DRIVEN 2018: Perodua Myvi vs Proton Iriz vs Kia Picanto – review in Malaysia

Hi everyone, Driven is back, powered by PETRONAS Primax! This is the episode you’veall been waiting for, featuring the new Perodua MyviWe’ve already reviewed this car in full detail when it was first launched late last yearIn short it’s a massive, massive improvement over the old modelBut the question is, should this really be the default small car for all Malaysians?We’ve lined up two of its closest rivals to settle it once and for allThe Proton Iriz was designed from the get-go as Proton’s answer to the all-popular MyviWhile it has completely missed the mark in terms of sales, we think it’s still one ofProton’s best products to date, and it’s going to be interesting to see how thelatest Refined version stacks up against Perodua’s new MyviThe second alternative isn’t from a Malaysian brand but from Kia. The all-new Picanto may be from asmaller class but it packs a lot of impressive features into its small frameand the best part is, it’s priced to go head-on with the two local modelsAs for the Myvi there isn’t really much left that hasn’t been saidIt’s already raking up the sales with Malaysians buying them by the thousands every monthNow that many buyers can’t be wrong, can they?Trust me, this is going to be the definitive video if you’re choosing between these three carsWe’ll be comparing all the vital aspects from performance, ride and handling,practicality, refinement, safety, specs as well as qualityOf course, the all-important detail which is how much these cars cost when you go to the fuel pumpswill be answered as well. Everything you’ll ever need to knowabout these three cars you’ll find out todaySo Matt, take it away!Well guys, I’ve been dying to say this. Welcome to Driven 2018 – now cue the musicThe third-generation Myvi is all new inside and out, giving the nameplate afresh new image since the 2005 original. The winning formula hasn’t changed muchso it’s still a practical, dependable and most importantly affordable car for many MalaysiansThe top spec 1. 5 Advance model with allthe bells and whistles is priced at a reasonable RM55,300That’s less than the old oneThe Iriz 1. 6 Premium meanwhile is a little bit more expensive at RM56,950The car Proton launched in 2014 was certainly ahead-turner but crucially it was flawed in many areas so it wasn’t the game changerthe company had hoped it would beIt has taken Proton a long time to perfect its Myvi fighter but it has nowbeen significantly refined under the skinBelieve it or not, the Kia Picanto is the most affordable car here at RM49,888Now in its third generation the Picanto hasn’t grown by much butit has matured into a much more accomplished product with a more mainstream appealLike the Iriz, there’s high hopes placed on this model as it’ssupposed to account for 50% of Kia’s total sales in MalaysiaNow as usual we’ll start off with looks. 99. 9% of the design of the Myvi was done locallyand I love what they’ve come up with. I like the body kit and I also like thedesign of the 15-inch wheels, but there’s one thing that I don’t get, which is thelack of LED DRLs – now even the highest spec model doesn’t come with itIf I was a designer, designing a car for the Malaysian local market, I woulddefinitely have them on. But maybe Perodua is keeping them for the facelift modelNow the overall good looks continues to the back, especially with this integratedrear spoiler and the wide bumper inserts, but there is one thing thoughthe body kit, which comes with the car does not extend to the rear bumperThe Iriz, well, it looks just like the older Iriz, save for new black highlights on the roof, here aswell as on the grille, which also gets a nice 3D Proton emblemWell it’s just too bad Proton didn’t give this a proper visual faceliftIn terms of looks, I don’t think the Iriz is particularly eye-catchingbut you know what they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholderBut I must say one thing though, now that the Myvi has dropped its tall hatchbackproportions for a more modern and matured look, kinda makes this car looked a littlebit outdated don’t you think?On looks alone, the Kia Picanto would be my pickbecause it just looks so funky and fresh and the LED DRLslook absolutely gorgeous here. One more thing, the colour options available onthis car is a lot more interesting than the other two cars. But on the other handit’s kind of spoiled by this whole low-spec look of it with the small wheelsand body coloured door pillars. As for the back, well, it really does remind you of the Perodua Axia, doesn’t it?But on the inside there’s no mistaking this fora Perodua because it just looks so unique. The Picanto may look low spec on theoutside but it doesn’t from inside here because of this big touchscreenAnd other than the fact that the side aircon vents feel a little bit cheap to operatethe rest of the cabin has impressive build quality, especially for the moneyIt’s all hard plastics of course. I mean you’d have to be dreaming to expect anysort of soft touch here, but the fit and finish feels far better than the other two local carsAnd the leather steering wheel especially which i think is veryvery important because it’s the only thing you touch all day, feels of ahigher quality compared to the other two carsIf there’s one complaint, it’s this fabric seats, but then again I think goodfabric is much better than fake leatherWell the leather on the Myvi is not so bad butI do feel that the steering wrap, well it could have been done better but overallthe design of the dashboard is very nice. I feel that