ehh... my comment hilang......... alamak lazy to tulis lama again
basically if you want to buy used, calculate the amount of interest you will be paying correctly. dont wana end up paying more than what is worth.
suggest you consider a newer local frugal car and not any of those conti's you have mentioned. (unless you are willing to live for the car)
+ iriz 1-2 yo used units are alright (and cheap)
+ axia

or an older used car (have some extra for maintanance)
+ latio (zenix's fav) + leaves lots of spare $
+ colt (mivec + turbo goodness)
+ satria neo ( the fake sports car, all looks no go)
- inspira (yeah running costs abit high, bad idea)

if you have big kahunas and are prepared to suddenly eat rumput one day (no bread even)
-- alfa 147 (also zenixes recommended conti  )
-- 308 (facelift is alittle better according to owners)
-- fiesta
-- beetle

dont know why fresh grads like these sort of cars.... then again,  i did, sort of...

technically speaking all 3 cars are alright, swift being a car i dont understand why people like, other than its looks its basically a kosong hatch. The maintanance of all of them are not very high, just more than the price of maintaining an equivalent local car

If your gross salary is 2.5k, how much can you really spend on a car...... Aside from the loan, how much are you willing to spend on it yearly. You need to pay for insurance, road-tax, maintenance, tires, spare cash pool incase crap happens as well as mods (young guy, very likely you will modify the car alittle) Better do the math first.

2011/2012 under 40k
good fc
cheap to maintain
fast on highways

doesn't exist.

I thought he didn't want Proton.
That's like VW Golf GTI territory 
sos
2006 Skoda Octavia 1.8T - at your kind of budget you either need to learn how to take care of a car to enjoy it the way you want it to or settle for something cheap to run but isn't fun at all. Let's discuss about the former, here we have a nice 1800cc turbo car from Skoda, it is within your budget because Skoda is a dead brand in Malaysia thus although technically a dead brand if you bring your Skoda to Bermaz in Glenmarie they will still support your car for service and parts, no issue to get parts from them because they still have connections with the principal however don't expect prices to be cheap and parts always available some parts need to be air-flown thus although faster but won't be cheap. So this is where learning how to take care of a car and finding out what is compatible and what is common parts can help you reduce cost of upkeep significantly. A Skoda Octavia is basically the same as an Audi A4 B6 or VW Golf/Jetta MK5. You can use parts from them, and stockist do keep parts for these two brands because they're more common. Or if that part isn't critical you can always get a cheap compatible part from China. Certain parts like brake pads and absorbers don't need to be specific for that car, they're like light bulbs or battery, as long as it is the correct spec it will work. Skoda would be cheaper to buy but maintenance of same effort is put into other conti's like Pug, Merc, BMW would be about the same but you won't be able to get those brands as cheap.

2006 Honda Civic FD1 - so let's say you're a lazy person to do the above but want something decently powerful but maybe not a turbo and cheaper to run than a turbo then maybe you can consider something like this, the Civic FD is still a very popular car until now. The 1800cc although not as powerful as the 2000cc variant still can bring you to 200kmh without much issues. Maintenance wise it isn't going to be cheap like a Kancil except per visit bills above RM200.
2006 BMW 120i - wanna tekan buy BMW don't play play 
apasal my recommended cars macam x best