I used to own a 2015 Suzuki Alto L for five years, and it was my first car used for university.
Unless I lived in smaller cities where speeds rarely go more than 60 km/h, owning a 660cc car in cities like Karachi is a complete suicide and it was never fun to drive based on my experience. Everyone in traffic becomes your worst enemy, even driving in slow lanes and not doing anything stupid. It seems like no one respects Kei cars here anymore.
My first choice was a new or slightly used Mehran VXR because I always wanted one. Unfortunately, my relatives were a phobia of Mehran based on their suggestions despite them never owning one. Even though Mehran is a very simple and technically 660cc car, it's far more affordable yet extremely reliable, somewhat respectable, somewhat fun to drive, and has a charm that can never be matched.
So they suggest to get a Mira E:s from their trusted dealership which could have been a decent car, but I refused (first mistake). So I look for the latest Suzuki Alto (second mistake) and ended up purchasing it without serious inspection (third and worst mistake).
Since it was a 2-year-old JDM car and had 5000km in ODO (even mentioned on the auction sheet) at the time of purchasing, it thought it was a great deal.
Six months later, the driverside headlight got dusty inside, it was already too expensive that I refused to replace it since I never drove it at night. The car started to throw ABS and ESC lights and wasn't running right, so I took it to a technician to scan the codes, turns out it had a bypassed speed sensor, and then he freaked out as he discovered that car had 19 different codes.
Little did I realise that the airbags were missing since the car had been in an accident at the driver's side fender. Other than this surprising discovery, the car never ran smoothly, I thought it was normal for a small car, but it got worse. I have been to eight shops, and none of them figured out the actual problem. Even though I checked the filters, fluids, and sensors they were all perfectly fine and running on hi-octane never helped.
The running cost was alright, but it wasn't satisfying. It's better to own a local 1000cc car which is at least manageable yet respectable to own.
Overall, owning this car was a disaster. Not the worst car, but it's one of the worst cars to own in Karachi.
Now many will say, why not sell it in the first place? The thing is, I was stuck with it as my parents refused to sell the car despite the issues car had, which really distracted me from my studies. After finally graduating from the university, I ended up selling that damn thing at a low price.
The lesson I learned is to never buy a JDM car (I don't care what the auction sheet says) or a used car unless you 100000% trust a dealership/seller and a mechanic who can support you.
I'm curious if you guys had a car you regret buying even after selling it?
