fellow forum members.

Biggest let down of the car is that it vibrates a lot. But it's a fun car to drive.

In my case, I considered face-lifted Mazda Demio DW3W (2001-2002) too. It's within the same budget. But bit older, bit expensive to maintain compared to Kelisa. On the flip side, it's bigger, comparatively comfortable and has more bells and whistles. Since I stumbled upon a very good sample, I settled for the Mazda. That's a very good car if you like to consider.

[ghostwriter]

Hi,

My first post here. I own a Kelisa (2004 M) so thought I could be a help. what I can advise regarding Kelisa is when you're buying one try to buy a Kelisa with manufacturing year as new as possible. I happened to buy the 2004 Kelisa without checking much as it was my first car and little did I know that it was a "poorly maintained vehicle". The owner didn't even have a full insurance on it and I didn't bother to check anything like engine health etc. after few weeks of buying (in 2015), it turned out engine oil seals were gone and due to the compact size in the engine bay, the mechanics advised me that I need to remove the engine in order to reach the crank seals (I verified from two places). So I had to remove the engine + gearbox just to replace one oil seal. But as the mechanic advised, I replaced all the engine oil seals and gearbox oil seals because it not worth to remove the engine to put it back just replacing one oil seal costs about 1000 LKR. due to this incident I had to bear huge labour cost. so be mindful.

the Kelisa can actually be run cheap. I go to work from Pannipitiya to Colombo 3 and I leave home at 5.30 in the morning due to time zone differences at work. as there is no traffic at that time and when I'm coming back after 9 hours, I get 17kmpl WITHOUT AC (tested so many times). When the AC is switched on it decreases a bit. But I like to roll the window down and drive so I always get 17kmpl. so its very economic. regarding services, you can use Valvoline engine oil (5w30) which costs less than 3000 LKR for 3 Litres and VIC oil filter costs less than 900 LKR. an air filter for Kelisa costs about 1200 LKR.

Kelisa comes with a fuel filter embedded inside the fuel pump so that it doesn't require changing regularly unless something is wrong with that.

cons are too much vibration/ jerking and the small cockpit if you're a well built person I have a Daihatsu L700 user manual (Base of Kelisa) in Google drive so if you need to look at it let me know I'll give the link. cheers.

[Kavvz]

Hi,

My first post here. I own a Kelisa (2004 M) so thought I could be a help. what I can advise regarding Kelisa is when you're buying one try to buy a Kelisa with manufacturing year as new as possible. I happened to buy the 2004 Kelisa without checking much as it was my first car and little did I know that it was a "poorly maintained vehicle". The owner didn't even have a full insurance on it and I didn't bother to check anything like engine health etc. after few weeks of buying (in 2015), it turned out engine oil seals were gone and due to the compact size in the engine bay, the mechanics advised me that I need to remove the engine in order to reach the crank seals (I verified from two places). So I had to remove the engine + gearbox just to replace one oil seal. But as the mechanic advised, I replaced all the engine oil seals and gearbox oil seals because it not worth to remove the engine to put it back just replacing one oil seal costs about 1000 LKR. due to this incident I had to bear huge labour cost. so be mindful.

the Kelisa can actually be run cheap. I go to work from Pannipitiya to Colombo 3 and I leave home at 5.30 in the morning due to time zone differences at work. as there is no traffic at that time and when I'm coming back after 9 hours, I get 17kmpl WITHOUT AC (tested so many times). When the AC is switched on it decreases a bit. But I like to roll the window down and drive so I always get 17kmpl. so its very economic. regarding services, you can use Valvoline engine oil (5w30) which costs less than 3000 LKR for 3 Litres and VIC oil filter costs less than 900 LKR. an air filter for Kelisa costs about 1200 LKR.

Kelisa comes with a fuel filter embedded inside the fuel pump so that it doesn't require changing regularly unless something is wrong with that.

cons are too much vibration/ jerking and the small cockpit if you're a well built person I have a Daihatsu L700 user manual (Base of Kelisa) in Google drive so if you need to look at it let me know I'll give the link. cheers.

Wow! What a great first post: Welcome to AL ghostwriter!

Edited May 31, 2016 by Kavvz

[ghostwriter]

thanks @Kavvz

[The Stig]

Hi,

My first post here. I own a Kelisa (2004 M) so thought I could be a help. what I can advise regarding Kelisa is when you're buying one try to buy a Kelisa with manufacturing year as new as possible. I happened to buy the 2004 Kelisa without checking much as it was my first car and little did I know that it was a "poorly maintained vehicle". The owner didn't even have a full insurance on it and I didn't bother to check anything like engine health etc. after few weeks of buying (in 2015), it turned out engine oil seals were gone and due to the compact size in the engine bay, the mechanics advised me that I need to remove the engine in order to reach the crank seals (I verified from two places). So I had to remove the engine + gearbox just to replace one oil seal. But as the mechanic advised, I replaced all the engine oil seals and gearbox oil seals because it not worth to remove the engine to put it back just replacing one oil seal costs about 1000 LKR. due to this incident I had to bear huge labour cost. so be mindful.

the Kelisa can actually be run cheap. I go to work from Pannipitiya to Colombo 3 and I leave home at 5.30 in the morning due to time zone differences at work. as there is no traffic at that time and when I'm coming back after 9 hours, I get 17kmpl WITHOUT AC (tested so many times). When the AC is switched on it decreases a bit. But I like to roll the window down and drive so I always get 17kmpl. so its very economic. regarding services, you can use Valvoline engine oil (5w30) which costs less than 3000 LKR for 3 Litres and VIC oil filter costs less than 900 LKR. an air filter for Kelisa costs about 1200 LKR.

Kelisa comes with a fuel filter embedded inside the fuel pump so that it doesn't require changing regularly unless something is wrong with that.

cons are too much vibration/ jerking and the small cockpit if you're a well built person I have a Daihatsu L700 user manual (Base of Kelisa) in Google drive so if you need to look at it let me know I'll give the link. cheers.

Welcome to the forum and a very informative post. But i have to say that you are incorrect on some accounts.

A bad oil seal isn't entirely the fault of the previous owner, as with anything on a car oil seals have a lifetime and they will eventually leak. Again lack of space to do maintenance on the engine isn't related to the owner is it? I say you have been very lucky if you found a car that only had bad oil seals as an immediate repair.

I know people who had to replace their gearbox straight after purchase, now that of course is the fault of the previous owner who hasn't changed Atf. What I'm saying is an oil seal isn't a serviceable part so you can't really "maintain" it.

Edited May 31, 2016 by The Stig

[ghostwriter]

Hi Stig,

Yes you're correct there I can't put the bad oil seals entirely on the previous owner. By "poorly maintained" I meant things like he hadn't periodically changed engine oil, air filter was clogged with dust, gearbox oil wasn't changed etc. so I had to do all those right after the purchase. regarding oil unfortunate that the oil seals were hardened at my ownership and at the same time it was fortunate that now I know all my oil seals are new and can be kept for coming few years without a trouble.

[aakyl4ever]

Simply avoid the Indians - sorry if it sounds racist. Only meant for cars

[Crosswind]

Simply avoid the Indians - sorry if it sounds racist. Only meant for cars

are u high?

[Vengeance]

Simply avoid the Indians - sorry if it sounds racist. Only meant for cars

Why? Stop advicing if you don't have evidence to back it up. I have been using Indian vehicles for a while and have had no major issues so far. True, they are less reliable, less safe and bla bla compared to Japanese models, but you get what you pay for.