hehe my one free 10 k services until 50k

For Jeff, as promised. another david midnight posting

I am shopping for a new car to replace my aging iswara 1.5 gli uk spec. It is a great car that served me very well for the past years,until more and more problems pop up and prompt me to replace it before the whole car fall apart. For that purpose, I did a very long winded evaluation, test drive as the new car will need to last at least another 5 years.

I had a choice between these, and test driven and evaluated all of them

Local - Myvi, new Saga, Bestari, waja,
import - City, Vios, Accent, sentra, latio

I can still remember the day Savvy was launched - months after Myvi. And I used to ridicule Proton for coming up with such an odd design. So its fondly called 'potong sawi' back then. After 3 years of its launch, I found myself putting my cold hard cash on it. Ironic eh?

So why I choose Savvy out of the stiff competition for my cash then? A few points stood out:

1. Looks:
'unique' design with strong lines, edgy look that no other car maker copy
Really liked the honeycomb back lights.
Furthermore with the aerokit, it makes savvy more appealing to me

2. hard to drive amt:
frankly, after 5 years driving on auto, I forgot how to use the stick.
AMT provided me with the right compromise. AMT is non-lossy, but its not butter smooth.
To master it, lots of practise is required, and it made me beam back to my days at driving school, struggling with the paddles.
Make me feel young again ^.^ and make me feel triumphant when I finally managed a smooth gear change.

3. easy to use amt:
as i say, its a compromise between auto and manual. I would not go back to manual in a jam prone city of KL, but i would like the flexibility and 'fun factor' of manual. AMT fits the bill.

4. fixable known problems:
strong forum support from lyn, savoc, nru, cari etc
this makes me feel confident on the potential problems to meet and how to solve them. not 100% fool proof but at least i have somehting in my hand

Drawbacks
1. Pre-sales service
Proton still havent woke up from the sleep, and did not train their staff properly
I got stuck at one point, on the h-line brakes, whether it have EBD or not. icare hotline says yes, then no, then yes etc
They did not update the website until i really yelled at them, wrote email to their boss etc.
However, it is then I made some friends at i-care and one of them told me abt the savvy problems. I will need to avoid cars before a certain date.

2. test drive
All savvy are pull out from the dealerships, so there are no test drive cars.
my first attempt is at a sin siang hin branch. The salesmen gave me a new car to round the housing estate.
Not very good, as it has all the AMT problems - like riding a horse! and its a brand new car!
I thought it would be a lemon, and tried again at PE. This time its the salesmen's own car.
its the first batch, fully serviced, and the AMT is really smooth. with permission, its driven to guterie highway for a spin. thats when i got hooked with the agility, speed, and firmness. at the end of the testdrive, i even pumped back petrol for the salesmen.

3. delivery time
as i specifically declined a certain batch of car... my car have to be built from scratch. Proton took 3 months at that, citing lack of part, too many overseas order blah blah.

my first 1000km:

In fact, the car is immediately driven to Penang right after getting the keys!
Really no regret. It sped like a silver bullet! it was a dark, raining stormy night. the car do not hesitate to grip on the road and in no time i was flying at 130km/h without me realizing it.

Problems encountered:
1. dropped off front car plate
- found the problem is the dealer who use 2 sided tape to stick. as the aerokit do not match the plate holder screw hole.
- have to teach the stupid foremen to use a file to mod it a bit to screw in.

2. dropped brake sensor:
- brake light always on
- just put the sensor back in the socket.

3. bad wiper:
- dint manage to claim it. bought rm13 silicon wiper from tesco to replace. works perfectly!

4. jammed door unlocker
- again, stupid foremen at SSH tried to fix by forcing the door handle open, end up scratches all over the place
- force them to replace new handle and panel for me.
- found the root cause of the stuck - the white stopper behind the handle is not installed properly.
- symptom is, the door handle (inside) when pulled, it will not return to position perfectly. fixed and done.

despite all that, it a truely joyful to drive a savvy. I feel like jeremy clarkson bashing a car's negetive points, but in the end of the day, feel attached to this piece of metal. The driving experience is simply not replicable in any other car.
It take corners after corners, every bent and curve like gliding thru them. it handles straights without hesitant, and dont even have to drop to 4th gear to accelerate further. it will not sprint like a bigger engine car, but its sufficient for me.

the car seat is a semi-bucket seat that is firm and comfy. even after 4 hours drive, i still feel fresh and ready to move on the next task. The 2 fold seat works well for me, though it can never fight with my old iswara. The aircond is proton's strength, and in savvy its especially strong and cold.