it’s the best dashboard designthat Perodua has ever come up with and at the center area over here it’s a bitmore driver focused and the dual layered design gives it a bit of a modern touchPersonally I don’t really like this airbag cutout over here – it kind of looks out of placeBut there’s good reason for it – now if let’s say you get into anaccident and the airbag deploys, after that you need to replace the entireairbag and you only need to change this area of the dashboardYou don’t need to change the entire dashboard which can be very expensiveNow overall considering everything in terms of quality I feelit’s very decent at the price point and if you compare it with the Proton I feel it’s better too. Ah yes, Proton build quality It’s actually not as bad as you think hereand it is definitely better than older Proton modelsThe textured plastic they use here look alright and it doesn’t feel too cheap if you touch on them hardBut the thing is it’s still not as polished as the Myvi andespecially the Picanto, and if you look hard enough you’re gonna find a few misaligned panelsAs for the design itself I honestly think it’s alrightthere’s a newfound sense of symmetry which I like and you know the all-blackscheme here looks much better than all the Persona’s half-black, half-grey approachNow for the seats itself I think it’s one of the best Proton has madeThere’s enough lumbar support and thigh support but I think largerindividuals are gonna find it a little bit too cosseting. On the bright sideyou’ve got Martini racing stripes How cool is that?Now let’s talk about the rear accommodation, and I’ve got to tell youthat the Myvi wins in this department. The legroom is the biggest and thecenter hump over here it’s also small and very less intrusive and the bestpart of everything, which is something that I really love, is this – you can recline the backrestThe proton is definitely smaller in the back here withjust about enough legroom for adults but then again it has shapelier, morecomfortable seats which can be very crucial for long distance journeys andit’s definitely better than the Myvi’s flat benchAs for the Picanto, well there’s no escaping the fact that it’s from a whole class smaller – it’s really really tightback here and it’s also far narrower than the other two, so you can forgetabout fitting three adults in the back. As for the seats themselves, I’ve hadflat park benches that are more comfortable than than thisThis lack of space continues to the boot too – rated a t255 litresIt’ll fit no more than one big bag and the load lip is unnaturally high tooSurprisingly however, this is not the smallest boot hereThat inglorious honour falls to the Iriz with just 215 litres of spaceIn the real world, it’s not as tiny as it sounds, and you can always fold the rearseats for extra space. But if you want to travel with 5 on board plus all their luggage,this isn’t the car for youAnd that’s precisely where the Myvi comes inWith 277 litres it has the largest boot here with the widest and deepest cargo bayby far – simply put if practicality is your biggest concern, get the Perodua MyviNow there are more reasons to get the Perodua Myvi. For example the 1. 5 litreDual VVT-i engine that’s positioned up front. It is not the exact same enginethat’s found in Toyota Vios, but it’s from the same family and in factit’s built in the same place in Seremban. If you drive this car back to backwith the old one you’ll notice that this is a much smoother car to driveEspecially the 1. 5 litre engine, it feels stronger and driving past the nationalspeed limit, it’s not a problem, it doesn’t feel like it’s going out of breathand it’s also a big improvement compared to the 1. 3 litre as wellCompared to the other two here, the Myvi 1. 5 falls in the middle in terms of engine outputsIt makes 102 hp and 136 Nm of torque whilethe Proton’s bigger 1. 6 litre motor offers 107 hp and 150 Nm of torqueThe 1. 2 litre Picanto is naturally the weakest one here withjust 83 hp and 122 NmAll that translates directly into actual performanceWe recorded a 0-100 km/h time of 11. 3 seconds for the Iriz, which isslightly quicker compared to 11. 5 seconds for the Myviwith a 13. 5-second time, the Picanto is a whole two seconds behind the two more powerful carsSo yes the Iriz is the fastest car here. Say what you want about Proton’s CamProengines but this latest VVT version is actually pretty goodAll the vibration from before is mostly gone now and it feels really good when you plant your foot downSome of you may or may not want to believe this, but Protons enginesaren’t as old-school as some of you might have been led to believeIts power advantage more than makes up for the extra weight which in this case isnearly 200 kg more than the Myvi and PicantoBut the good news is you don’t really feel it from behind the wheel13. 5 seconds may feel like an absolutely eternity getting from 0-100 km/hBut I’ll tell you what, the Kia Picanto doesn’t feel all that slowIt helps that it’s the lightest car here, dipping under one tonne, so even with just a1. 