[K.S.]

Hello Bhpians,
Glad to be a part of this passionate community. My first post here (and I hope to have a long association ).

Essence of this post is to get some advice on my decision on an used car buy. I have been following/searching this forum before I zeroed into my choices.

My requirements are:
1. Budget 2 - 2.5L
2. Sedan (am 6ft, would love nice big car with good boot space)
3. Diesel (Home - Office - Home drive would be around 30 kms daily + occasional fun road trips, say once in a month)
4. Looks and style
5. Less maintenance
6. Fairly easy availability of spares
7. Chennai
8. My first car

Keeping all this in mind, and with the t-bhp old discussions, I have started looking out for a diesel lancer. I have always loved Lancer, especially the black one - what a piece of machine! and I still believe that it has got the timeless looks.

My questions are
1. Does it sound sane? Is it a good idea to buy an used diesel car?
2. Many lancers out in the market have already clocked 1L+ kms. Is that fine?
3. I am ignorant about cars, and don't want to get doomed by the (fraudulent) dealers.
3. If this is not a good idea, what would be a better option suiting my requirements?

Looking forward to the advices from you all, Thanks in advance,

K.

[prince_pervez]

Hi @K.S.
With that budget it is going to be tight to fetch a Diesel Lancer in good condition.
Maybe 1999 one with loads on the ODO.
I feel you should go for the petrol one and in that budget you can procure a 2002 or 2001 decently maintained one. But that is not your requirement now is it ?
Yes its a fun to drive car and all but OEM spares are going to spin your head off where it is now.
Guess what. I called up Southern Motors here yesterday for front brake pads and rotors. Ken ya guess the price.
2500 for the pads and 3k ish for the rotors.
Wiper switch (near the steering): 3K ish.
So for the Lancer one has to save money and do the servicing. I hope you get what I mean.
About the 1L kms, most decently driven Lancers hold good till about 2 Lakh kms or more. So thats not a problem. Depends more on the engine use/abuse and the maintenance of the car.

Stay away from dealers. Most Lancers I saw had tampered ODOs or fresh paint. One of the guys even went to the extent of offering to make a fresh RC book registering me as the first owner. Wonder how he'd manage that, but still.

I have nothing to suggest in a diesel, The budget is too tight. I would have suggested a Accent CRDi but a good one in the market fetches for nothing less than 3.5 L minimum.

Palio D, but again, minus boot space.

Indigo!! Have you thought about this ??
And yes, Welcome to the Forum, Enjoy ur stay here.

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by K.S.

Hello Bhpians,
Glad to be a part of this passionate community. My first post here (and I hope to have a long association ).

Essence of this post is to get some advice on my decision on an used car buy. I have been following/searching this forum before I zeroed into my choices.

My requirements are:
1. Budget 2 - 2.5L
2. Sedan (am 6ft, would love nice big car with good boot space)
3. Diesel (Home - Office - Home drive would be around 30 kms daily + occasional fun road trips, say once in a month)
4. Looks and style
5. Less maintenance
6. Fairly easy availability of spares
7. Chennai
8. My first car

Keeping all this in mind, and with the t-bhp old discussions, I have started looking out for a diesel lancer. I have always loved Lancer, especially the black one - what a piece of machine! and I still believe that it has got the timeless looks.

My questions are
1. Does it sound sane? Is it a good idea to buy an used diesel car?
2. Many lancers out in the market have already clocked 1L+ kms. Is that fine?
3. I am ignorant about cars, and don't want to get doomed by the (fraudulent) dealers.
3. If this is not a good idea, what would be a better option suiting my requirements?

Looking forward to the advices from you all, Thanks in advance,

K.

The diesel mill in a lancer is one of the most ancient technologies and trust me its sluggish. All your happiness or owning a lancer will vanish the moment you try overtaking something. There is no pete's tunning box available for this mill as it dosent use an ECU. And with all these negetives a 1999 Lancer diesel woul easily fetch more than 2 lacs, so if you need a 2004-2005 lancer you would be looking at a 5lac+ budget at this budget your best bet should be a used CRDI accent/elantra, This will start at arround 3lac bracket and will not be very old. If budget is your constraint and sluggishness is not an issue than consider a diesel esteem with a TUD 5 engine, It is slow but very easy to maintain and spares availability is not an issue at all.

