[RajeevMD]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

Hi RajeevMD,
What is the annual car sales in Srilanka? Is there any car manufacturer there, I mean any factories? Do cars that are assembled attract the same duty as imported as a completely built unit?

Regards,
The Rationalist.

Hello The Rationalist,

Here go the answers to your queries:

1. Annual car sales and the vehicle population of SL are in the pictures attached below.

2. No there are no manufacturers here just an assembler. A company called MICRO CARS SL assembles CKD units of cheap Chinese and Malaysian cars.

3. No, the cars assembled here are taxed on a different slab though that doesn't make it substantially cheap. E.g. If CBU of car A is around Rs. 100, the CKD version of the same car would be Rs. 70.

Regards,
RajeevMD.

Originally Posted by srishiva

I think autos are also highly maneuverable and with the wheelbase and turning radius is easy to go anywhere. In country like ours (and Sri Lanka) this really helps in extending the public transport to lot of places where other forms cannot reach.

I personally hate them since they are a pain in traffic, move slowly and source of noise and air pollution.

You are right bro.

Originally Posted by smartcat

wow, now that's unique. How about some pics of your ride? Do take some time out and write a detailed ownership review. Trust me, your autorickshaw ownership thread will be a superhit on team-bhp.

Do Sri Lankans buy Chinese vehicles? (autos, bikes etc)

Yeah now that you mentioned, I am going to do a detailed ownership review soon.

Yes they buy Chinese vehicles, but it is mostly people who have no idea about cars who are sort of trapped into spending money on Chinese cars since they seem cheaper than the competition. Japanese cars specially JDM models are those which rule the roost here. Chinese cars were selling in good numbers around 2010-2014 during the peak years of Chinese influence on the island. Nowadays they are nowhere to be seen as most of them have been scrapped due to very poor quality (quality of such cars were even worse than the auto rickshaws).

[varunsangal]

3 wheeled vehicles are possibly the biggest source of road accidents today (my opinion and not a studied fact). Also, they are the biggest source of traffic congestion (anyone who has crawled down WEH in Mumbai on a weekday evening will agree).

Though a lot of this is also due to unlicensed and untrained drivers, but the fact that auto rickshaws are able to squeeze into spaces meant for maintaining distance between cars is a big issue.

Manufacture of all 3 wheeled vehicles should be stopped and all existing examples should be crushed. Or, they should be made to conform to latest safety norms like impact zones, parking sensors, airbags, minimum vehicle width, stability tests (elk test?).