pretty much all the new cars which will fit your budget are pretty cheap to run and maintain....
cannot comment on used cars, cause im not even sure how much you want to spend on a car..

do you have a family, do you need a boot, do you need to travel long distances? any particular wants in a car?

only 2 i can think of are the dmax and the triton... both are pretty reliable

not sure bout the navara actually...

one thing about the dmax is that its been using the same old tech all this while, old, proven reliable...

loan calculation stuff better ask zenix , an almera is around 60++k so I am assuming you can afford a car around 60k.
Personally dont like the almera. Imo when it was first launched yeah it was a decent little thing, offered one of the best fuel figures at that time. but now, its kinda dated and overshadowed by its competitors if you ask me.

Have you considered going for a local car?

i feel that it is a very 'kosong' car.... you would get more out of the local cars but of course, you might suffer some prejudice cause you would be driving a local car.

if you are willing to look at local cars, best options would be the bezza advance (top spec) or the persona. those 2 come loaded with toys and have all them fancy safety features. I left myvi our cause the bezza is a better car all in all (at least if you ask me). Am not very impressed with the saga cause its basically the same saga injected with Botox + given some added features. One thing to note tho.... these cars will feel very sluggish (applies to most of these cars designed to save fuel). Its just something that you have to get used to. Almera is just as slow or even worse.

BEST would be to take a look at the almera, then look at the bezza and persona in one go. You will find that theres really nothing special about the almera just cause its imported.

wana add, its decent, yeah got the safety features to back it up. However its got that same poor engine/tranny as before. fc is not going to be as good as most of the current new models out there. on the plus side... i guess owners can claim to have the only car around this price which comes with tps stock!

no gst

just want to point out that.... that takara airbag thing isnt a 'honda' only thing... its affecting many vehicles from that period. If this is an issue to you, best stay away from any of the vehicles listed in the recall (again, not a honda only thing)

the ioniq is quite a new car, you will have to be a willing white rat if you want to get one. Remember this, early batches of a model usually do have their share of flaws which may not be known at launch but appear over time. As they roll out the more cars they will usually make small adjustments to iron out all the kinks. so if you want to be an early adopter, well its a risk you have to take.

*in my opinion
benefits of hybrids:
i)can claim to be one earth loving human
ii)fuel economy
issues
i)resale. you might not care about this, but for someone who does not cover as much distance, the amount it depreciates can be much more than what you have saved on petrol
ii)maintanance in the near future will NEVER be cheap compared to a petrol going model (less parts, less issues, simple)

**another point to note is... dry dct tranny.... well on one hand, look at vw and their tranny's, one time rosak habis... on the other hand, korean have been using dct's fir a while, and i dont hear any 'major' issues with them. (ofc cost of maintaining it would be pretty high compared to a conventional tranny)

ford punya... jerky jerky.... then mau tukar klatch pek, manyak mahal yo.... then again, wear and tear thing, what can you do about it i guess

just curious... what is defined as 'powerful' to you, each person has a diferent idea of powerful enough....

anyway...

theres a used car shop around that area which is utter garbage. Check out 'K-S TRADING Used Car' then complete utter waste of time... Am not sure if its the same store (they have advertised under many different names actually). There is an existing thread about them, under another dif name, cant find that old thread. have been there myself and if its the same store, their prices are very good BUT they lie about almost everything... at that time (i think 6-7 years ago) i was looking for a saga, they had many many units all under market value. Upon inspection, i found that every single damned car had been in an accident before.

