Car Buying Advice Wanted

[Saturn]

A friend of mine is looking for a small car. She wants a Honda or Toyota (starlet/corolla 2 or tercel) at around or under 1mn - she prefers a diesel vehicle

Basically she wants a vehicle which is in good mechanical condition. Do any of you have any suggestions?

could you please mail me at ######?

ps: to the admins: I'm not sure if its OK to request this here, if not I will delete my email address from this post and please accept my apologies.

Suggestion: How about adding a 'wanted' section to the classifieds?

Edited May 11, 2007 by Pericles

[gunat]

You'll be hard pressed to find a good diesel car at that price. With the given economic conditions, Eco-Runabouts are commanding a premium price. (Petrol EP82 Starlets are going for over 1 million!)

There are a few of the Daihatsu Charade diesels/old school starlets (32 sri) running around, but again, hard to find one in good condition.

[Saturn]

@pericles: sorry about email!!

As I said earlier, would it be possible to add a 'wanted' section to the classified so people can put that type of ad there?

Well yes diesels are a bit hard to find at that price.. so how about petrol cars? Anyone have suggestions?

Runabouts are commanding a premium price. (Petrol EP82 Starlets are going for over 1 million!)

I was quoted 1.1 m for a 19- ep82 - thought the owner was kidding for a moment!

I did see a really good late G series 1997 corolla 2 for just under 1m.

I was also offered a 65- starlet first owner diesel for 1.25 which was tempting..

Does anyone know the km/l of diesel starlets?

Edited May 11, 2007 by Saturn

[The Don]

@pericles: sorry about email!!

As I said earlier, would it be possible to add a 'wanted' section to the classified so people can put that type of ad there?

Well yes diesels are a bit hard to find at that price.. so how about petrol cars? Anyone have suggestions?

Incidentally Gunat is quite right in pointing out the condition most Diesel cars under and around 1 million tends to be in. Please do not go for a Charade cos you have very little chance of finding a decent example. The Charade before the Egg shaped model (The G10 I believe) is a bit better than the egg shaped one which deteriorated very fast.

I think the only decent Diesel car you can find around that mark is the pre 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer and I have seen a few good examples go for reasonable prices.

Nearly all Doctor Sunny s from that generation I have encountered were not in good condition, and the Toyotas a probably beyond your budget

A look at the classifieds would probably give you a rough idea of the market place. I think you might be able to get an old shape AE110 1.3L for around that mark which would give you good fuel efficiency and Toyota reliability,

The Don

[Saturn]

Thanks Don

does anyone have latest pricing for the starlet?

diesel, petrol, manual, auto ep82 upwards?

Most of the EP82's I see now are a million plus.

Remember seeing one a few years back for around 700k

[Hola]

@pericles: sorry about email!!

As I said earlier, would it be possible to add a 'wanted' section to the classified so people can put that type of ad there?

Well yes diesels are a bit hard to find at that price.. so how about petrol cars? Anyone have suggestions?

I was quoted 1.1 m for a 19- ep82 - thought the owner was kidding for a moment!

I did see a really good late G series 1997 corolla 2 for just under 1m.

I was also offered a 65- starlet first owner diesel for 1.25 which was tempting..

Does anyone know the km/l of diesel starlets?

bro, i know the price for the dieasel looks tempting but rember that those are very high in maintainance and repair costs. And im sure the 65-xxxx car has done more than 100,000??

[The Don]

Thanks Don

does anyone have latest pricing for the starlet?

diesel, petrol, manual, auto ep82 upwards?

Most of the EP82's I see now are a million plus.

Remember seeing one a few years back for around 700k

Saturn, there is one mistake I made when buying a car which I still regret a lot, in the end of 2003 I was presented with two starlets for purchase one a 65- and the other unregistered both 1998 model (the other was stuck at customs or something) and believe me the 65- one was in pristine condition somewhat better than the unregistered one which clearly needed a valet and whatever else

price 925K for the 65-

975K for the unreg !!!

wish I bought them then and there ............................ sigh

[Hola]

Saturn, there is one mistake I made when buying a car which I still regret a lot, in the end of 2003 I was presented with two starlets for purchase one a 65- and the other unregistered both 1998 model (the other was stuck at customs or something) and believe me the 65- one was in pristine condition somewhat better than the unregistered one which clearly needed a valet and whatever else

price 925K for the 65-

975K for the unreg !!!

wish I bought them then and there ............................ sigh

How did you manage that? If it was 2003 the car is 5 years old. I thought max age is 3 for recon imports

[The Don]

How did you manage that? If it was 2003 the car is 5 years old. I thought max age is 3 for recon imports

READ hola, the car was stuck in the customs for a while i think it was bought off a customs auction or something, there was fungus etc on the seats which needed to be shampooed out but not really that big a deal

[Hola]

READ hola, the car was stuck in the customs for a while i think it was bought off a customs auction or something, there was fungus etc on the seats which needed to be shampooed out but not really that big a deal

you mean the car was stuck in the customs for such a long time?