If you are hell bent on a lancer go for a petrol one. Mine returns me a decent 12-15Km/liter. at 1lac+ ODO reading the petrol lancers are know to give the least issues. One of the members got a black petrol lancer 2001 model for 1.1lac, You will have to look at suspension issues mainly, then clutch and ofcourse the engine compression. The body can tinkered and repainted in ~30k, so that should be ok. Mechanicals is what you need to look primarily at. Mine is a 2000 model petrol lancer, if i go and sell it i will not even get a lac for it, but trust me after driving this one i am not able to think of a replacement today, even the new cedia dosent drive like this 10 year old beauty. Hope i was able to help.


Pramod

[K.S.]

Thanks Pervez and Pramod for the quick replies.

Yes, I have thought about Petrol Lancer too. I was not too sure about the price and so, went for the diesel one. If I get a decent petrol lancer for 1.2 - 1.5L with less maintenance, I would be happily owning it. Another thing I missed out in my original post is that I plan to own this car for atleast two/three years. Resale... again I know this is a big question. But, my heart is still with Lancer.

Accent - CRDI / petrol - I like the looks, it looks like more formal than a lancer, maybe I should also keep an eye on those cars.

How do I prey Lancers in Chennai? I am currently on t-bhp classifieds, hindu classifieds, sulekha, carwale, craigslist - mostly they are filled up with dealers (except t-bhp).

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by K.S.

How do I prey Lancers in Chennai? I am currently on t-bhp classifieds, hindu classifieds, sulekha, carwale, craigslist - mostly they are filled up with dealers (except t-bhp).

Buying a clean car is not an easy task, It requies a lot of patience. Go to various workshops in your area(which has lancers getting repaied/serviced) and find out if any of their clients wants to sell theirs. This way you can get a good deal(monitary) but you have to throughly get these cars checked. Talk to your friends and ask them to give you leads. In team bhp you would rarly find one from chennai, so if you are ok with getting one from mumbai and get it reregistered in chennai, than you will have wide open options. Find out what are the procedures of reregistration. There are large number of lancers for sale in mumbai.

Pramod

[lancer&shogun]

Hello Bhpians,
Glad to be a part of this passionate community. My first post here (and I hope to have a long association ).

Welcome to tbhp, K.S!

1. Budget 2 - 2.5L

You would get only 1999 or 2000 model lancer diesel for that price. Remember it could have more 1L+ KM on odo.

2. Sedan (am 6ft, would love nice big car with good boot space)

Lancer is very good choice for you even i'm 6ft!

3. Diesel (Home - Office - Home drive would be around 30 kms daily + occasional fun road trips, say once in a month)

I would suggest you to go for a Petrol car since it's your first car and do not take risk by going for a second hand diesel.

4. Looks and style

AFAIK its lancer and how abt OHC? do TD that car too.

5. Less maintenance

I have 1999 Dec lancer, bought it 4 yrs back from my friend. AFAIK i spent about 50K+ in this period nothing more than that.

6. Fairly easy availability of spares

Dont worry about the spares, its easily available.

8. My first car

Go for a petrol second hand car rather than a diesel. I'm sure once you taste lancer you'll not find any other car about the comfort and driving pleasure.

My other option for you is, test drive a old honda city (OHC).

Cheers,
L&S.

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by K.S.

How do I prey Lancers in Chennai? I am currently on t-bhp classifieds, hindu classifieds, sulekha, carwale, craigslist - mostly they are filled up with dealers (except t-bhp).

Buying a clean car is not an easy task, It requies a lot of patience. Go to various workshops in your area(which has lancers getting repaied/serviced) and find out if any of their clients wants to sell theirs. This way you can get a good deal(monitary) but you have to throughly get these cars checked. Talk to your friends and ask them to give you leads. In team bhp you would rarly find one from chennai, so if you are ok with getting one from mumbai and get it reregistered in chennai, than you will have wide open options. Find out what are the procedures of reregistration. There are large number of lancers for sale in mumbai.
there is one diesel lancer for sale in my office classifieds, its a 2003 model KL 8 reg(trissur, kerala). and is diesel. i will pass on the contact info if you are interested

Pramod

[esteem_lover]

If you like the Lancer, get a petrol one. You will get a decent car for your budget. You will not find any good examples of diesels.

[gaurav_chopra04]

Please find my replies in bold

Originally Posted by K.S.

Hello Bhpians,
Glad to be a part of this passionate community. My first post here (and I hope to have a long association ).

Welcome aboard Tbhp.

diesel lancer...black one
extremely difficult to find a nice buy at a price of 2 to 2.5. May be you can get one in Chandigarh.

1. Budget 2 - 2.5L

Good for a petrol Lancer.

Diesel (Home - Office - Home drive would be around 30 kms daily + occasional fun road trips, say once in a month)

Run of 1k kms per month can be managed with Petrol I guess. will cost between 4 to 4.5k per month.

