cptrelentless wrote:It's a pity there's no love for the i10 here, I drove one as a rental a couple of months back. Seat not the greatest but ran on a thimble full of juice and would do a ton. Petrol is £1.30 now.

I was in the UK five years or so ago and it was £1.26 so that’s not too bad!


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Thanks for your info A10. I have been researching the market to buy a car and I appreciate your post. I'm confused about the disparity in prices from basic to luxury cars. I had sort of thought that I would buy a 2001 Toyota Sienna LE as I like the cloth seats rather than the Leather on the XLE. The price is somewhere between 14- 15k. I then looked at the new Toyota Rush which can be bought for $35,500 brand new with a $500 fuel voucher. I then popped into a big dealer importing luxury cars, I could buy a 2014 Porsche Pannemara Hybrid for $63,000.They assured me that all taxes were paid. This is cheaper than the equivalent in Oz. So my quest for value for money has me a little confused. I must add that i want a car that can carry 3 men and their golf gear as well as be reliabke travellng to the provences. Any advice would be welcomed.

Hawk49 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:38 pm Thanks for your info A10. I have been researching the market to buy a car and I appreciate your post. I'm confused about the disparity in prices from basic to luxury cars. I had sort of thought that I would buy a 2001 Toyota Sienna LE as I like the cloth seats rather than the Leather on the XLE. The price is somewhere between 14- 15k. I then looked at the new Toyota Rush which can be bought for $35,500 brand new with a $500 fuel voucher. I then popped into a big dealer importing luxury cars, I could buy a 2014 Porsche Pannemara Hybrid for $63,000.They assured me that all taxes were paid. This is cheaper than the equivalent in Oz. So my quest for value for money has me a little confused. I must add that i want a car that can carry 3 men and their golf gear as well as be reliabke travellng to the provences. Any advice would be welcomed.

Sorry late reply, I'm out of town.

I'm not 100% up to date on luxury cars as it's been a few years since our family abandoned our Range Rover, but luxury vehicles do incur an additional "luxury tax" (except our old BMW and Merc for some reason didn't, perhaps because they were both generic 4 cylinder versions), but I will say that (as of now) if you want something reliable to take to the provinces in comfort, don't look anywhere else besides Toyota/Lexus, or very possibly a Range Rover.

I know Rovers aren't reliable, but they've been a "staple" in the kingdom for around a decade now and many shops know how to deal with and fix them. I've found our luck with Mercedes and BMW (personal cars) to be a bit wanting unless in Phnom Penh however.

Even our Navara had a slight breakdown this week and that was difficult to get fixed in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately it wasn't a drivetrain issue, because if it was I would figure we'd be stranded for a couple of days, so if you're doing province runs I'd sooner suggest a Lexus GX, LX, RX than anything else, or a Land Cruiser of whatever sort.

Just an update for misc observations and fuel economy on the 1.0 litre Vitz.



This is done over 5 tanks of fuel, which lasts a surprisingly long time in this car.

City driving, this car is great although the steering is a tad heavy for an electric system. Start and stop is seemless, especially for a clutched automatic it has an automatically valve body actuated clutch disk pack vs. a torque converter (for you petrolheads out there). Parking is nice and easy, visibility is nice, the suspension is a tiny bit hard and I think a slightly raised ride height and softer springs would help with ride quality, but as is I wont complain as it's quite good for a small car, and I doubt many would complain.

Motorway driving, I'm surprised at how well this car drove to the provinces given it's little engine. Mid range power is adequate, and only when you start going above 100 kph or try and pass going up a hill do you find the acceleration really lacking, especially with a full load of people and stuff. But maintaining 70-90 kph was not a problem at all, and passing at these speeds on a flat surface was easily done given it's quick ability to shift to higher rpms. I think a less responsive transmission would really kill this car frankly, but given the way it drives I'm more than happy with it's performance.




Notice how only 1 "bar" was used at 240 + km. I know fuel gauges aren't linear, but if you combine our real world fuel consumption figures with the fuel tank capacity, you might be surprised to find this car has a + 1,000 km range.


Fuel economy

Phnom Penh city driving (lots of bumper to bumper), A/C always on, almost never going above 10-20 kph.