FC is always a constant point of discussion, and i really could not stand my old car's 9km/l figure. moving to savvy gives me 15km/l and I am more than happy.

I realise that the car is quite complete and i do not really need any modification to it. it came pre-tinted, aerokit, 15" rimms.
my itchy hands still.... in the end i modded these:
1. speakers. the stock speakers are really bad. there are no bass and no treble. swapped with a better one. DIY
2. funky head unit, but lacked mp3, usb. DIY still in progress.
3. need more sound insulator, i think in firewall and 4 doors. will do next.
4. got R3 mufflers with davidmu, and been revving more ever since. sometimes bringing to 4krpm to change gear. but these comes at a cost - drop to 12km/l

after nearly 3kkm in 2 months. I think I made the right choice afterall

This post has been edited by lj0000: Nov 29 2008, 02:03 AM

Dayco Timing Belt kit set rm380 100,000km with oil seal s. Take Note -Original renault & other spare part shop will only give u a 60,000km belt). 60,000km belts will be about rm50 bucks cheaper

from savoc. not inclusive of labour

guys.. where's the best place to get a garmin 205w?

hyper..rm50 at rm1.90 or rm2.00?
lets say at rm2.00 means 20liter

so 500km/20liter = 25km/liter!

can you share how you drive?
at 110km/h means cruising at 3k rpm i think quite hard to achieve that number.

I tried cruising at 110 and little braking, i got 17km/l and thats the best i could do.

what's your tyre size and the pressure?
what kind of engine oil u use? whats the secret?

r3 muffler makes it sooo tempting to pull it to 4krpm

i am trying to get one too.
initially wanted pivot but after i know its not water proof... changing mind

what is the effect? how do u judge its worth the money?

david, may i know if ur shop uses petronas lube?
the standard is semi synt...how much do u charge to upgrade to full-synt?

where got pic? ee.. maybe my office block off friendster's pictures liao
glad you enjoyed the same color as me !

mine also close to 5k liao. thinking of draining and replacing it with semi this time.
next real service at 10k will replace with full syntetic. Carefour selling fully syntetic oils at rm160 only. i can't think of why sinsianghin charges me rm100 for upgrading from semi to full. maybe next time i bring my own oil and sell the semi would make sense.

there are forumers here selling badhrl full syntetic at rm7x only mah...

nice prosperity orange color. kinda wish i got this color

david... u havent reply me...
how much ur shop charge if i want to upgrade to fully synt

waja looks more like performance car.
persona looks more subtle and family

savvy's tyres are 'kang kang' so it gives better straight line and better cornering.
down side is, it tends to wear out faster. so must do rotation every 5k

ha ha... i got the term from savoc forum mar.... so mainly malay words lo.

at first, i feel the car is not so good on auto, so i switch to manual
after a while, i feel that the auto mode slowly become what i wanted it to be. like it has learned from my manual mode driving style.

maybe terbalik... i learned to adapt to savvy liao....

before u repaint... try rub the paint transfer off first with car polish.

i also have difficulty parking this car... my bad driving skill...

so? how's the result? dun forget to post the pic

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=n...F20090114145057

turbo jet engine take off? u sure no one sneak in last night to install a jet engine? or when u start ur car, some motobike nearby who installed the fake jet engine sound just braked?

forgot urs is amt or manual liao.. anyway, when starting, do make sure the check engine process stopped before u crank the engine.
i think the amt system will charge up the pressure tank to half tank when u first open door (u will hear buzzing from engine) then fully charge as u turn key to AC. if u crack before it reaches full charge, maybe got leak or it got emergency blowoff.. dunno

ok boss. no more kang^2