The Myvi is possibly the most iconic car in Malaysia mainly due to its affordable price and reliability. The older Myvi had a focus on those two departments but they did not give much focus on the internal technology of the car. With the All-New Myvi, that is where they decided to put their focus and provided Malaysians with a car that came with features only seen in Continental cars. The model that Perodua gave us is the 1.5 liters dual VVT-i model with the full range of features including the ASA and Eco Idle system
Exterior
The All-New Myvi on first glance makes it pretty obvious that it is bigger in length and width, and that is true as now it is 3,895mm and 1,735mm respectively, a 210mm and 70mm increase from the previous Myvi, this directly equates to a larger cabin space which allows for more leg room in the back.
As a person who is 179cm in height, I found this to have just the right amount of space even when the driver and passenger seat is pushed back and it is definitely more comfortable compared to the previous generations.
For the first time in local compact hatchback car, there are LED headlamps with auto-off and follow-me-home functions, this feature is usually only available on premium continental cars, which I have to commend Perodua for offering such premium features. The front is also designed in a way that gives the car an aggressive personality with headlamp design that goes diagonally down.
However, the aggression did not translate well when moving to the back of the car which shows off a simple and in my honest opinion, a rather dull outlook. The L-shaped backlights do not match the front of the car but, still serves its purpose, I do wish Perodua would work on the back more for the next generation as the front looks good enough.
The rims are these nice 15-inch two-tone alloy rims that look very sporty
Interior
Enter the new Myvi, you will be sitting in very comfortable leather seats with just the right amount of width. The steering wheel has a very nice size to it and I found it to be just the right size for my hands making it comfortable to grip.
As for safety, there are 6 airbags that cover the front, front side, and side curtain which covers just about all sides and Perodua has also mentioned that the front of the car is now two times stronger than the previous generation.
You will also be getting a touchscreen display that supports USB, and Bluetooth connection but does not come with a CD player which I found to be quite disappointing as majority of the time, I use CDs to listen to music.
Features
The Myvi shines when it comes to features, as I was really impressed with what they have added. First, is the Advance Safety Assist which helps in avoiding a head-on collision. There are stereo cameras just behind the rear-view mirror which calculates the speed travelling against the vehicle in front of you and if it determines that you will hit the car in front of you, it will first give out a loud beep sound and if you do not stop, it will engage the brakes for you. This feature seems to work as promised and it can easily detect cars of different sizes in front of me but it seems to have issues detecting motorbikes, do note that it only works from 4 to 30 KM/H so it is recommended that you do not rely on this feature to brake.
There are also parking sensors on front bumper which is very useful for parking in tight areas or if there is an obstruction in front of you that you can’t see, but what is more impressive is that when stopping at a traffic light with a car infront of you, the Myvi will use these sensors to activate a reminder-like function to inform you that the car in front of you has moved, which is nice as we tend to use our phones at the traffic light and not realize that the lights have turned green.
Other than that, it comes with Eco Idle which will turn off the engine when it detects that you have come to a full stop and start the engine when you need to go. Sounds like a feature that saves fuel but it comes with a flaw, the feature only works when you are pressing the brake and during my test, I found that if you were to apply more pressure to the brakes or release it slightly it, it will start the engine and will not go into idle mode anymore unless you are driving again.
There were several times the car engaged the engine when I am stuck in a traffic jam, as it is rather tiring to keep your foot pressure the same when stopping for few minutes waiting for traffic to move. I did wish that Perodua went on with the option of starting the engine when the accelerator is pressed. Another flaw of this feature is that the air conditioner will stop blowing out cold air possibly due to the fact that the engine is turned off which in turn, stops the compressor fan from spinning.
The air conditioner system has received an upgrade making it digital, and I really like that it has two memories that you can assign the temperature and blower strength which is something I tend to usee a lot as I am not a fan of cold environments especially at night. During the day when its blazing hot, I am able to just press Memory 1 which I have defaulted to low temperature and medium to high blower and during the nights, low temperature with low blower strength. It might seem like a simple feature but if you fear the cold like me, this is a lovely feature to have as you don’t have to fiddle with the controls to get just the right cooling every time.
The 1.5 Advance model comes with a touchscreen display, Bluetooth and USB playback, all these features work as expected with no issues in connecting to my phone via Bluetooth or detecting a USB drive but the feature I want to highlight is the GPS software. It is slightly laggy when inputting your destination but once that’s done, the car’s location is immediately picked up and you can be on your way. It is annoying that it has a feature to keep warning you that you have gone over the speed limit even if its just 2 to 5 KM/H but thankfully that feature can be turned off. What is impressive is that it knows all the tolls and can give you the exact amount you would have to pay which is an excellent feature as you can check how much money you have in your Touch n GO or wallet in order to prepare if you need to top up your card or just breeze through the tolls, which comes to the next feature, the build in SmartTag system.
There is a sensor on the top right of the dashboard which acts as the SmartTag sensor, your Touch n Go card can be slot into a reader that is located at the bottom right of the driver’s console. There is even a button you can press which displays the balance in your card.
Sometimes it says it can’t detect the card in it but it still seems to work fine when going through a toll, if it can’t detect the card, you will need to reinsert it or just keep pressing the balance indicator button until it shows you the balance.
On the minor side of things, I am very happy that Perodua included multiple USB ports in different locations to charge your phones. The port on the centre console supports 5A/2V output which is equivalent to Quick Charge 1.0 and there are two more ports on the sides of the front seats which can be used for passengers in the back,
again this is something that many expensive car models do not offer.
Driving Experience
I will be honest with you, I have never liked driving any of the previous generation Myvi mainly because the car just feels unsafe especially when taking corners or turning as the chassis seems to roll a bit too much for my liking and at high speeds, it feels like the car is not gripping the road which does not give you a feel of confidence when driving them. But when I set my foot down on the accelerator and went forward, I immediately felt that this car is more firm and stable on the road compared to the previous Myvi which gave my confidence back.
The absorbers are much tighter now and it makes taking turns and corners smoother, even driving at high speeds the car seems to offer much better control. Sure, it’s not comfortable when going over badly maintained roads and speed bumps, but I will trade comfort over safety anytime.
Fuel Consumption
We received the car with an Odometer reading of 200KM and full tank of petrol
The fuel economy seen on the previous Myvi is as excellent if not better on the All-New Myvi, to give you a visual representation, the fuel indicator has a total of 8 bars which indicates a full tank, after driving for a week or 250KM it showed 4 bars which is very impressive so in theory you can get roughly about 500KM on a full tank and a full refill will cost you just under RM80 pumping RON 95.
Verdict
If you are considering to buy a Myvi, then it’s a no-brainer that the third generation Myvi is the car you should get, with major improvements on the driving experience and the technology included into the car, you will be getting features never before imagined in a local car, and with the price of RM55,300 without insurance, there is definitely a lot of value for your money here and peace of mind with the safety features included.
