Elmo

It is all down to driver's feel and engagement. For 2 similar powered vehicles with CVT vs AT, the driver will feel the acceleration more in the AT though they may reach the same speed at the same time. In fact, CVTs may reach the desired speed faster as there is no loss of speed to gear shifts. That surge in speed in AT when gears shift is what drivers (or at least for me) like to feel when driving. There is more engagement as the car is responding to your input almost instantaneously.

DSG aims to provide the best of both CVT and AT and I think it has achieved that, reliability and maintenance cost aside. (Disclaimer: I have not driven a DSG vehicle before, just reading the tech behind DSG for my opinion).

Wah bro! You bit the bullet and bought the car! Congratulations!!! How much did you pay for it then if I may ask?

Thanks! I signed at $159,999 during the online warehouse sale. Only 1 unit. The normal price was about $165K then. By now should have dropped a bit more after the latest COE.

Many thanks for going thru the decision making process so clearly and neatly. Appreciate it very much. I was zeroing in on the stinger until suddenly a one year old Audi A6 with a mileage of just 2000km caused me to take a glance at it. Same price range but the 1.8L performance definitely pale in comparison with Stinger. But it is a great cruiser executive car with full suite of safety gizmos which I like. Well guess it boils down to what I am looking for as the chief deal maker or breaker...

Test drive both if you haven't. The test drive will be the deciding point against any preconception.

Enjoy the car hunting process!

Bro, before your purchase,were there any other shortlisted cars u intended to buy? Curious cos to me the stinger tucked at the heartstrings and other cars more of other factors...

Hi. My shortlisted cars were actually C180 and XE. Was looking to downsize to a compact good handling car. I preferred the rear space and perceived quality of the Merc brand as I am now driving an old E250.

For XE I test drove it together with XF and found it too unsettled over rough roads. XF was superb though but it will be too similar to my current E.

Then out of the blue I remembered the Stinger which I first saw it in Korea in 2017 before it came into Singapore.

Then I just gave it a try over the weekend and was very impressed with the way it handled.

The throttle response was quick and the steering sharp. XE has a sharper steering by the way but not that far off.

Looking thru the rest of the specs sealed the deal as it has good rear space (around C180 size). A useful liftback with large boot space.

It also came with almost everything useful in the GT except for the engine and the adaptive dampers.

I didn't go for GT as I want to keep it below 200K. But I don't feel I am too worse off with the GT Line.

 

I don't really look at the brand as the feel and drive is just not typical Korean bread and butter cars. Reliability has been good for KIA as compared to other established brands over the years.

 

Lastly I think I will be the minority driving this car in a sea of C180s.

 

Cheers!

Most of the reviews online are the GT. With good reason too since the price diff is minimal over in the western countries. If one purchase a GT line here in Singapore,are we missing something special here in the form of the GT? Performance wise especially....

Other than the engine the difference between GT and GT line is mostly in trimmings and features. In Canada/US there is GT, GT S and another lower spec like GT Line. GT Line in Singapore combined the GT S and Lower spec so it has the D-shaped steering wheel, sunroof, interior trimmings etc that are also found in GT.

For those who haven't test drive it but is wondering how good is it, just go test it. Even if you don't buy it you get to know how far Kia has come since the 1st Picanto days.

I was looking at other established brands and test driving them....this Stinger is the first car I test drove and booked on the spot.

The current price is actually on the high side compared to its low of around 153K last year. But I wasn't ready to change car then.

It wasn't even on my initial shortlist until I saw it again in cinema advert while watching Avengers End Game :)

 

Look past the brand and just test drive it with an open mind. It might just change the way you look at Korean cars.

Hi all. Sorry I have to post here as there is no GT Line thread yet.

Just booked a GT Line via the online sale. Hope to learn from existing owners and join in any forum or chat groups for the Stinger if any.

Cheers!

Maybe alternator weak and not charging up the aux battery?

If upfront state got some admin fee involved in refund think will be ok. Take it as coffee money for 'reserving' promotion items.

 

To turn around and then made him go through hassle which could have been avoided and then still deduct some admin fee is simply unprofessional.

 

Such simple process can mess up what more their sales agreement?

 

Thanks for sharing this episode and hope you just accept as a blessing that you didn't actually buy the car.

