Owner Review: The choice that can't be wrong, My 2019 Perodua Myvi 1.5 AV

Basic information about my car:

2019 Perodua Myvi 1.5 AV

2. Reasons why I bought this car:

-To replace my stolen and aging Proton Iswara 1.3 (M), as Proton is discontinued to manufacture its genuine spare parts, the higher the risk of car theft for their spare parts.

-As a type of transport for me to go and back from work.

Car selection process

● I had a budget of: Approximately RM 30k, increased to RM50k afterward as I found my range of choices was limited. A practice of the principle of not spending more than one fifth (20%) of your monthly income for monthly instalment of your car.

● Models that I have considered include: Proton Persona 1.6 Premium, Proton Iriz 1.6 Active, Proton Saga 1.3 CVT, Perodua Bezza 1.3 AV, Perodua Axia 1.0 AV, Perodua Myvi 1.5 H, Honda City 1.5 i-DCD Hybrid, Kia Picanto 1.2 GT/EX

● Reasons why I chose this car: It was the first model by Perodua introduced with Advanced Safety Assist (A.S.A.), despite working only below 30km/h. It helps mitigate or avoid road accidents if drivers fail to respond, suitable for salarymen like me back in time who drive through notorious traffic congestions daily. Personally speaking, having an experience of at-fault hitting a car in front due to underestimation of distance to a complete stop, I doubted not buying a car with one of the safety features like this. As the adages go: Better safe than sorry, and Safety First.

Also, as an environmentally conscious person, while the Honda City Hybrid was an appealing option during that time, having no AEB system was somewhat a turn-off for me. This turns out to be a smart choice because I bought the latest Honda City RS e:HEV now. It is equipped with 7 main features of Honda Sensing that lack Front Departure Alert. Other than that, given that I always drive through the notorious complete standstill congested traffic from Jalan Universiti to Jalan Gasing, the Eco-Idle technology, or its micro-hybrid technology is favourable to tackling engine’s idling fuel consumption. Saving me up to 4-5% of fuel consumption that goes for idling, as you will stop at junctions’ traffic lights. (Peordua’s claim is 6%).

Furthermore, the Honda City Hybrid GM5 comes with a fragile Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT), and damage easier in stop-and-go traffic, if driven by aggressive engine revving, as one of the owners of this generation’s Honda City Hybrid said. Therefore, personally speaking, it is too risky to save fuel if given a high-risk-to-repair transmission system.

User experience

● I have already done: 75,000 km.

● Since the purchase, my thoughts about the car are:

This is a car suitable for city drive as well as everyday use. One of the best things about this car is the infotainment system which has a screen to interact with, and the ability to mirror the phone’s screen into the bigger screen and interact from there (it works only with some older Android phones only). The larger than average legroom at the rear seat is also a good thing worth mentioning, which stands out from other A & B-segment counterparts. Nevertheless, the features given in this model are not as impressive as the facelifted model, which comes with level 2 autonomous driving capability, auto-fold side mirror, and blind-spot indicator.

However, this variant of Perodua Myvi is not recommended for e-hailing purposes. (I used to drive this car to do e-hailing, before using my current Honda City RS e:HEV), it is because its less durable leather seat, that creases when passengers are seated for a long duration. Instead, the H variant is recommended due to its less fragile fabric seat.

On the other hand, this car helps save petrol expenses using its Eco-Idle function up to 5% (Perodua’s claim is 6%) or up to RM80.07 per month when I use it for e-hailing purposes. (Average monthly fuel expense of a typical full-time e-hailing & small car’s p-hailing drivers is RM1,601.46). Dividing the 12v EFB battery (typically priced at RM310, and RM100 more, last up to 3 years), dividing the RM110 extra of battery’s replacement cost into 730 days in 2 years, it is RM0.15/day x 31 days= RM4.67 per month in addition, to save RM75.40/month for petrol expenses. Even with eco-idle, the full-hybrids or plug-in hybrids are more favourable in saving more fuel, as it burns not even a single drop of petrol when coasting and braking (during all-electric/EV mode) and driving downhill.

Lastly, for those who worry about the engine taking too long to start from Eco-Idling, such as when you need to accelerate your car fast when the traffic light turns green, it only takes approximately 0.35 to 0.4 seconds to start again. (I calculated it with a stopwatch, similar to what Mazda stated for its i-stop technology of micro-hybrid). In another word, just an “ahemmm” by your starter motor will wake the engine up, so you can move your car forward again. This is because the engine was hot enough to start the engine instantaneously, compared to staring the engine when it is cold.

My average fuel consumption is 13.5L/km. With many pass throughs of heavy traffic/congested roads.

