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Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE

Tony · Jul 7, 2021 02:18 PM

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Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 01

Basic information

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2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE

Reason why I bought this car

I am a full-time student who initially stayed at a hostel near my university as I am living in Selayang and have to travel a long distance to Cheras, after my first semester staying in hostel and I thought, instead of paying a monthly rental of RM500 and get nothing after I complete my study, why don’t I discuss with my family that I get a car with similar amount of monthly installment and get a car after I graduate? I can continue to use the car to go to work too after that and it brings a lot of conveniences to me and my family as we only have one family car during that time, and also I have a bit of a driving passion and I quite emphasizing on handing, stability and direct power delivery in terms of driving experience. Thus, with the budget of RM500 monthly payment at that time, we only left with three choices which are Proton Iriz, Perodua Axia, and also, of course Perodua Myvi.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 01

As my friend is driving a Proton Iriz, I get to experience its riding experience and a bit of driving experience. I found that the CVT gearbox paired at that time is quite inferior because its noise level is quite noticeable while trying to floor it. By no mean it was not a good car, it is significantly better than the second generation Perodua Myvi (new third generation has yet to be released) in terms of safety features, ride and handling, chassis rigidity, bigger stock wheels, slightly more powerful engine, and a bunch of savvy techs at that time such as daytime running lights, coming home lights, better infotainment system, auto fold side mirrors while locking/unlocking and more. It was quite a leap for Proton as this car is designed by Proton entirely. However, it was a bit out of budget at that time (RM60k for premium, RM54k for executive) because even taking the longest loan, I have to pay a monthly fee of RM600-700, so this car is out of the question.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 02

Now here comes the Perodua Axia, the little car that is the successor to Perodua Viva. I would say it is a quite nimble car with stylish designs to target the younger generation drivers in Malaysia, it was quite the bargain because it only priced at RM24k for the basic model, and all the way up to RM40k for the advanced model. Because I have driven the kosong basic Axia before during my driving lessons, I would say I am quite liking the car because it has a stick shift (manual is the best), the car is not convenient for me at all because it did not come with speakers! Personally, I like to drive with music and this is totally unacceptable for me, I didn’t want to spend a fortune on an aftermarket speaker and infotainment system right after I bought the car. Addition to that, the handling of the car is bad, as it only weight less than 800kg and the high center of gravity with massive wheel and fender gap clearance, probably it is good for people who only drives around a short distance as the car is very small and easier to find parkings, but it is not quite suitable for me as I have to travel more than 60KM per day.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 03

Car selection process

  • I had a budget of: RM 42k
  • Models that I have considered include: Proton Iriz, Perodua Axia

The reason why I choose this car

And… I only left with Perodua Myvi, the infamous king of highways terrorizing citizens, making headlines. To be honest, I do not care about that because they are all depending on the drivers themselves right? The second generation facelifted Perodua Myvi was quite appealing to me with the aggressive front end, sharp edged headlights, and also the LED garnish as the small lamp. Plus it was the last batch of stock during that time before the release of gen 3 Myvi. I have a discount of RM7k with the selling price of RM41k. It fits my RM500 monthly payment requirement, and come on, it is a Myvi, what could go wrong right?

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 04

It is reliable, plenty of replacement parts, easy to maintain, good fuel efficiency, good power to weight ratio (1.5L engine on a car weighted less than 1000kg is quite good), the only compromises that I have to deal with is just as same as Perodua Axia, the inferior chassis, bad handling and high center of gravity. I figured with the discounted price, I can deal with that because I am just a student anyway, I didn’t want to burden my family too much on buying a car that is too expensive, and now I am a proud owner of the Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5L SE.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 05

User experience

  • I have already done 38,000 km
  • My average fuel consumption is 7.14 L/100km

I have already done only roughly 38k on my car since my purchase back in October 2017, because I don’t go out too much except for classes (plus online classes for now), my average fuel consumption before modding was 14KM/L (7.14L/100km), and dropped to 9-11 KM/L (11.11-9.09L/100km) now with all sorts of questionable mods hahahahaha.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 06