2 litre engine it does not feel all that underpowered like how the Perodua Axia does. Unless you compare these three cars back-to-back you willnot feel the power deficit of the Kia Picanto – I mean none of these threecars are performance cars anyway so they don’t have to feel like a GTI to driveAs a city car, the Kia Picanto is more than powerful enoughOne big advantage for the Kia is its transmission – it may only have a four-speed automatic butit’s the best one here. It up shifts very very smoothly, far better than the Myviand as soon as you flick your right foot down, it reacts very quickly with thedownshift and off you go. There’s very little of that lag, annoying delay thatyou get in the other cars. I’ve always maintained that having a 4-speed autothere’s nothing wrong with that, as long as it’s done rightand this is the perfect example of that. I mean yeah it sounds a little bit lame just havingfour speeds but if it works it worksNow the 4-speed automatic in this Myvi is not as good. It hasn’t changed much really compared to theoriginal Myvi from 13 years ago. The performance is a bit old-school it’s abit clumsy, for example if you’re driving uphill it tends to hold gear longerthan it should or when you are driving and you give it a bit more gasit tends to downshift roughly to a lower gear and high revs. And overall when youcompare it with the four-speed automatic on the Kia Picanto, it is not as smoothSo where does that leave the Iriz with its Punch CVT then? Well it’s hard tosay really because on one hand it’s a massive, massive improvement over theolder model – you no longer get a 1. 5 second delay when you want toaccelerate but it’s down to half a second now so it’s much quicker and muchmore responsive as well. But on the other hand it’s not as direct or immediate asa conventional automatic. A lot of people seem to think that CVTsare more modern than torque converters, but in this case I much rather prefer thefour-speed automatic over this any day of the weekOn the bright side, the Iriz still has the best ride and handling package here which is expectedof Proton, really. It’s a real joy to drive especially through the cornersThis steering wheel itself might be electrically-assisted and might be alittle bit too big for my liking but hey it has the best feel in this groupSimply put, if you enjoy driving, the Iriz is the only car here that’s actually any fun to driveNow the thing is, fun driving may be important to people likeyou and me – enthusiasts. But for your everyday driver, all you want is a carthat’s reliable for you to drive from point A to point B and the Perodua Myvidoes that perfectly well. So overall it is not a car that you can have a lot offun with when you’re driving behind the wheel but if you’re just like any otherdriver, it’s perfectly fine and Perodua knows this well!The Picanto falls right in between the other two cars – it’s not as enjoyable to drive as the Iriznot by a long shot, but on the other hand it’s not as numb as the Myvi eitherAnd it strikes a really good middle ground I think and the way it handles willimpress pretty much everybody whether you like driving or notIt just feels so effortless, so secure, so nimble and yet so relaxing to driveBetter yet is just how comfortable the Kia is. This may only be an A-segment hatch but it has thebest ride here. It’s the only one to have that coveted big car feelespecially in the way it handles low speed bumpsIt doesn’t rock you about so much, it just stays solid and stableAs far as ride comfort is concerned, this is nothing short of outstanding!Now as much as we would like to talk about our two local car makers havereached global standards, the difference in ride here really proves otherwiseBasically our two B-segment hatchbacks can’t even match a true world-classA-segmenter that is the KiaNow it’s not to say that the Perodua Myvi is not a comfortable car, because it isIn fact to most drivers they would find this perfectly acceptableThe thing is it has a bit of a stiff suspension setupbut the bump absorption is good and it’s better than the previous modelOverall, it is a more controlled car but the thing is when you compare it against theKia Picanto it feels like it’s one class belowwhere technically, it’s supposed to be the other way aroundThe Proton Iriz fares slightly better in this aspect as the ride feels a little bit more sophisticatedthan the Myvi. It’s not as great as the Picanto though, which is a shame but it’sstill impressive in its own right. Those who have never tried or sat in anyProtons before should really experience it yourself to see how far Proton has comeWhat I’m most impressed about this car is its refinementThe older car was loud – you know you can hear the engine,the transmission drone and the vibration it was just reverberating throughout the entire carBut all that’s gone now because the engineers have revised the positions ofthe engine mountings and it also has a brand new exhaust systemYou’d be surprised by how all these little things make the cars so much betterIn fact we measured that the Proton is thequietest car here under full throttle as we recorded a maximum noise level ofjust 71 dB compared to 72 dB for the Kia Picanto and 77 dB for the MyviNow who would have guessed that?Peroduas having a vocal engine is morelike a brand characteristic now but having said that it is stillsignificantly better than the previous model and when it comes to idling it isstill quieter than the Proton as well because it does not have a loud fanNow Malaysian traffic being the way it is, that counts for a lot!The Kia meanwhile, is even quieter still at idle – we recorded a maximum of 43 dB at a standstillThat’s a full 5 dB less than the Iriz and 3 dB under the MyviIf you understand sound levels, that’s a big difference! The same story goes for a steady cruise tooWe recorded a maximum of 69 dB for this car at 110 km/h, while the other two cars areslightly louder at 71 dB. Combine that with this car’s impressive rideand surprise, surprise, the cheapest, smallest car here is the most refinedmost comfortable car in this group!To measure fuel economy, we tested the cars withPETRONAS Primax, the Winning Formula that keeps the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Motorsport Teamwinning time and time againDesigned to deliver on track and on the road,this is truly advanced Formula 1 engineering, available at the nearest PETRONAS stationOver everyday driving conditions, the Proton Iriz averaged12. 