Unlike our neighbours Indonesia, Malaysians largely only accepted MPVs around the mid-2000s. When Proton launched the country’s first homegrown MPV, the Proton Exora in 2009, the MPV sales boom was at its peak. 14 years later, most of the MPVs introduced during that period were discontinued (Nissan Grand Livina), entered the next generation (Perodua Alza), or grew into a crossover (Toyota Innova Zenix). Yet, the Proton Exora remained in continuous demand but its chapter has closed with productio

At yesterday’s Dewan Rakyat sitting, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul avoided a question by Muar’s Member of Parliament Syed Saddiq on why the Malaysian-made Proton X70 was not used, but an imported Toyota Vellfire is selected instead. In answering an earlier question posed by Bayan Baru’s Member of Parliament Sim Tze Tzin, Zafrul defended the government’s decision to switch its official cars to Toyota Vellfires, saying that the Vellfire offers very good value for money. “The leasing cost spent fo

Penang state MP and former Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng has unequivocally stated that the Pakatan Harapan government never approved the changing of official ministerial vehicles from the Proton Perdana to the fully-imported Toyota Vellfire luxury MPV. According to Malay Mail, the lawmaker urged the current government to be transparent about the rental contract of the Vellfire, which is well known to be more expensive compared to the Perdana. He adds, “The Harapan government never approved no

The outgoing Perodua Alza’s dated four-speed automatic transmission will soon make way for a more modern CVT transmission upon the introduction of the next-generation model. Judging from Perodua's record of filtering down new features from their technology showcase models, there's a good possibility that the next-gen Alza will get the CVT transmission from the Ativa. This will also applies to the next-generation Toyota Avanza which is rumoured to form the basis for the next-gen Perodua Alza. Thi

One thing that has continuously astounded me is products (in the automotive context) that overstay their welcome. What do I mean by that? On average, a car's product lifecycle ranges from 4 to 8 years, so any car (or product) that does not adhere to this rule, can be considered an oddity. Of course, there has been oddities that had unusually long lifecycles through the years. For example, the seventh-generation Mitsubishi Lancer (10 years) and the Toyota Land Cruiser 200 (also 10 years, a succes

The Toyota Alphard and Vellfire have been awarded the highest rank awards in JNCAP’s safety assessment. JNCAP tested the ADAS aspect of the Alphard and Vellfire and awarded the duo with the “ASV +++” score, as the luxury MPVs from Toyota scored full points (141 out of 141). The scoring takes into account these criteria: Autonomous Emergency Braking Autonomous Emergency Braking (Pedestrian) Lane Keep Assist Reverse camera system Headlights Pedal Misoperation control Furthermore, the Toyota Alphar