The Car Shopping Round (Round 64): Tears in Heaven

We have certainly come across a wide, diverse selection of vehicles to choose from. Some proved exceptionally well, others, not so much. Obviously the biggest factor involved was the car’s ability to catch the bad guys, those that failed were stricken from the list. Next was to determine the other factors. Some excelled in some areas but failed in others. I had to find a good balance between performance, upkeep, safety, utility (cargo space and such) not to mention driveability. Comfort was more of a within reason category. For the pursuit challenge you didn’t necessarily have to be faster than the suspect, just able to stay close within two seconds of each section (many did it within one) and to not exceed four seconds behind overall time. As is there were a number of vehicles that proved even faster than the suspect vehicle which made the decision easier. Obviously the number of cars we can replace plays a large factor in too. After some intense brainstorming and consideration (and a tad awkward given the last person to post) I announce that the next vehicles to be used by the Tatum Heights Police Department will be:

The Pragata Gentala Dinas


I went through all the submissions and determined that this one offers the best between all stats to provide what we are looking for. It fits well with reliability, safety, service costs. Fuel economy is average but not below acceptable levels. The lack of a radio is a bit of an annoyance but with police gear installed it won’t be much of a problem. The other negative attribute is the use of alloy wheels, but overall I feel the Pragata Gentala Dinas meets our requirements nicely. It uses regular fuel which means we won’t have to change around our infrastructure, and it uses an automatic transmission which means all our officers can drive it with no issues. The decent price means we can also buy fifteen units to replace our oldest cars and a good chunk of our aging 1985 Gran Romeros. Effectively we will be revamping 60% of our fleet.

So congratulations to Denta for winning the CSR 27.

15 Likes

P.S. I hope you like the livery I set up for the photo.

Excellent work @Denta! By winning a round for the first time, you have just made up for the disappointment of finishing a very close second in the previous round.

What rule set will @Denta come up with for the next round? Whatever it is, it has to be enjoyable for the entrants. He deserved to win… Besides, I’m a sucker for wagon bodystyles - all the advantages of a sedan but with extra practicality when you need it the most. Anyway, many thanks to @BobLoblaw for those detailed reviews!

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it is a VERY optional thing. if you really wanted to host something but don’t have much time, use this basic structure, but please modify it with your style. and true, you should consider the amount of work. but no one could predict how much participant, and along with it, how much work that you would need to do.

of course, that is if the majority agrees. which it seems to be split, or even leaning towards a “meh, nah”?

anyway @denta. congrats buddy. nice work with that wagon :slight_smile:
[spoiler]next round please. GAK PAKE LAMA[/spoiler]

welp, i really dont expect it. thanks for livery @BobLoblaw

for teaser, hopely you guys dont mind to deal with one of the worst country to be car enthusiast since im gonna use that as theme :wink:

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are we gonna make a honda fit/jazz look alike and call it an enthusiast car again?

because that’s pretty much what’s happening here irl

i dont wanna to spoil, it basically i wanna see how people deal with our car taxation regulation which basically become biggest barrier. and screw any form of hatchback or entry sport car that exist in this country, im want more than just BRZ/86/Copen/MX-5/Civic Type-R.

just wait and see, probably i gonna publish it on this noon. still have some stuff to deal with for this morning

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why not the 90s? it’s our golden years of enthusiast sports car. a plethora of mitsubishi sedans especially.

Any chance on getting like a one sentence explanation for each car’s shortcoming in reaching your decision? Or maybe at least for the top contenders you were considering?

Like: “Boss Motorsports - does well in X, Y, and Z but too costly and uncomfortable.”

And congrats to @Denta.

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Yes! Honorable Mentions for Reliability!
(I did set 70 as my minimum for both the engine and overall average)

Great reviewing! Plenty of detail to keep us interested, and short enough to manage.

Congrats @Denta on achieving victory for round 27!!! :grinning:

Thankyou @BobLoblaw for an interesting competition premise and hard fought challenge!!! :persevere:

:grin:

Great round. Congrats Denta! As a byproduct of the rules being so compelling, like Klinardo I’m quite keen to see where the entries stacked up, where they excelled or fell flat. For example I thought my entry was solid, but was it more comfy where it didn’t matter, and were the servicing costs really that high? With a drivability of over 60 I thought it was quite reasonable but it was apparently not very good, which I found surprising, maybevdue to the preponderance of AWD? Questions abound!

Mine had 73 and I thought that was good… until Madrias’ car got highest drivability

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You weren’t far off.

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CSR 28, A New hope for Indonesian car enthusiast

Greetings everyone, my name is Bayu, 28 years old and i live in Bekasi near Jakarta’s border. I’m the owner of Urb’s Cafe and Urb’s Snack Truck that specializes on Beef Burger, smoothies and Ice Cream. What makes my franchise unique is, we never really have a menu since we let our customer create customizes their own order with lots of varieties and we are using a big box truck instead van sized one. Though i already own my own franchise, i still stay and work with my parent still help their work of being a big wedding organizer business in Jakarta to help finance my business, since my business is still limited to Malang, Surabaya, and Kuta, and i’m not satisfied yet. Soon enough, a new branch will open Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and Bandung but not in this or next year since i need further planning.

