Is resale value really that important?

[niky]

You can't buy a Prius engine secondhand. Toyota buys back Priuses once past a certain sell-by date. Plus, the value of the Prius powertrain (if you could get one secondhand) would be about 300k to 400k pesos.

That's a ridiculous assertion, though. All car manufacturers make their platforms flexible to accomodate different engines... hence the 1.1, 1.4 and 1.5 CRDi Getz.

-----

As for fuel efficiency, that depends. In general, Toyota and Honda have the most fuel efficient engines per pound of displacement. But a Picanto isn't a ghastly gas guzzler. You can still get 20 km/l. Of course, it all boils down to the driver and the situation. I'm still trying to find out the methodology used for the DOE runs. A parallel run using different drivers is bound to give inaccurate results (a difference of up to 5-10 km/l, as we've seen in Honda's eco-runs)... and very short runs can offer misleading fuel usage results.

You see, there's the trap that most others fall into... the "sabi-sabi" and age-old wisdom of older drivers.

These are the same drivers that encourage you to idle your engines forever to let the carburators warm up (eh? What's fuel injection?), these are the same people who used to say Japanese engines are junk and will never be as reliable as good old, low-revving V8s.

R&E uses Toyotas because they've always done so. Many companies do simply because in the perception of their bosses, that's the way to go.

I'm not saying Toyotas are bad. They're reasonably dependable. But these perceptions are based on information and experiences from many years ago... back when Hyundai was still selling cars like the Excel. Back when Hyundai's quality made Protons seem like a good thing. Back when they were only using licensed technology, and the most we saw of Korean cars here were truly horrible secondhand grey imports. Things change.

I'm not telling you to go out now and buy a Hyundai or Kia. But to hold judgement until you see how the new cars perform or have firsthand experience of such.

Ten years ago, would I have advised my Mom to get a Starex (like I'm doing now?)...? No way. I would've said: Let's stick to a Japanese car. Likewise, would I have bought a Mazda 323 / Ford Lynx? Naaah. But over time, and with research, I concluded: These vehicles are not perfect, but for our usage, they're not bad. I've had bad experiences in the past with Mazdas, but over 65,000 kms, the Lynx hasn't given me any more problems than a Corolla or Sentra of the same age (the Sentra gave more electronic problems and suspension problems, actually... and my cousin's Corolla with the same mileage run in similar conditions needed new shocks).

From the "sabi-sabi" of others, my fenders should have rusted away by now... my shocks should've given up the ghost (they're softer than when new, but still more controlled than the shocks on my old Nissan at 40k kms), my engine should've blown to bits, my bushings should all be gone... blah blah blah. I know I've been a staunch defender of this car, but I'm not immune to the "sabi-sabi", so each 5k kms that go by without problems is a pleasant surprise. In fact, I was surprised when I found loose trim on the dashboard after all this time, because the car has been so solid (the dash trim on the Exalta fell out after 50k kms).

If you want a Vios, go ahead. It's actually a pretty practical choice. But base it on sober, objective analysis of data regarding the actual cars you are buying rather than relying on word-of-mouth about cars that none of these carmakers actually make anymore.