[The Don]

you mean the car was stuck in the customs for such a long time?

I dunno Hola I am just telling you what I was told

[Hola]

If it was 975 in customs then was it with Tax?

[Pericles]

Hola, if u say something like "don't lie" now, I swear, u are the biggest post whore in the whole of creation.

[The Don]

If it was 975 in customs then was it with Tax?

the car sale was selling it at 975 so it included everything including the car sale's profit

[Hola]

the car sale was selling it at 975 so it included everything including the car sale's profit

Amazing...Do you know what happend at the end? Was it cleared?

[The Don]

Amazing...Do you know what happend at the end? Was it cleared?

Hola come on man use your common sense, and stop asking me silly questions,

Lets go right back to how we started this conversation, I said I found 2 cars in a car sale. Now you tell me man, how can a car possibly get to a car sale without being cleared by the customs first ???

The car was brought from a customs auction all duty paid and then brought to this car sale to be sold, and I suppose both were sold and whoever bought them got a bargain. Unfortunately not me

Lets not take this further, I feel I have answered enough questions on one simple point for one day, and I do not have any patience for any more.

[Hola]

Hola come on man use your common sense, and stop asking me silly questions,

Lets go right back to how we started this conversation, I said I found 2 cars in a car sale. Now you tell me man, how can a car possibly get to a car sale without being cleared by the customs first ???

The car was brought from a customs auction all duty paid and then brought to this car sale to be sold, and I suppose both were sold and whoever bought them got a bargain. Unfortunately not me

Lets not take this further, I feel I have answered enough questions on one simple point for one day, and I do not have any patience for any more.

old age j/k ok?

[Saturn]

price 925K for the 65-

975K for the unreg !!!

I think Sri Lanka (and Cuba) are the only countries on earth where prices of vehicles actually increase.

Back on topic my car browsing has confirmed a surprising fact that now a million is about the minimum for anything 19- and above from a decent brand (Honda, Toyota, etc).

Another thing I see which surprises me here is the 'drive it till it dies mentality' i.e. an owner will just drive the car until it literally dies, (and then try to sell it). Wouldn't it be simpler, and more cost effective to just do routine maintenance?

Sadly, most of the vehicles I have seen were in very poor state, in many cases I was amazed that an owner would be even willing to drive such a vehicle far less demand a million plus for it.

On an unrelated note, is it possible for people to tamper with the digital mileage reading? I'm curious because it seems to be impossible (I've seen garages 'editing' the old type meters manually by taking apart the dashboard).

[xXx]

On an unrelated note, is it possible for people to tamper with the digital mileage reading? I'm curious because it seems to be impossible (I've seen garages 'editing' the old type meters manually by taking apart the dashboard).

lets just say nothings impossible

[milindu]

The car was brought from a customs auction all duty paid and then brought to this car sale to be sold, and I suppose both were sold and whoever bought them got a bargain. Unfortunately not me

At the time it was not much of a bargain as the Vitz was selling around 10.50-11.50 for one in mint. Corolla 121 Ungregd was just 18/50 range.

[Hola]

On an unrelated note, is it possible for people to tamper with the digital mileage reading? I'm curious because it seems to be impossible (I've seen garages 'editing' the old type meters manually by taking apart the dashboard).

Simple case bro. The digital reading can be changed. There is one guy in negombo, his issue is that he cant get the reading for what mileage we want, only he can make is zero..

[The Don]

At the time it was not much of a bargain as the Vitz was selling around 10.50-11.50 for one in mint. Corolla 121 Ungregd was just 18/50 range.

ha ha yeah probably my ignorrance of the car market, it would have certainly suited my purposed to have bought one at that time

Simple case bro. The digital reading can be changed. There is one guy in negombo, his issue is that he cant get the reading for what mileage we want, only he can make is zero..

Saturn, the milleage value being displayed is stored on non volatile memory somewhere in the system and a person with enough understanding of the electronic design of the car can simply reflash this value with whatever they want

on most popular cars the method of doing so is quite well known unfortunately for all of us, the milleage values on a digital meter is no more reliable than the older analogue meters

[Hola]

But despite the milege just look into very simple things like the steering wheel - see if its shaded off, look at the pedals - see if those are worn off, then have a closer look at the rubber beadings to see ifs its burnt etc. Becuase some cars could have a 50,000km on the clock but all of these showing that its used 150,000kms

[Saturn]

Saturn, the milleage value being displayed is stored on non volatile memory somewhere in the system and a person with enough understanding of the electronic design of the car can simply reflash this value with whatever they want

NVRAM eh? I'm surprised that car makers would store sensitive data using such a simple easily hackable system. It's a pity that we don't have a 'carfax' type thing here.

Edited May 13, 2007 by Saturn

[Watchman]

small diesel car inder 1 million? Isuzu Gemini (aint no honda or toyota, not that there are any honda diesels to start with)

It might be a bit hard finding a gemini and maybe a bit too old for comfort for some... but even the best maintained cars wont be over a million.

And does awsome on deisel.. last time i checked did 11km per liter in colombo