Whatever car you choose, and despite all the tech that's loaded into them, your decision ultimately rests on what's under the hood. Performance and fuel efficiency are usually right up there in the Malaysian buyer's decision making matrix, and the engine that provides these must also be very reliable. Better yet if it's not a hassle to maintain. Best if it could also hedge against next year's increasing fuel prices. A tough ask for manufacturers, so usually it's a balance between two or three of

Electrified cars in Indonesia are not that quite in demand but data has shown that sales are increasing though hybrid vehicles are a more favourable choice over electric vehicles (EVs) among buyers. Just like Malaysia, Indonesia’s EV infrastructure is more concentrated in urban areas so individual EV model sales rarely breach 1,000 units a month. According to Gaikindo, Indonesia’s best-selling EV in May is the Ioniq 5 which saw 918 units sold and is followed by the Wuling Air with 455 units sold

Maruti Suzuki is India’s number one carmaker and in some ways, it is similar to our very own Perodua. However, aside from producing Suzuki models, it has a partnership with Toyota in the subcontinent. This resulted in some Suzuki models sold in India (and South Africa) being offered with a Toyota badge but this Innova Zenix marks the first time a Toyota model is given the Suzuki rebadge in India. Toyota models have been rebadged as Suzuki before outside of India. Europe has the likes of the RAV4

The third generation of the Toyota Innova made its long-awaited debut in Indonesia a month ago. While longtime fans might be missing the traditional rear-wheel drive (RWD) set-up of its predecessors, many regular Indo buyers seem to have accepted the transition. According to Anton Jimmi Suwandy, Marketing Director of Toyota Astra Motor, 4,000 units of the Innova Zenix have been booked. Offered with either petrol or hybrid variants, it is the latter that turned out to be the most popular in Indon

The fifth-gen Nissan Serena (C27) has been on sale since 2016 in Japan and was once the best-selling MPV there. Even though it was given a facelift in 2019 and featured some interesting tech underneath, its position was usurped by the Toyota Voxy in 2020. Nissan knows the Serena is due for a full model change and after 5 years, it looks like the next-generation model will arrive in October 2021. This is according to a scoop by Best Car Web. Based on the rendering as seen in the cover photo provi

In Malaysia, the Nissan Serena is offered exclusively with the 2.0-litre S-Hybrid (Nissan’s term for mild hybrids) engine. In Japan, Nissan also offers another hybrid option for the Serena, the e-Power variant. The e-Power unit uses a 1.2-litre three cylinder engine, sounds tiny for a such a large car but that’s the whole point. While the Serena S-Hybrid relies mostly on the 2.0-litre petrol engine, aided by 2.6 PS electric motor, the Serena e-Power’s priority is the opposite. It uses a much mor