Just a quick question - are there any cars for sale in Taiwan that have a 1 liter engine?
The smallest size engine that I can see is a 1.3 in a Hyundai Getz or a 1.5 in a Suzuki Swift. Is there anything smaller than this?
Fuel price is my primary concern so the smaller the engine the better. I also only need the car for city or freeway driving. I do not plan on climbing any mountains.
Thanks
Of course not. If you don’t have a big engine, how will people know how high class you are and respect your status?
Anyway, even for city driving, the nominal engine size is only loosely related to fuel economy. What matters is your driving style, vehicle aerodynamics (at higher speeds), vehicle weight, and the software in the ECU. In Taiwan, engines and their control computers are often US-spec; they seem to be deliberately mistuned to burn as much juice as possible. Last year I drove (in the UK) a 2L Volkswagen diesel that delivered an average of almost 60 miles to the (Imperial) gallon. Not kidding.
If you do a lot of high-speed driving, a very small engine will actually deliver worse economy because it’ll be operating at the top end of its efficiency curve, where it’s starting to droop away from optimum performance. A 1.3 or 1.5L engine should be just fine for what you want. You might also consider a Prius; you should find you’re working almost entirely in electric-only mode, which will be very cheap if you have a convenient charge point.
Finley gave a good answer to your question there.
I would ask the question is fuel price your primary concern or cost of driving, as these are two entirely different questions with two entirely different answers.
I said this to Toyota when they asked me for advice on their Prius 3 launch. They marketed their Prius 2 completely illogically. They were advertising it as Taiwan’s most fuel efficient car, which it was. However nobody would buy one based on that alone, as it is twice the price of a Toyota Yaris which was marginally less efficient in the city. If anyone with a brain put two and two together then they would be going for the cheaper Yaris and still have around 600,000NT remaining to put towards fuel, not to mention the far lower cost of spares.
It has always been my advice that if one wants a car only with a very low cost of running and with the added bonus of a rear hatch then it is the last gen Nissan March.
Very reliable, super low cost of repair, simple to fix anywhere and very good fuel economy. They are also as cheap as chips to purchase used, although they are a dying breed. They have been out of production since 2007 here in Taiwan, so finding quality models in 2012 becomes increasingly difficult.
You will need a budget of around 150,000NT to find a good one, but depreciation is pretty low on such a cheap car.
answering the question as it was posted, yes there is a car with 1L engine… the Smart, by Mercedes… its very small, very easy to drive, easy to park and convenient for 1 or 2 people, that is if you are a short guy i would say…
would i ever buy one? no… but they exist so you can check them out…
I would ask what are the odds of never having to climb a steep hill in this country?
Even most small engined vehicles will climb a 1 in 1, although might be less efficient in doing so, depending somewhat on the vehicle power to weight ratio.
the Smart would have to be the worst car I have ever driven.
even my wife’s 1 L Yaris (Vitz) is a ton better in terms of drivability and performance and handling and just about everything except the ability to park in small spaces. The Smart was the most ridiculous bucking bronco I have ever driven: the suspension and the handling would drive me nuts if I owned one; it nearly drive me insane in 20 minutes.
Agreed. Awful. Bloody awful!
Agreed. Awful. Bloody awful![/quote]
What’s the “Roadster” like to drive? Seen a few here, and, while they’d be to impractical for me, they look quite…um…cool?
Agreed. Awful. Bloody awful![/quote]
What’s the “Roadster” like to drive? Seen a few here, and, while they’d be to impractical for me, they look quite…um…cool?[/quote]
Are we still talking about the expensive, oil spewing, jiggledy, piggledy, unreliable, noisy rattle box brand known as Smart?
Are you talking about the one with much better handling, albeit with and almost total lack of power, which sold so few models that it’s production was halted in 2005 and which is now a total dinosaur with leprosy?
Agreed. Awful. Bloody awful![/quote]
What’s the “Roadster” like to drive? Seen a few here, and, while they’d be too impractical for me, they look quite…um…cool?[/quote]
Are we still talking about the expensive, oil spewing, jiggledy, piggledy, unreliable, noisy rattle box brand known as Smart?
Are you talking about the one with much better handling, albeit with and almost total lack of power, which sold so few models that it’s production was halted in 2005 and which is now a total dinosaur with leprosy?[/quote]
Probably, though since “dinosaur with leprosy” didn’t feature in their marketing I can’t be sure.
So it had much better handling, looked much better, cost about the same, but sold much/even worse?
That’s punters for you. 
I just had a quick look on Ruten.com.tw in the < 1300cc category.
Apart from the Smart, I found the following:
Hyundai Atos 1000cc
Kia Euro Star 1000cc
Austin (I think) Mini 1000cc
Formosa Matiz 800cc
(There could be others, but I only looked at the first few pages.)
No idea whether any of them are worth buying.
[quote=“adikarmika”]I just had a quick look on Ruten.com.tw in the < 1300cc category.
Apart from the Smart, I found the following:
Hyundai Atos 1000cc
Kia Euro Star 1000cc
Austin (I think) Mini 1000cc
Formosa Matiz 800cc
(There could be others, but I only looked at the first few pages.)
No idea whether any of them are worth buying.[/quote]
The answer to that question and in my sincere opinion is no.
I’ll have a quick stab at these anyway for anyone who’s interested.
Hyundai Atos 1000cc: An attempt at making the cheapest car on the planet for India. Crap build quality, crap handling, and dismally dull.
Kia Euro Star 1000cc: Possibly one of the most unreliable cars in Taiwan. Useless at everything.
Austin (I think) Mini 1000cc: Quick, fun to drive, hard to find parts, fall to pieces technology with added rust. Superb if you like bouncing up and down at a vigorous pace. Still, they have more interior space than the BMW version, so that’s a plus.
Formosa Matiz 800cc: Rust, loosely held together with some paint. Sounds like a lawnmower and goes just as fast. Feels dangerous to drive and the electrics and engine and gearbox and suspension, and other parts break quite a lot.
Will Taiwan get Ford’s 1 liter turbo (EcoBoost) engine in Fiesta, Focus, or Escape?_
Sent from my Nexus 7
Was assuming the OP was after something new.
If the “old” Mini (for which I think you’d pay a “cool/classic” premium) is in play, then in theory so is the Daihatsu Skywing (993 cc, I quite like mine), Charade, or the CMC Towny (783cc).
Pretty rare though.
I’ve seen a Citroen 2CV and a Citroen Ami here. Once each.
I imagine they might have to be for looking at rather than driving, though.
[quote=“matthewh”]Will Taiwan get Ford’s 1 liter turbo (EcoBoost) engine in Fiesta, Focus, or Escape?_
Sent from my Nexus 7[/quote]
Likely not, would be my best guess. The Fiesta is an awful seller in Taiwan as Ford does have a super poor reputation for reliability, and resale value in Taiwan. Those that do like Fords, generally like them only for their looks or manual gearboxes only. Having said that, their diesel engine sold well for a few months in the latest Mondeo, only to start selling poorly again once all their quality issues started showing their heads.
Taiwanese are also quite uninformed when it comes to car performance, although this is very slowly changing. Most tend to relate engine size to performance and assume that small engines can’t provide speed and power. Frugal Taiwanese will generally buy the largest engine they can afford before entering a higher tax category. They believe they make the best savings on the yearly tax they pay, as well as depreciation costs. They tend to not necessarily consider the fuel savings as much as other factors.