vishkid

I wouldn't say it's entirely normal. I checked with a friend who has a 2014 2000cc diesel and while he usually runs 50km one way at around 12-13kmpl, he also says the city runs net an average of 10kmpl. Maybe you drive with a heavy foot (like me) or an extremely short distance in stationery traffic?

Strangely enough, I've had a sidewall failure issue on Dunlops recently too and these were Grandtreks made in Japan. I migrated from Kumho's with which I've never had an issue. I used to run Maxxis exclusively on cars for a good 6 years and they were really good apart from a bit of a noise. I would take Maxxis or Kumho's over Dunlop Thailand.

When you say cooler - do you mean the AC evaporator unit behind the dash? If so, I have a 2004 Axela that has more or less the same issue and I have been holding off doing it because that car rarely gets driven these days and frankly I didn't have time to even take it to the garage myself. 25k from Mazna on a genuine evaporator sounds about right, my wife's been offered a Thai duplicate brand new for 17k at a well known AC shop near Jubilee Post, Nugegoda. It's really a PITA to access the evaporator and the dash removal replacement process takes about 10 man hours. So I would expect anyone to charge about 15k for this, including smaller parts. 30-35k would be a good price for the whole thing IMO. The Jubilee Post place I mentioned has apparently done the job on a couple of Mazda's (which doesn't make them experts of course) but since this dash removal procedure is also there in Honda's etc too - I don't think i this should matter too much if they are professional otherwise. It would be good to be there in person at least for the assembly process though. The price upcharge from Mazna is on par with their usual pricing, and might be good to pay for the peace of mind if your car is new and is in immaculate condition. Sorry I don't have any more input from other parties you mentioned, but if I get to do this job soon - will keep updated here. Do let us know if you have any updates too.

KIA SL has recommended ATF oil changes at a wide range from 40k to 75k in the past for Sportage, to people I know. Makes me think they are pulling these numbers from air.

Alonso retires from F1 ? Having started watching F1 in 2004 and continuing to watch mostly for him, I find it inconsolable, even though it's been a struggle for the last 10!

It's a melamine sponge right? Better not use it on paint as it's almost like very fine sandpaper - unless you're prepared to polish and seal later.

I've tried a few dashcams in mine and family vehicles. My personal favorite is the xiaomi yi dashcam which records in FHD with absolutely great clarity both day and night. Has been on my daily driver which is parked outside during daytime for 3 years now - no issues at all. Snagged in for $40 from amazon during a black friday sale. The only negative about this is that it's not stealth (i.e. you wont be able to hide it easily) The one that came a distant second in the ones I've tried was pruveeo f5, which is again on a daily driver. Anyway, having a dashcam would be super useful now and more so in the future

Slightly OT but still .. they've cleared the above ground area from Colpetty station to behind St. Thomas Prep. I guess the plan is to go underground from somewhere around there. They have to go over or under the railway track at this point anyway.

That'll be an interesting junction near port city entrance (near Kingsbury). What with the Marine drive tunnel coming up from under the Galle Face as well.

Got it. I've seen quite a large number of bikes on the road with (sub-legal) handmade or printed plates. Probably due to this issue. OP may try his luck but a cop can always crack down on it, when they feel like enforcing the law

Legally, no - you cannot ride/drive anything without proper plates. But how long does it take to get the plates? When I brought a brand new vehicle, I got my vehicle with plates within 5-6 hours of finalizing the documents.

I've never seen a deduction on a paint job from (from a couple of different insurers, on my 2004 Mazda). They may negotiate with the garage on the per panel cost and that's it. Parts are a different story for the older vehicles, never paint.

Spare part availability is ok, but not great (relative to some Japanese makes), but it's improving. Of course KIA Lanka will have most, if not all the spares you require for these models - but at a premium. Ajantha, Aruna motors in Panchikawatte, Korean auto mart in darley road, korean auto land in malabe, and a few other places in the suburbs stock many of the common parts and you can always get stuff off ebay from a great bunch of Korean OEM shops. In my first hand experience, 2012 petrol does 6kmpl in city and the 2012 diesel does 10kmpl. Despite the diesel having more torque, I have had no problem extracting power out of the petrol on normal road conditions. Acceleration and driving at speed (with just the driver in) is much better in the petrol IMO. Off-road on hilly terrain, there is a bit of an advantage to the diesel but these are not off-road vehicles in general.

KIA came joint 1st in the UK rankings for 2017 (along with Volvo). Even in Sri Lanka, KIA 2012+ models can be taken as fairly solid with very low maintenance costs. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/gallery/the-20-best-car-brands-listed/kia0/

Ha ha, both Kimi and Fernando had good starts and got screwed. Fernando was P3 for a split second before his race was effectively ended for him