This year in 2016, ASEAN(yes, this good for nothing regional organization still working for some reason) just signed a deal to remove any tariff on any cars that are assembled in ASEAN member country, and less taxation on car sales. this is their plan to lure more investor i believe. even though i’m not really interested in political economy or the politic itself, this is kind of a good news for me, since it’s possible for someone to produce a car that is outside of the usual comfort zone(aka BORING), plus i never really had my own car for many reason.

I’m quite picky for cars that i like, boys will be boys they said. Indonesia’s situation right now makes import car hard to shine, due to how big the barrier is, along with how low the average consumer’s buying power is. Thanks to displacement tax, anything bigger 1500cc will be hard to sale. While displacement isn’t everything, it seems that no automotive manufacturer is trying to make a sporty trim with a higher power output, what you get from a sport trim in here is only lips, spoiler and badge with no performance upgrade whatsoever and the engine power output is basically same as the other trim or only a little higher. Another problem i see is the lack of car features because of price cutting, quality also gets killed alongside it. And the most horrible one? Safety features also get ripped just for cheaper price, let alone airbag, driver assist like traction control and ABS is an option for higher trim and sometimes they don’t even offer it! Some of them even use 2 point seatbelts for the back seats, and i even heard that their airbag is triggered 1 sec AFTER the crash. From what i see, a 90’s car is more durable than any new cheap car and on par in case of safety. This trend, i believe, has already been running since 2006 after the birth of our very first cheap car.

However, i feel like this is the time to find a car for my own, car that really suit me instead of what’s available to me. Besides, there’s Jakarta ASEAN Car Expo(JACE) in December for any car that produced in South East Asia, there should be plenty of selection. Here are the 3 car category that i wanted.

Bro SUV

Most of the times i use my dad’s 2010 Mitshubishi Pajero Sport 4x4 with manual transmission, he is a big fan of off-roading but old age already got his knees 3 years ago, Jakarta traffic jam and manual transmission is too harsh for his knee, plus he would rather drive himself. for now he drives 2011 Mercedes Benz E 250 that used to be a rental car for newly-weds since it has automatic transmission.

Back to the Pajero Sport, before and after dad switched to the Mercedes, i drove it a lot, especially when i’m working with my dad, since i’m sort of my parent’s second in command in case my dad/mom needs me to go somewhere to pick or look something up they need and it become more and more frequent after dad barely uses his car. I like to travel outside the town with my friends just for our “boys times”, most of the times there are 4 of us including me and sometimes 6 or even more. believe it or not, this thing’s fuel economy is quite unbelievable, about 10km/l on crowded road and even more when i’m able to cruise in a very stable speed(with passengers!), not the most powerful, but 160HP with 300Nm Torque is enough for our shenanigans, and for a plus side, it can go through flood and mud without any problem, with the help of ride height. It’s quite good for an about Rp560.000.000 SUV in 2010(converts to $42k in 2016) and very fancy, even for a car that was produced in 2010, touch screen radio with GPS isn’t something you’ll see often even for that price range in that year. I dont mind having my SUV since they can carry a lot of people without problem, though i can borrow my dad’s car in case i need to carry more than 5 people.

The all rounder Performance Wagon

I’m a giant fan of Nissan Stagea 260RS and Audi RS6 Avant Quattro C6, who doesnt want monster engine that can run wild and can carry 5 people with bigger cargo than sedan/hatchback in public road without problems? Sadly i’m born 10 years too late for the Stagea since importing used car is illegal and back in 2011 when i was asking to a local car importer for RS6 Avant Quattro C6 he ask about Rp 5.5 Billion for on the road price, you can get Porsche 911 GT3 RS or Lamborghini Gallardo with that you damn robber! Just because no one buys it and it has a V10 doesn’t mean you can rip me off, sadly price negotiation didn’t end well, even though i believe the RS6 Avant Quattro price doesn’t go for more than GBP 95.000 but, hell they asked too much, same with other import dealers. the price they were asking pretty much doesn’t even go lower more than Rp 5 billion, wonder why.

Yes, Audi Indonesia sell the latest Audi RS4 Avant Quattro with price mark about Rp 2.6 Billion, i love to have one but with a lot perfomance gap between the RS6? Meh. Situation doesn’t even help dad mocking me with “just buy Honda Odyssey or Mitsubishi Grandis if you want Stagea”, yeah they’re nice in term of fuel, features, and comfort but not with perfomance. With all this stupid cheap MPV trend that mostly advertises fuel millage that are 60% off from the reality (20km/l? keep dreaming with that build quality) and high ground clearance(HAHA! Dont have anything to boost in your car? Probably still gonna scrape those random concrete speedbump) it’s gonna be hard to find any wagon with decent perfomance, current sporty trim gimmick won’t work on me sadly. I just want a pratical wagon that are able to give me that pull excitement.

