Malaysia’s (and the rest of Asia’s) most loved status symbol wheels – the Toyota Alphard and Toyota Vellfire twins – have been updated for 2020.
Both the Alphard’s and Vellfire’s list of safety features have been bumped up further with the addition of Toyota Safety Sense’s full suite of advanced driving aids (ADAS). It now comes with Pre-Collision System, Lane Departure Alert, Lane Tracing Assist, Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (with stop-go), automatic high beam, and accelerator pedal misapplication (Parking Support Brake System).
The infotainment have also been updated.
The previous Alphard’s 8-inch infotainment has now been upgraded to a 10.5-inch touch screen unit, while retaining the same 17 JBL speakers setup. It also comes with Android Auto/Apple CarPlay.
The cheaper Vellfire also gets Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, though it makes do with a smaller 9-inch screen and a simpler 8-speaker setup. The previous 2019 Vellfire had a 7-inch touch screen infotainment.
The rear seat entertainment system have also been upgraded. The Alphard’s previously had a 9-inch roof-mounted display, it’s now a 13.3-inch screen unit.
The cheaper Vellfire will retain the same 10.2-inch screen as before.
In any case, UMW Toyota Motor’s officially imported Alphard and Vellfire models offer a much better infotainment than reconditioned Japanese market units, which use Japanese language infotainment. You can of course change it to an after-market unit, but that would also mean losing access to the vehicle’s settings menu.
That and the lack of proper after-sales support and warranty.
Other smaller updates include the addition of a tyre pressure monitor, front and rear facing DVR (previously front facing only), vehicle telematics security system.
All these updates come at a price.
The Toyota Alphard 3.5 now sells for RM 465,000 (estimated), up from the 2019 model’s RM 443,000.
The Toyota Vellfire 2.5 now RM 383,000 (estimated), up from RM 362,000.
The reason why the prices are not final is because the government have yet to give its approval on the price. As explained in our earlier posts, prices for many 2020 models are being reviewed by the government.