Honda Insight ZE3 2013 and Honda Dual Clutch Issue

[manojwije]

Hi,

I'm planning to buy my first car and my budget is 3Mn - 4.3Mn. According to my expected usage on high hill roads and etc.. these were out of choise. 

Swift - Not economical on hills & expensive

Vitz - this quite smaller to be used by a family

Aqua x urban / G sport - don't feel like going for it spending close to 10Mn just for the features and the body kit for the same return

Finally thought to go for a 141 2008 which will be cost around 3.3 -3.5mn. Is this wise?

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Honda - Heard that these have a dual clutch issue and has had some issues in their technology. It takes about LKR 130K to repair duel clutch and only 30K more is guaranteed. 

Vezel - I like this very much but my friend said he got the DCT issue and it took about 300K for him to replace. Also the no 2nd hand market 

Grace - would like to stretch the budget for this and like a lot. Again watched few videos which have said they get the DCT issue anyway 

FIT GP5 - same as above

Honda Insight ZE3 2013 - Saw one on ###### for about 3.8Mn with a great condition. 80K Km done. Honda experts, pls share your experience. I checked almost all the brands and 2nd hand cars but now I'm confused. 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[iRage]

About the Aqua : Actually the Aqua is a pretty decent car (the issue is not with the car but the people ho own them as it is with most cars in SL). I have always stated that the Aqua (standard variants) have a very nice frame that is nimble and makes you want to just throw it around bends and have fun. it is a lot funner car to drive than the Vitz. Its only let down is the vague and lifeless steering (which is common to 99% of the Toyota models out there). The G Sport (Now called GR Smport) is completely different. it has stiffer suspension and a few extra welds to make the body tighter and most of the issues with the standard Aqua are fixed.

The standard Corolla 141 is a decent car. It is is well put together and is more suited for the SL market (as they were all brand new imports and the car itself was designed for export markets). Only black mark is that it lacks a certain refinement in the materials used when compared to the Japanese market models (you will see that the plastics are a bit harder...padding on the upholstery and the fabric of the seats have a slight difference to what the Japanese amrket variants owuld have, etc...) .  the early models were assembled in Japan, later on in Thailand and the last batch in Pakistan. THe Pakistani ones feel a lot more substandard than the Thai variants (there is barely any difference between the Thai and the Japanese manufactured variants). Only hitch with the car is Sri Lankan's stupid mentality that cars assembled in Thailand are crap (which is a myth...what they see is a difference in refinement which is driven by the operational environment of each market). Also, since most of these cars were brought under permit via the agent you will be able to find a decent speciment with proper service records from the agent.

The Honda DCT issue...well the issue is not with the DC but how we use cars in SL. Our creep-stop-accelerate-creep-stop-gun it type of driving does not go well with the DCT (not just the Honda one but with most other DCTs). So because of this it does not mean every Honda with a DCT is going to break. If you try to find a gasoline variant of the Vezel, Grace or even Fit; then the DCT issues will not be there as they did not come with the DCT. The gasoline variants came with a standard CVT. Its just that you won't find that many gasoline variants around because they were not cheap enough for car sales people to import and make a thundering profit. In fact I would personally say go for a Gasoline model of the new Hondas (or the Hondas from the era you are looking at) because some of the electronics were not entirely well "designed"and had chain reaction of errors popping up in Hybrids (the gasoline variants are lesser prone to this)

Honda Insight...hmm..the Hybrid system does seem to be a bit hokey in these things as opposed to the Prius (and other toyotas) of the same vintage. Also, don't believe claims on mileage... 

[matroska]

Just adding my 2 cents here- 

3.8 for the Insight is a Little bit too much IMHO it comes with and old school CVT  so you don't have to worry about DCT

if you do get it make sure you get the battery tested at agents (applies to all hybrids anyway) 

The GP5's are pretty cheap nowadays if you can nail a good specimen for a decent price it's a good deal...go for one with proper records so that you know that maintenance has been properly done. Not all Vezels, GP5's develop DCt. as @iRage mentioned its due to driving conditions . I have 2 friends who have been driving a Vezel and GP5 since 2014 without any issues at all. 

11 hours ago, manojwije said:

Finally thought to go for a 141 2008 which will be cost around 3.3 -3.5mn. Is this wise?

this is not a bad idea either there are properly looked after 141's also consider the Axio 161 (non hybrid that came in 2012-2013 bought by govt servants on permit) generally ok car that you can get for around 4 Mill. During the last permit rush there were many out there and most of them were in really good condition.