5. Less maintenance

Petrol lancers parts are far easily available (engine parts, rest they share almost every thing) and are cheaper than diesel. Lancer diesel is still one of the quietest and reliable diesel around.

My first car

You will be better off spending around 1.4lac to 1.75lac for a good 99-2000 model petrol lancer and save the remaining for parts and fuel.

1. Does it sound sane? Is it a good idea to buy an used diesel car?
2. Many lancers out in the market have already clocked 1L+ kms. Is that fine?
no. not in case of diesel lancer. Just that its difficult to find one in good condition.
K.

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

Hi @K.S.
Yes its a fun to drive car and all but OEM spares are going to spin your head off where it is now.
Guess what. I called up Southern Motors here yesterday for front brake pads and rotors. Ken ya guess the price.
2500 for the pads and 3k ish for the rotors.
Wiper switch (near the steering): 3K ish.

Certainly, the genuine parts are damn expensive. However, we recently got rotors and brake pads of my cousin's lancer changed. We got it from Karol Bagh here in Delhi. It costed us about 1400 for the rotors, and 400 for the brake pads. Plus 300 for the labour. Although, these brake pads last half that of the genuone ones, it still works out cheaper. No point taking a 10 years old car to Mitsubishi service station.

One of the guys even went to the extent of offering to make a fresh RC book registering me as the first owner. Wonder how he'd manage that, but still.

Gandhiji Zindabad!

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by gaurav_chopra04

Please find my replies in bold
Certainly, the genuine parts are damn expensive. However, we recently got rotors and brake pads of my cousin's lancer changed. We got it from Karol Bagh here in Delhi. It costed us about 1400 for the rotors, and 400 for the brake pads. Plus 300 for the labour. Although, these brake pads last half that of the genuone ones, it still works out cheaper. No point taking a 10 years old car to Mitsubishi service station.

I'm not very comfortable with other mechs and jugads. If you have a trustworthy guy and does the job well then you are one lucky bloke.
Infact old work horses must get that special geniune part treatment for lasting that much longer. Ofcourse IMO only.

One of the guys even went to the extent of offering to make a fresh RC book registering me as the first owner. Wonder how he'd manage that, but still.

Gandhiji Zindabad!

Didn't get that part. Why not Nehru ?

[Vibhanshu]

Hello All
Perfect thread. Even I am doing some research on buying a used hand Lancer Petrol.
In an another thread I read a used Lancer can be bought in a budget of 1.25L to 2.7L.
I'll put my requirements as well.

1) Lancer (Petrol)
2) Will use if for atleast 3 years.
3) Preferably a mileage of below 60K Kms.
4) Budget 2.5L : Includes: Cost of car, cost of refurbishing/repair, RTO, etc etc. Bringing the car back to stock form and reliability.
5) Everything with in 2.5L

My question: How hard is it to find a clean Lancer (Clean engine and Chassis) with the above requirements in the same budget? Or its simply not possible ?

Its my first car as well. I always wanted to own a lancer. And going to used market makes sense for now. For a while I thought of buying a Punto 1.3 MJD or Fiesta 1.6S but I dropped the Idea. Maybe later a expensive car with all goodies. For now some street fearless fun driving. As you can see I am literally 3 generations behind but I dont mind. Lancer still is a great car.

Thanks for help.

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by Vibhanshu

Hello All
Perfect thread. Even I am doing some research on buying a used hand Lancer Petrol.
In an another thread I read a used Lancer can be bought in a budget of 1.25L to 2.7L.
I'll put my requirements as well.

1) Lancer (Petrol)
2) Will use if for atleast 3 years.
3) Preferably a mileage of below 60K Kms.
4) Budget 2.5L : Includes: Cost of car, cost of refurbishing/repair, RTO, etc etc. Bringing the car back to stock form and reliability.
5) Everything with in 2.5L

My question: How hard is it to find a clean Lancer (Clean engine and Chassis) with the above requirements in the same budget? Or its simply not possible ?

Its my first car as well. I always wanted to own a lancer. And going to used market makes sense for now. For a while I thought of buying a Punto 1.3 MJD or Fiesta 1.6S but I dropped the Idea. Maybe later a expensive car with all goodies. For now some street fearless fun driving. As you can see I am literally 3 generations behind but I dont mind. Lancer still is a great car.

Thanks for help.

Since you are from hyderabad i would suggest you to go to doctor cars next to imax. Me and my friends picked up a used 99 lancer (1.1lac on odo) for 1.05lac. Getting a 60k run car would be little difficult as most of the cars would have run more than that. My car runs ~15k every year and is a 2000 model, i have 126k on the odo. the internal are intact even after this kind of usage.