For me hybrid is simply B.S..

 

Simple reason is the replacement cost is way above the petrol money i could ever save.

So true...and the resources to make the hybrid batteries is more than the trees and petrol you can save by being frugal.

 

Those start-stop tech also wear out auxiliary batteries which kind of defeats the purpose of saving $ and environment.

 

Batteries also not so easy to recycle and create electronic waste.

That was on my previous car. Scrap already. Bridgestone if I remember correctly. They weren't very good tyres and not exactly cheap either. At that 7k, 50% threadwear, the car was 9 years old, so a blessing in disguise although I liked the car.

 

I top up nitrogen regularly at the shop. Once a month or so. My car can be parked for days in a row, so I tend to be more anal about tyre pressure because more air gets lost when the car isn't moving. Yes, I'm one of those lazy people who don't want to fill air at petrol stations. It's more of how I use the car that I prefer nitrogen so I get it done at the shop since it's free.

 

After my bad experience with that shop, I now do my research and pop into different shops to see what tyre they offer for my car and at what price. I come home, read up online, then go back another day to get them changed.

I can only think of Bridgestone RE050A with such threadwear...stock on cars such as WRX back then.

Think BM would also know their own staff has been riding on the Toyota brand that sells itself. It is probably good enough to be sold online without sales staff. Hence cutting commission and putting a higher sales target is simply telling them to wake up and provide more value. Maybe better after-sales such as customer relationship building?

From the various car sales staff I encountered across different marques and used cars I find a general lack of passion for the cars they are selling. It is like they have no interest to know more about their products beyond the printed brochure which potential customers can read for themselves.

I find there are pple here in forums that know more than the sales pple.

I also encountered staff from Brand A who kept criticising Brand B and months later I found her working for Brand B.

This could be a cultural issue for local sales staff in Singapore. Serving the bare minimum to close the deal.

My BMW 318i car has about 11 more months to Scrap. Last service the workshop said my front suspension needs to replace. Does anyone know if we could get some cheap suspension replaced just for this 11 months ?

Hi, if your car is not experiencing longer braking distance or nose-dive on hard barking or instability and bottoming-out when driving you probably could drive till scrap.

As for cheap suspension you might want to check with workshops or scrapyards whether they have used ones that have been taken out when owners changed to coilovers. Off-hand I can only think of JKS which kept advertising BMW / Merc stock parts. Google them to find out more. I personally have not visited them.

What's the best comfort tyre for 185/65R15? I see that Michelin P4 dun have this tyre size

I tried Pirelli P7 for this size. Very comfy and quiet. For this size not many choices. XM2 is another popular choice. Very lasting as well but price on the higher side.

Hi Bros,

 

My wife is choosing between a Brand New Accent and a 4 year old Prius C Hybrid car as she wants something compact and easy to drive.

 

Anyone can help advise/comment which is better choice ?

 

Accent ($71K) - Pros: Brand new with 7 yrs servicing & warranty. Cons: A bit more noisy and less fuel efficient

 

Prius C ($55K) - Pros: Compact and slightly more quiet. Cons: Interior pretty dated with 1 year warranty left

 

Many thanks for your feedback !

Hi!

If you are still open to other used makes there are many others between the price 71K and 55K that are compact and still relatively new below 3yrs old.

On the 2 choices I think your wife has to decide whether she values the interior more than other factors because that is the space that she will be in constant contact throughout the drives.

Interior is something that is very hard to enhance if the overall feel is not good.

You can clean and make it smell better but contact points like door latches, arm rests and dashboards can only be maintained as it is and not so economical to renew. Scratches and blemishes are going to be there.

 

So it boils down to the feel when she sits in the car. FC and noisy engine are minor if you don't drive long distances.

Would like some opinions.

 

Have a CatB coe car due in 12/2021. For sure would renew and keep.

Make sense to renew now at 35k or wait?

 

Current pqp paid was 72k. Bought it used after the coe was paid.

Based on your current PQP of 72K the depre of 7.2K per yr works out to about 17K residue value till 12/2021. That's the amount you will lose by renewing early.

Even if PQP goes up to 50K by Jan 2022 the saving you get by renewing early only adds up to 15K.

 

You also in a sense lose 2.5 yrs of its life by starting early for the next 10 yrs COE cycle.