4 km/litreSurprisingly the smaller and lighter Kia Picantoonly faired marginally better at 13. 6 km/litreBest of all was the Perodua Myvi which managed to return 14. 3 km/litre, or a good 15% better than the IrizAlright, before we wrap up, we’re gonna take a look at each other’s carsto see the five things that we like or don’t like about them. Matt’s gonna startwith the Kia Picanto first, so do your worst, man!Right, let’s do this!I think it’s a shame that we don’t get this sportier GT-line package becausethat looks so much better and the optional Novus body kit that we get isnot. . it’s not nice because it’s really uglyBut it does get full Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, making it thecheapest car in Malaysia to get this. I think that’s awesomeToo bad though that there’s only one USB charging port available and it’s theonly car here that doesn’t offer any for the rear passengersOn the flipside it is the only one of the lot to come with rear disc brakes. Now I know it’s notgonna do much in terms of stopping power for a car this size but it does look nice, right?And lastly, the warranty. All three carshere come with five years warranty but only Kia offers it with unlimited mileageThe other two on the other hand are limited to 150,000 kmNow as part of the 2017 refinement updates, Proton removed quitea few things, one of them being automatic headlights. Why?Now on to the inside, the steering wheel feels a little bit too big, so it gives you that feeling that it is not nimbleNow Proton has also upgraded the instrument panel, giving ita new design but the numbering on the meters – they are a bit too small so ifyou are looking at it while driving at a quick glance, you might miss itStill, I’ll pick the Proton Iriz when it comes to crash safety – one of the reasonsbehind that is a material called hot press forming (HPF). Now this material is used atcertain sections of the car to make it stronger when it comes to a crashThe other reason is that the Proton Iriz comes with something calledimpact-sensing door locks which will automatically unlock the car in case youget into a crash, so it’s easier for you to get out of the car all to be taken outAll three cars have six airbags and electronic stability control all as standardBut the Myvi is the only one to have autonomous emergency braking (AEB)Yes, it may only work at up to 30 km/h but hey it’s better than nothing right?The downside is, having cameras right there does mean that if you do need toreplace the whole windscreen, you have to bring it back to Perodua to recalibrate themSo guys, please check windscreen coverage for your car insuranceWhat I do love is the built-in SmartTAG reader complete with a balance displayand a top-up reminder – I think that’s genius!What’s not so great is the Eco Idle start/stop system. Yes it can save you a little bit of fuel here and therebut having the engine turn on and off all the time can get really annoyingreally quickly. It’s the first thing that I turn off when I get into the carLast but not least, the Myvi is the only one to give you a full-size spare tyreinstead of space savers and not only that, you also get a full-size alloy wheelNow that’s convenient!Okay boys time to pick a winner. So at the beginning of the video we asked the questionShould the Myvi be the default choice for all Malaysians? Well, the answer is not so simpleOur take is, it should not be your only option because there are alternatives – two very good ones, actuallyThe Kia Picanto especially may only be an A-segmenter but it stillmanages to offer the best refinement, best ride comfort and build qualityThe same goes for the Proton Iriz as well – it may not be brand new but the 2017 updateactually made it a significantly better car than it was before. Plus it handlesthe best in this group no doubts about that!So where does that leave the Perodua Myvi? Well that’ll be on top of our listNow the Perodua Myvi deserves every bit of its success because it is a big leapforward for Perodua. Now at the end of the day, good looks and fun handlingwell that caters to a certain group of people only. With the Perodua Myvi, youhave very good fuel economy, you have ample space and you have Perodua’s verydependable brand image, which caters to everyone else right?So for all that, the Perodua Myvi is the best, most complete car hereSo where does that leave the other two cars, Matt?Well as much as I like the Iriz, I think it’s reallystarting to show its age right here especially if you put it against these twoIt’s still very much a relevant option for you to consider if you enjoy drivingbut for those of you who want to get from point A to point B, these two arethe better options. Yep so the Kia Picanto falls in betweenthe two local cars. It may be very small inside but it’s still a very good optionI think for youngsters who want to be different. And let’s not forgetit’s the cheapest car here!So it’s settled then – the Myvi comes out on top, but don’t discount the other twoI hope you’ve enjoyed watching this episode of Drivenpowered by PETRONAS Primax. Thank you so much for watchingWe will see you in the next one!

source https://cardetailingphoenix.com/index.php/2018/09/20/driven-2018-perodua-myvi-vs-proton-iriz-vs-kia-picanto-review-in-malaysia-3/