I do however suggest you visit them if you have a friend who can advise you on used cars, if only for the sake of learning how to inspect used cars... they have so many cars with different kinds of damage to be used as examples to see what damaged cars look like.

not mudah only.... all of them... its not really avoidable to be fair and not all are that way. thats why you should a thorough background check on the car. the older the car, the more digging you should do.

haha anyway hope this answer's ts's question about this shop in oparticular

This post has been edited by lsm1991: Dec 4 2016, 06:48 PM

if you about performance, i would respond with... what performance? performance 404 not found.
handling, best you try for yourself, have only sat in the m2 and fiesta 1.6 (the 2 were great), cant say bout the ecoboost or the 208.

not going to bring in maintenance into question cause, you never asked... but i assume you already know what to expect from 2 of the 3.

best view the car 1st then make a decision, no dealer is completely honest. The previous dealer was a big time crook, so its easier to tell in that particular case, otherwise its not so straight forward. why not show us which car you are looking at, easier for us to evaluate the car directly.

hmmm fresh grad, new vios... unless your pay is pretty high, or you have some sort of fama scholarship, this aint always a good idea

everyone knows the common cars like the teana, camry, accord, m6 and the like, so lets talk about the fancier less common models.

mark x OR is 250
+powerful
+really nice cars
-old

kizashi
+looks good, modern & sporty
+powerful
+maintanance is reasonable
-not that large
-its brand does not yell, 'fancy car', its looks does the talking

E61 beemer
+coolness (check)
+power (check)
+space (check)
+need i mention its cool?
-cam be an absolute pain to maintain if the car is a lemon (then again, same could be said for any car i guess)

This post has been edited by lsm1991: Dec 6 2016, 03:58 PM

preve cfe
- same rules, the low end model (in this case an even more lowly campro) aint no good
- fits the budget fairly well
- maintanance is reasonable
- fairly large

p2 alza
- also reliable
- also large enough to fit many people though at full capacity, its abit cramp

if you had a larger budget and are willing to deal with an older car, that will fit in fairly well

nissan dualist
-shared mechanicals with the xtrail
-parts are not as cheap as protons but, they do last, very reliable

is 250
+ generally bulletproof
+ comes with all the bells and whistles you want
+ fancy as heck
+ its reliable BUT spare parts are expensive (read; very exp)

Kizashi
+ also reliable
+ parts not so difficult to get and is on the more 'affordable' side for this type of car (keep in mind, its a d seg)
+ looks really sporty with the interior to match

crz
+ coupe, coolness factor x1.2
+ again~ reliable, shared engine with the jazz hybrid if not mistaken
+ ^ spare parts are easy long as we dont talk about the hybrid system (BUT so far so good, no real issues discovered so far)
+ plethora of aftermarket parts to spice or ahbeng the car up with
- all looks no go
- damned 4 speed auto but its a hybrid so you get bragging rights

then there's this.. something diferent....
the hyundai Ioniq, a brand new hybrid model by hyundai, slightly over your budget though....
+ loaded with goodies, really loaded
+ hybrid bragging rights
+ its very modern....
+ all the safety features you can think of? it has it, heck top range model will stop itself for you.
+ claimed fc of 3.x lit/100km
- H badge (unfortunately not the H from from japan) + hybrid combo..... well lets say from what you can see...resale probably aint gona be good......
= god knows about spare part prices tho
= reliability still a questionmark
= dct tranny might scare some ppl off

*the example adverts are just examples, you probably can find cheaper or better units out there

the lexus is prettymuch a toyota rebranded.... maintenance would be close to a camry for most of the parts.

well....... 18' wheels and all that can be downsized later on, but understoodlah... these d segment cars definately will cost you more to run and maintain.

the car GUE5T suggested is also a very good car, very similar to the is250 just slightly diferent everywhere.

only 2 other cars that arnt too old or expensive i can think of
1. mazda 6
-big car, looks good
-skyactive engine is really good (though the way it drives/accelerates takes alittle getting used to)

2. mazda mps
-powerful
-manual only
-quite large

and all the facelift models.... am not sure if its an option on the pre-fl cars....

r u sure thats a facelifted car....

few easy ways to check for the existence of vsc
1) drive like a manic... swing car suddenly. if you lose control, no vsc (not advised for obvious reasons)
2) check fusebox. vsc module should have its own fuse, if blank, no vsc (u might need to read japanese)
3) you always have the icons on the dash.... check if vsc light pops up