Walaikum Salam.
Its good to know about cars. But don't try to take one to the road now. Have some driving lessons for one year, and then apply for CNIC and CDL next year I.A.
These are my answers for your queries,
1). Your friends are wrong, you are right.
2). What you saw was true.
3). No, pkdm corolla is not even near the quality of jdm
4). If you talk about same year models, then charade is far better. But charade was discontinued decades ago and mehran got discontinued in the previous year. Mehran is called bcz of its abundance, its parts and services readily available and cheap.
My opinion on pkdm vs jdm: Its obvious that jdm's quality can't be compared with pkdm, but they are pricy, have ground clearance issue, need better fuel services and parts. Almost 100% of jdm's you see on the roads and bargains are imported from japan were either accidented or had some issue, and then repaired (in japan or Pakistan). I haven't seen a single one which is completely clean. Car sellers always and always lie about them.
For pkdm's, I would say they are just ok for Pakistani conditions. They perform well on our roads. They are very comfortable as they are built very wide because we have very wide roads here (just kidding).