The Fun Sport Machine

When we talk about good new sports car but not super car in Indonesia, most people are gonna point us to either Civic Type-R(which seems lost his prestige in last 15 years), MX-5(is always the answer, right?) or the ToyoBaru 86/BRZ(aka Takumi disappointment). Three of them basically the under Rp 800 Million ($60k) sports car with less 200HP. which basically kinda falls into the entry sport car category outside this country, probably. They’re nice on track and quite good outside the track to some extend, but it’s gonna be boring if you compare it to late 80’s Indonesia sport car legend, BMW E30, Mercedes Benz 190E Cosworth and Mistubishi Galant VR4. While they’re not punchiest sport car in the global market, they’re more than enough here. while they also has everything that a performance oriented car should have. Back to 2016, you wont get any car like that, perfect example, with price mark under Rp 2 billion($150k), mostly because all of that unnecessary features that has already become a standard today or they become something that’s very exclusive even just for weight saving features.

When im looking a perfect car for this, probably i’m not gonna really care about track times, we only have one track that is a poorly maintained circuit aka Sentul circuit. You cant even really enjoy the highways for high speed too. from what i heard, the Audi R8 can go up to 260km/h, but with a lot of shaking due poor road, i don’t know if someone will dare go more than that, but maybe im the one who’s gonna try to push my luck, if i have car that is able to reach 250km/h and go further without problems. though it not gonna be the most fuel friendly car, but whatever. The only thing that maybe that i can really enjoy from having this car is, red light drag race at a random junction, but racing random ricer car with fart cannon or stupid biker that think his stripped bike make them have a speed boost isn’t that fun. my dad Pajero Sport is more than enough to smoke most of them, for the note, i brake check them slightly near the next red light if i have decent gap for extra funsies and indirect mocking.

General Rules

For my budget maximum budget is $90.000, i can only buy one car, so feel free which category you want to choose. i’m gonna have more tolerance for the price of a sports car, slightly less tolerant on a wagon, and not so tolerant on an SUV. so if you are going to make an expensive SUV, you better make it really worth it, or else it’s just scrap and i’m gonna pick the sports car

We have tax based on displacement, although this year car tax sales is much lighter and more simplified by removing tax based on car body type. but the tax is still potentially ruining car price.
Under 1300cc: no tax
1300cc-1500cc: 10% tax
1500cc-2500cc: 20% tax
2500cc-3000cc: 40% tax
Above 3000cc: 125% tax

Car must have at least 50% price mark up

For your car price: (your default car price + 50% price mark up)+car tax based on your price

Looks is important so my dad won’t mock me, bonus if you don’t use normal colour like black, white, silver and any common car colour that you can think of since i kinda want different colour than most car

For fuel that available we only have 4 option for gas, use this as running cost reference instead using in game fuel cost:
Premium, 88 RON, Rp 6500/litre ($0.49/L)
Pertalite, 90 RON, Rp 6.900/litre ($0.52/L)
Pertamax, 91 RON Rp 7.600/litre($0.57/L)
Pertamax Turbo, 98 Ron, Rp 8.700/litre($0.65/L)

For fuel millage, SUV and wagon is gonna be a big concern, but not really for the fun sports car

Indonesia’s road is really horrible, if you use German road standard, too many non standarized speedbumps and poorly built bumpy road is gonna be nightmare for low vehicle so i hope most car have 170cm ride height

For tyres, 255 is the maximum width with at least 40 tyre profile, wider and thin tyres is quite expensive, besides thin tyres not gonna handle well on bumpy road.

Road matter related again, make sure you tune your car for road, not for tracks

We’re in tropical country with 35°C as average during normal afternoon in the city. Too many super cars overheats during a traffic jam so i hope you have extra 20% cooling airflow just for safety measure

No tolerance on any price cutting measures AKA no minus quality

both engine and car reliability is 65

No car body years limits

Naming:
Car model: CSR28 - username
Car trim: any
Engine family: CSR28 - username
Engine variant: any

Deadline is 15 December

12 Likes

As a fellow Indonesian (albeit one who has spent considerable time overseas) I feel your pain. High-performance cars are not only a hard sell here, but are rarely ever driven by their owners for the reasons you have just mentioned.

Seems like an interesting enough challenge. We’ll see what kind of Storm Insanity we can cook up to put a little kick in the market, despite building around most of our engines being… Way too big.

Hmm… Might have an idea already…

Maximum budget of $150,000 automation dollars? So the sports car can be a hypercar?

I mean, considering the small displacement limits, I was thinking somewhere closer to ten times less than that…

My main questions:

Are you entirely certain of this budget? Even with the tax on, given Automation mechanics, that’s actually very high (like, supercar / half-decent luxury GT territory high) and makes me wonder what the relevance of your fuel budget is.

edit: lol phale ninja’d me with exactly the same question :joy:

this round is tax heavy with big price mark, this round pretty much reflect with current Indonesia automotive industry situation where the Toyota 86 in here price around $75k. you could go small engine and make it cheap however i expect your car doesnt end like those cheap bugger you find in the market. i though 100.000 is bit too tight so i raise it to 150.000. i dont want make this round become super tight budget challenge. unless you want make the budget lot lower is up to you

for fuel price is for running cost obviously, we have different fuel selection than automation so your engine RON selection is kinda crucial.