 

That's how I look at it which I don't think is worth renewing now.

Think there is still a difference between a typical used car and mgt units. Mgt units are supposedly only used by the AD's staff and should be serviced and well-taken care of in-house.

E250 is the sweet spot for COE renewal of W212. i was looking for one but didnt manage to secure one. Thanks for sharing on the tuning.Will work on it once i go LTA to pay up the PQP. haha.

 

all the best with your renewal too, lets pray that PQP wont go up to significantly.

Ours is practically the same car with only the ECU locked. But nowadays lots of tuners can tune our rides to higher potentials.

We can take this discussion via PM if you want to know more as I am currently servicing my car with a tuner.

All the best to you too! Cheers!

good to know. I have just replaced to a set of used 18" rims recently because i will renew COE. see if this is the same model as yours?

I tried plug in a race chip recently but didnt feel much diff, so I took it out again. After all 181bhp is decent for my ah pek driving style.

maintenance wise, this car is easy to maintain, well built but not being over engineered, so i dont think there should be problem.

Same model but slightly higher tune at 201hp. I did consider the used AMG rims like yours which looks very good on our cars.

Think for tuning the piggyback chips don't work as well as a ECU tuning. For our models you may want to consider a throttle controller instead which can improve the throttle response.

another one in the same boat, haha . is your cat A or B? I think if depre is not too high, can make a decision shortly.

Cat B. Have the same OMV as yours. Think probably the same car model...Haha.

The only downside of this hesitation is that I am not doing mods to the car like rims or tuning which I think would be wasted if I change car subsequently.

Part of me also want to try other cars in the similar range.

So in all considerstion..just wait and see...and maintain the car well in the meantime.

you have the same problem as I am. My COE due in late Dec with a OMV of $54k.

Before i go into PQP, i like to touch on maintenance. You need to take into consideration of reliability of Audi, if you are comfortable with its reliability because you have been driving it, then it is fine.

You also need to understand the fact that older car would need more frequent repair, is the repair cost of Audi expensive ? this is a consideration because the cost will stack on, again it is your comfort level.

Next is about parts supply. Audi is not a most common COE brand, letting alone A5 is not the most common Audi model, so you have to consider parts availability after say 5 years.

 

Now lets consider PQP which is a tough question. First is whether PQP would go up by say $10k in Feb? no one knows but it is possible. Question is what is your linear depre write off now ? if your linear depre is $13k/year, then if you renew COE now, you will have to write off 10 months of depre which is about $10k. dont forget, you also lose driving the car for 10 months, meaning in 10 years later, you will have to buy a new car 10 months earlier as compare to you renew your COE in Feb next year, that would add on another $5K of additional expense(because the depre of your COE A5 should be around 7k ayear). All in, 10k+5K about $15k.

So your risk of renewing COE now is $15K if COE will to stay at current level. But COE staying at current level is not very high. Soyour risk is likely to be lower than $15k.

But if you delay your re validation, assuming COE will to go up by 20K? your risk of delaying is only $5k compare with you renew now with a write off of $15k.

Which one would you bet on? I have no answer because I am in the same boat as you are, same boat but different car.

Same situation for me. My COE due only in Aug 2020. So a bit too far away to consider early renewal despite the low PQP.

I will just wait and see and if by then the PQP is too much to stomach then I get another expiring car and play the same game again. Haha...

Not LTA per se but during annual inspection for renewal of road tax the inspection centres may be very particular with any welding mark if repairs for rust spots or cracks were done.

If you don't repair the exhaust rust spots or cracks, it may result in loss of power, noise and other smell (depending on which part of the exhaust), should they become worse.

Think it is a matter of luck. When I was modding my exhaust...legally...the shop mentioned some models like Subaru R1 or R2 who kena undercarriage damage when it got into accident. The exhaust was so rare that they had to indent from Subaru Japan and waited 7 months and cost $6K. That was almost 10 years ago.

But the story does serve to tell how rare car models may have problem getting parts.

Adding on I think exhaust is one of those potential headaches because if it gets corroded or damaged and there are no parts (even scrapyard) to replace, it can take a long time to import and the cost will be very high.

Couple with the yearly inspection for COE cars and their low tolerance for exhaust repair marks you can be stuck with undrivable car.