Since the purchase, my first thought on the car is how vibrant the car paint was (and still very bright till today). The colour I chose is electric blue. I would say Perodua has done a good job in terms of paint job and is very comparable to Toyota, probably because they have partnership together. The moment I step on the pedal, the car gives a really good throttle response without the rubbery feel that I found on Proton cars with CVT gearbox, the NVH level was a bit better than the competitors that time which is still acceptable for a car in this segment.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 07

Pros & Cons

Pros

As driving it completely stock for two years, the car is really good for city driving with tight turning radius (good for parking and coming out of a tight place), a a bit for a long-distance driving, and you will never have to worry about bottoming the car as the car gives you plenty of clearance. Power delivery is good for the car sized like this, 1.5L 3SZ-VE engine paired with good ol’ reliable 4AT gearbox is way better than Proton Iriz’s noisy CVT gearbox, it is spacious too as the rear seats can be folded down completely flat to accommodate large items, the rear seats have two different sitting angles as well, which is very comfortable for the rear passengers. It comes with a lot of teh tarik hooks, plenty of cup holders (four at center console, two at each front doors, one in front of air-cond outlet for cold drinks), a shoe tray at the bottom of passenger seat, attractive instrument cluster, etc.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 08

Because this car is co-engineered along with/taken from Toyota and Daihatsu, there are a lot of interesting aftermarket parts for Myvi, and you can play with skirtings, body kits, interiors, sound systems that can be from very cheap to exotic price depending on which route you’re going for such as D-Sport, Boon X4 and etc, some items are rare to find as they have to imported from Japan or half-cut shops. If you ever considered swapping the engine to K3-VET, or bolt-on turbo are also choices you can make if you’re willing to go to that extend as there are a lot of workshops are providing such modding and I would say the craftsmanship is quite mature now depending on which workshop (what I can see for now is Turbodottcomm located in Jenjarom).

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 09

Cons

Why didn’t I mention the front seats? Okay here comes the cons, the front seats are positioned too high for my liking, I’m around 172cm and I can never find a perfect driving position, the steering is not telescopic (which understandable at this price range), if I want to lean backward, my hand couldn’t reach the steering quite well; but if I sit closer, my feet are too close to the pedals. Driving for a long time is quite painful on this car because the foam is quite stiff, I never liked the front seats of the car.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 10

Now let’s talk about the handling of the car. You could say it is fine for people who just drive from A to B and they wouldn’t complain about anything, but for me the steering feedback is quite numb with little or none steering feel. Probably I’m quite an automotive enthusiast myself (that’s why I study mechanical engineering hahahaha), and I set quite a high bar for handling performance. The car comes with McPherson’s struts at the front and torsion beam for the rear in terms of suspension, but because the car is quite light, I find it a bit harsh and a little stiff for general people, but I quite enjoy stiffer suspension but still, too soft for my liking. The front suspension is quite good at absorbing bumps, but as for the rear it's not quite the case. I'm not sure if it’s the rear torsion beam bushings, when I try to take corners with bumps, the rear end of the car tends to wobble and you will feel like you are about to spin off, which I find quite dangerous.

The car squeaks a lot too when it is parked under the sun, the whole front dashboard feels like it's falling apart when I start to drive, the only solution I did was to insert some thin fabric tapes in between the gaps and it solves the problem. The sound system is okay with basic Bluetooth connection, comes with 4 speakers which start to distort when the volume goes beyond 20, for daily usage nothing to complain.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 11

The braking system is bad on this car, the stock brake pads fade and overheat easily (probably because of my driving habit hahaha), I had to replace them once every 6 months, the rotors are too small for this car in my opinion. And let’s be honest, the braking pedal feel on this car is horrendous, when you’re coming to a complete stop at the traffic light (with D gear still engaged), when the compressor starts working the pedal suddenly requires to be pressed down deeper or else the car will jerk a bit to the front. The stock halogen is getting dimmer after some usage with the car tinted, because I have severe astigmatism, I change the stock light bulbs to LEDs (of course complied to JPJ’s requirement).