Numbers might seem low to a western country, but Phnom Penh city driving it's right on par with the 800cc Kia Visto, but lacking in comparison to the Prius for the obvious reason of not being able to shut off the motor while idling. For those wondering, our last 08 Prius averaged 27 mpg US (too lazy to convert now) in Phnom Penh and this car does around 20 mpg US.

11.6 - 13.8 L/100 km
7.2 - 8.5 km/L
17 - 20 mpg US
20.4 - 24 mpg UK


Motorway driving to the provinces (70 - 100 kph), A/C always on, and of course the usual slow downs with tractors, lorries and obstacles getting in the way.

This almost matched our Prius (which did around 60 mpg US), which surprised me given how many times we encountered cows, tractors, stopped busses, police barricades etc and had to slow down to a crawl and then speed up again. If given a straight shot, no luggage, AC and only 1 or 2 people, I frankly wouldn't be surprised if 65 mpg US is doable, given this trip we were at max rated load (gross vehicle weight rating) and running the A/C all the time.

4.16 L/100 km
24 km/L
56.5 mpg US
67 mpg UK


In summary, it's an excellent alternative to the Kia Morning given it's price, comparable fuel economy, ride quality, and build quality. I'm not surprised as this is not my first "Yaris" so I had an idea of what to expect, but the last months with this car have only confirmed what I assumed would be the case. The biggest advantage over the Morning or something like the Chevy Spark is the ride quality on the open road. The Yaris behaves much more like a larger compact Corolla or Toyota Matrix, while the Morning is more of a harsh riding supermini city car both in ride quality and cabin comfort.

I spent 11 hours over the week in the Yaris this week driving up to southern Laos and besides a slightly tight calf (from the lack of cruise control), I have no real complaints. Doing that trip in a smaller supermini I can only imagine would be considerably more miserable.

As for reliability, so far no real issues except the smart key remote unsyncing from the car for some reason, but 5 minutes later the issue resolved itself.

So I'll reiterate that I believe the 1.0 litre Vitz/Yaris is a much better choice for a subcompact car over the slightly less expensive Kia Morning. If you want a small runabout and can spring the extra couple thousand, it's well worth the money.

That's it for now,
-A10

Hi @A10 , I'm considering to buy the vitz, but I cannot find VIN number under the driver's seat. There is a label on the
driver-side doorjamb. but it doesn't seem to have a VIN. Any thoughts?

I'm a total newbie for cars.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gp3MjYF1h21rsMEn9

Audeesa wrote:Hi [mention]A10[/mention] , I'm considering to buy the vitz, but I cannot find VIN number under the driver's seat. There is a label on the
driver-side doorjamb. but it doesn't seem to have a VIN. Any thoughts?

I'm a total newbie for cars.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gp3MjYF1h21rsMEn9

I have a Vitz and am enjoying it so far. The car is from Japan not the US so there is no VIN.

The local Toyota dealer was useless because there was no VIN. Found all the items I needed online though from Osaka and arrived here in less than a week.

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@lostjeremy thanks, the odometer says 42k, I find it hard to believe(given it's 2009 made)..One car even had 32k 2008 made.. Anywhere I could find history of Japan made cars? Or just buy and run a odometer test?

Audeesa wrote:[mention]lostjeremy[/mention] thanks, the odometer says 42k, I find it hard to believe(given it's 2009 made)..One car even had 32k 2008 made.. Anywhere I could find history of Japan made cars? Or just buy and run a odometer test?

Kinda hard to believe.
Mines an 05 model and had 120k km, roughly 75k miles, when I bought it, which was believable.
You could ask CNM motors to do their prepurchase inspection for you. I didn't, but I know it's available and maybe they have a scan tool to read the computer and actual mileage.
Japan does not have a Carfax type service.
One thing to check is the stickers on the back window but you'll need someone who can read Japanese. I was warned to not buy a car from the Fukushima region. Cars with radiation are supposed to be destroyed but the Yakuza gets their hands on them and exports them. You'll need to rent a geiger counter to check any northern Japan cars. Maybe that's true,maybe not, just what I was told.