Pros of my car:

-Eco Idle technology. The micro-hybrid system for this car. Having to go through complete standstill traffic almost every morning and evening, this feature helps reduce unnecessary fuel burning just like the calculation done above, by stopping the internal combustion engine and using electricity from the 12V battery until its juice runs low and takes only 0.35 second to start the engine again. Other than that, the engine shuts off while going through a barrier gate, such as the condominiums' guard houses, or waiting to pick someone up on roadsides, or the lobbies’ pick-up/drop-off lounge, and lesser noise pollution while interacting with individuals outside the car.

-Sport Rim for the spare tyre too. No changing the original rim and tyre after changing the spare one, and no worries about if your car looks weird while driving to the garage.

-Spacious rear seat and above average legroom. Compared to Kia Picanto GT/EX/KX, the Myvi is more guest friendly as it is believed that the Kia Picanto is mainly used for individual and duos use

-Rear USB socket to charge our smartphone. Giving convenience and as a “life saver” to your guest in your car during the trip, if their phone is dying.

-2 memories of cooling level and fan speed of the air-conditioner. This made easy to boost it when starting the car parked under a blazing sun, and one for preferred low cooling level and fan speed, instantaneously adjust to desired cabin’s cooling level.

-Autonomous Emergency Braking. Despite it only works below 30km/h, it helps mitigate collisions in front if we ever fall into microsleep while driving in congestion, or when the driver underestimated the distance to complete stop when braking.

Cons of my car:

-No Apple CarPlay / Android Auto, even with Screen Mirroring feature for Android phones only, needing to go through agitating and unintuitive steps (namely, USB Debugging) to connect your phone to the information user interface (UI) is frustrating. Furthermore, it doesn’t work with newer versions of Android. Even when it works, the phone UI cannot be used on the infotainment screen compared to older Android phones. Personally speaking, I would ask Perodua to get an Android Auto & Apple CarPlay available infotainment system to make life easier, and so do iPhone owners.

-AEB’s operating speed too low. Mitigate only stop-and-go traffic, but not with normal and high speed driving. And nope, it is not an autonomous driving system. In fact, the AEB shuts off if you trigger the system more than 3 times.

-Air-conditioner doesn’t work while Eco-Idling. Good news and bad news. The good news is, that you won’t use a single drop of petrol when the EFB 12V battery is fully packed with juice, for up to 4 minutes. But the bad news is, if you are stopping under a blazing hot sun, eco-idling is nearly useless because your car engine will start in seconds to power the compressor that works harder to pump cool air into the interior. Perhaps, I would suggest to car manufacturers that the micro-hybrid system should wake the engine if the air-compressor needs to cool the cabin and turns it off after, as long as the brake pedal is still depressing.

-No display of information of audio file details, such as song names, artist & artist’s album for Bluetooth Audio playback. Not cool at all because you can’t show off your favourite songs! But that’s not all. The crucial thing to know is that you will have to go through all arduous steps if you want to know what song is playing through Bluetooth Audio.

-No Ultraseat, an inconvenience to ferrying tall objects, such as the barbecue stove in the Honda City Hatchback commercial film, needed to make it “lie down” with the foldable seat down. The 2nd generation Myvi used to have this feature, but this generation doesn’t. One of the turn-offs.

-No cruise control. Ever since I drove this car from KL to Penang, I realised that long-distance and duration driving is exhaustive if a vehicle is not equipped with a cruise control system, especially if you are driving alone for such a long distance. Even with the current facelifted model, only the AV variant is installed with Adaptive Cruise Control.

-Fragile leather seats. It tends to crease if passengers are seated for a long duration. Maintenance with some kind of repair cream is required to repair the creased parts of the seat.

Ratings: 

Total Score: 3

Performance: 5

Quality & Features: 3

Space: 5

Ride Comfort: 4

Fuel Economy: 4

Price & Cost: 5

Summary of my story in one paragraph:

Personally speaking, this pre-facelift model of Perodua Myvi is less futuristic and less impressive than facelift models due to their features, as it only added with a few more new features, such as the engine push start/stop button, screen mirroring, as well as the digital climate control. My favour goes to the facelift one with its level 2 autonomous driving capability, which makes long-distance driving comfortable, especially on a journey that requires more than 2 hours to reach its destination. Given that my Proton Iswara 1.3 MT was stolen, I left with no choice but to get the one for my daily commute from home to work and vice versa. Otherwise, I would have waited for the facelift models to get one for myself.

Also, personally speaking, the pre-facelift model should have included a conventional cruise control system, especially for those who travel long-distance frequently, such as those who travel to hometowns like KL-Penang journey, which require more than 2 hours of driving. In conclusion, it is an ideal and comfortable tool of transportation that brings us from point A to B.

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