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 12

Mods

What mods have I done to the car after driving stock for so long? Firstly I emphasize a lot on handling and safety and the first mod I did was of course to install safety bars on the car (front and rear strut bars, rear sway bar) to improve stability, then upgraded from 14 inch wheels to a larger set of blacked out 15 inch WedsSport TC105N (Thailand of course) paired with high performance 195/55/R15 tyres, with D2 high-low body-shift adjustable suspension and slapped it down (which I regret a lot later because I didn’t study well about adjustable suspension), a set of good Zerone ceramic brake pads. The car felt a lot better than before in terms of handling and braking, but because of the questionable D2 adjustable coilovers, I ended up blowing the struts in just 9 months.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 13

Initially I noticed some knocking sounds coming from the front suspension, I didn’t find the root of the cause and changed a lot of front suspension components including lower arms, strut mountings, bushings, etc. And finally for the last resort, I change the coilovers to F-Tuned GT series touge coilovers after waiting for three months because they are made to order. The car feels even more stable with better shock absorption than the previous ones, because of the inverted monotube construction. The coilovers can be fully adjusted with 20 steps of damping level, height and body-shift adjustable, the design is OEM fitting, unlike the D2 the spring and damper are in one piece construction for the rear coilovers, less ideal for long term usage, highly recommend F-Tuned as they have their own R&D department to design their products and they are local brand too!

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 14

I also installed a Nashin K22 series mini 6-pot big brake kit to the car because why not right, all for the fitment bois. The brake kit comes with larger 286mm slotted two piece disc rotors, steel braided brake hose, 6 pots lightweight forged aluminum calipers and also dot 4 brembo brake fluid, the braking is way miles better, the problem of jerky brake pedal feels is ceased to exist with these bad bois, I could say it is worth the upgrade!

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 15

Now because of the restriction of JPJ on exhaust emission and aftermarket exhaust noise level, I hold the thought of changing the exhaust system of this car, but even if I change I won’t be slapping a loud exhaust to it because let's be honest it's annoying to the other people, I just want to have some sound while I tongue occasionally with my friends. As for my future plan, probably I will do a foam injection to the car chassis to stiffen it up and also improve the NVH, and also a better sound system and of course the front seats have to go.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 16

Ratings

Total Score: 4
Performance: 4
Quality & Features: 3.5
Space: 5
Ride Comfort: 3
Fuel Economy: 4
Price & Cost: 4

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 17

Summary

To sum it all up, it is a really reliable car for people driving to work, fetching people occasionally, grocery shopping and all, and by all means it's not for people who prefer a little bit of a driving spirit. Of course, you can do some tasteful upgrade to the car like me to improve the handling but even with all those aftermarket parts, it is not as nearly as good as a car with better handling like the Proton Iriz. And you might ask why I invest so much money on my car? It's just a Myvi, why don’t you save up and spend it on a better car? You are not adding any value to the car, I don’t understand why you spend so much money on cheap cars like this.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 18

First of all, because this is my passion, you don’t judge people by criticizing what they love, and what's wrong in doing things you like right? I know its not adding any financial value to the car but at least it has some sentimental value to me and that is all that matters. I love to see bits and bits of improvement on the car as I mod along, it is my first car and I think most young guys like me could not resist of giving some makeup to their first car and learn the painful lesson from it because once you step into the money pit, you can never pull out. I know it's cheesy to put all the stickers, especially the banner like it's screaming for attention, I’m planning to take it off very soon hahahaha (don’t kecam me).

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 19

Some interesting events

Interesting event on this car is the time I hit a pothole hard while I was travelling from Cheras back to home, it is the time I blew the struts and I didn’t notice it until I got home and I heard some sounds coming out from front end, and it became headache for the next three months. And of course, I have to mention to drive along with the bois, be it ‘chill driving’ or tongue in Ulu Yam or Hulu Langat, scraping the lowered car while fetching my friends to lunches and dinners, going to Ampang lookout point and talking about life with my bros, my trusty Myvi has always been there. Shout out to my bois @offaxis.catalog and @jiapeg for taking such amazing photos of my cars.

Owner Review: Multiple upgrades to my daily workhorse - My 2015 Perodua Myvi Icon 1.5 SE 20


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