The main thing you need to look for is the engine compression and suspension. Body work can complete at places like mazda motors sec bad for ~30K.

The lancers are know to last up till 2+Lac kms without any issues. There are a lot of lancers available especially in old city areas, these are better to be avoided. Dont pick anything up from masbtank to tolichoki also as most of these cars are driven by kids and are seriously beaten up.

The thread from where you read that a lancer can be easily brought for 1.2Lac also mentions that the guy actually picked up a 2001, 60k odo lancer for 1.1lac but its a rare find, Just find out at drcars, they have a huge stock of lancers always.


Pramod

[gaurav_chopra04]

Please find my replies in bold

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

I'm not very comfortable with other mechs and jugads. If you have a trustworthy guy and does the job well then you are one lucky bloke.
Infact old work horses must get that special geniune part treatment for lasting that much longer. Ofcourse IMO only.

Certainly, If its your main car and you love it, always genuine parts and Authorised service stations. Just that in this case its the second car and selling it for just over 1 lac doesnt make sense. So only the necessities are taken care of. Also the parts from karol bagh are decent parts if not genuine. And all jobs in our cars, when done outside the service station are carried at one reliable local mechanic. Its been years now and we have taken every thing from 800 to esteem to lancer to the mechanic.

Didn't get that part. Why not Nehru ?

Because we have gandhiji on our Rupee notes.. so Gandhiji Zindabad!

[nairanupg]

Originally Posted by K.S.

Hello Bhpians,
Glad to be a part of this passionate community. My first post here (and I hope to have a long association ).

Essence of this post is to get some advice on my decision on an used car buy. I have been following/searching this forum before I zeroed into my choices.

My requirements are:
1. Budget 2 - 2.5L
2. Sedan (am 6ft, would love nice big car with good boot space)
3. Diesel (Home - Office - Home drive would be around 30 kms daily + occasional fun road trips, say once in a month)
4. Looks and style
5. Less maintenance
6. Fairly easy availability of spares
7. Chennai
8. My first car

Keeping all this in mind, and with the t-bhp old discussions, I have started looking out for a diesel lancer. I have always loved Lancer, especially the black one - what a piece of machine! and I still believe that it has got the timeless looks.

My questions are
1. Does it sound sane? Is it a good idea to buy an used diesel car?
2. Many lancers out in the market have already clocked 1L+ kms. Is that fine?
3. I am ignorant about cars, and don't want to get doomed by the (fraudulent) dealers.
3. If this is not a good idea, what would be a better option suiting my requirements?

Looking forward to the advices from you all, Thanks in advance,

K.

Welcome to the forum mate.
Pardon me; but for the requirements you have listed i would suggest you seriously take a look at the used Elantra's. The CRDI unit on that one is a stonker and mate it with the Pete's; it will keep you pushing for more.
A drivers delight and a very unappreciated and underrated car.
Besides they would be fresher; easier to maintain and i dare say a better driver's car considering that the elantra is newer and would come relatively unabused.
But hey; buying your first car is never a logical decision; so the heart rules.
And before i forget you'll be pushing your budget upto 5 lakhs. for a well maintained one.

[Vibhanshu]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

Since you are from hyderabad i would suggest you to go to doctor cars next to imax. Me and my friends picked up a used 99 lancer (1.1lac on odo) for 1.05lac. Getting a 60k run car would be little difficult as most of the cars would have run more than that. My car runs ~15k every year and is a 2000 model, i have 126k on the odo. the internal are intact even after this kind of usage.

The main thing you need to look for is the engine compression and suspension. Body work can complete at places like mazda motors sec bad for ~30K.

The lancers are know to last up till 2+Lac kms without any issues. There are a lot of lancers available especially in old city areas, these are better to be avoided. Dont pick anything up from masbtank to tolichoki also as most of these cars are driven by kids and are seriously beaten up.

The thread from where you read that a lancer can be easily brought for 1.2Lac also mentions that the guy actually picked up a 2001, 60k odo lancer for 1.1lac but its a rare find, Just find out at drcars, they have a huge stock of lancers always.
Pramod

Thanks Pramod for a lot of information. Lancer surviving for 2+Lac Kms is a good news. Engine and Suspension are surely something to check and Chassis also. There are banged up cars which even after fixing dont give that balance.
Anyhow, Will checkout Dr. Cars also. IMax is not at all far from Begumpet, where I stay. Thanks again. Cheers!