Owner Review: Good handling and fuel-efficient - My 2021 Perodua Ativa 1.0 AV Turbo

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Basic information 

2021 Perodua Ativa 1.0 AV Turbo 

Reason why I bought this car

I was looking for a new vehicle before the second MCO, so I was able to drive back to my hometown to celebrate CNY with my family. It had been 5 months since my last trip back to my hometown. Besides, I need a new vehicle for me to travel around the city too.

Car selection process

• I had a budget of: RM 74000
• Models that I have considered include: Myvi 1.5 AV, Ativa 1.0 AV

The reason why I choose this car

I booked Myvi, but did not get the allocation until Ativa announced. Then I made my booking during pre-launch to secure my allocation. After that, I swapped from 2 tones to special metallic so I could faster get my car.

User experience

I have already done 1100 km.

Overall is great, and awesome. The car is fun to drive, the experience is so different with Perodua. 5 years in Alza, few times with Myvi.

The new DNGA platform makes it outstanding in driving experience in city driving than others. Equip with turbo, it helps you accelerate faster, give you more torque so you could control the vehicle on your wish. But body roll is real, bumpy, shaky is real too, especially turning a corner at high speed, like an exit to/from the highway, or very curved corner, you can feel the shaky even while holding the steering. 

Ratings

Total Score: 4
Performance: 5
Quality & Features: 3
Space: 4
Ride Comfort: 4
Fuel Economy: 5
Price & Cost: 5

Pros & Cons

Pros

• SUV segment car, high position on the driving experience. 
• Equip with turbo, kick in early and smooth, helps boost the car torque faster. 
• Good handling from steering, gearbox, whole chassis body, and with bigger size tires, you can go through every bumpy road, it won't give you a disgusting feeling like the whole vehicle is stuck into a hole.
• Air-on is very perodua, very cool.

Cons

• Obvious body roll, with high speed turning a corner, the chassis body shaky is real and significant to driver and passenger. I am looking forward to installing an anti-roll bar to overcome this situation.
• Worst car head unit ever, seriously and fairly speaking, the car should come with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, or make it a gear-p option. The SmartLink is unstable for me, after ten minutes of connection, it will disconnect suddenly then itself reconnecting and your phone will be very hot. If you rely on Waze at that moment, trust me you better remember what you should do for the next corner.

• Non-adjustable steering, while basically, you can adjust the angle, but seriously can't adjust the length? Some might not be happy, I mean at least I am.
• I am 176cm tall, the driver seat back side can't support my shoulder, maybe this is just my issue. It gives me shoulder pain after an hour of driving, I need to take some rest to continue.

• Tinted came from Perodua has security features, but to be honest, it is too transparent and way too low TSER, you could get sweat after 5 minutes sitting inside the car at 10 am morning. I was quite speechless when it happened to me.
• Weird teh-tarik hanger, seriously Perodua, can't you just give something we used to instead of this weird hanger? A lot of owners go buy hanger themselves, do your survey, you shall impressive.

Summary

As a first batch owner, I am happy with what I have, it is within my budget, monthly repayment, low road tax, good fuel-efficient, full capable A.S.A even with adaptive cruise control, I still can bear with what it has missing, but what Perodua lack behind with other brand is real too, it creates something special to the market, but be careful, competitors are chasing behind too, how long can Perodua hold this "weapon" last, we shall see in future.

Some interesting events

During that time, I was looking around Proton X50, new Honda City, facelift Toyota Vios, and last but not least Perodua Myvi. I step into the Perodua showroom, have a quick test drive then without any doubt, make my booking before I leave there. 

Then we know what is coming, the second phrase MCO. What happened was 5 weeks after I signed my loan, I still was not able to get any update from my sales advisor, and to be honest that was kinda sad for me. Then I got some "insider" news from a few YouTubers saying that Perodua was planning to announce something special coming soon. Then I asked my sales advisor: hey, I heard there is a new model coming, so can you help to change my order to that new model? no matter what segment it is or how it's gonna look like. Then my sales advisor was kinda stunned and didn't know how to answer me. 

So he dragged me until the official received a booking date and told me, hey you know it going to be SUV but compact size, I can't tell you much yet, but you ok to make a swap? Because you might be able to get Myvi in the coming weeks, or maybe not because you are like top 5 in our name lists. I answer simple and quick, ya sure. Then we start the procedures and work, contact the banker, sign a new loan, deposit a booking fee. 

I still remember that I got invited to the launching day. I remember the first time I saw the car, got to touch the exteriors, interiors and listen to another sales advisor introduce what I was excited about. I have a hunch this gonna be something special to the market in the coming months.

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