cars test drive experience
Lately few months, we tested quite a lot of cars from different brands and different ranges because SL planned to buy a new car after he sold his car to his brother during relocation. Since 2011 till then, we were only using my Perodua Kelisa as our transportation, it is fuel saver but quite small and less of suspension, Kelisa is suitable for short distance city drive but not a good option for long distance travel, especially our hometown is in another end of Malaysia. Therefore, SL decided to buy a car before Chinese New Year, so that we can travel back to hometown with more comfortable transportation.
Before hand, we listed some criteria for our car shopping: good suspension, more space in boot and within our budget which is around RM100k.
The first car that we tested was Volkswagen Polo Sedan, SL commented this car got a very smooth engine, he didn't hear any sound between gear changing and I very satisfied it's suspension, it was priced at RM99k which is within SL's budget but it didn't have much feature and the car look normal. According to news, Volkswagen Polo Sedan's engine wasn't new technology engine that they used in their other cars. Therefore we keep this car in list but it is not in our top shoplist.
At very first, we planned for a MPV because it can take more people, but in fact, we only have two people use the car for most the time and I tested Nissan Grand Livina, I found that it's suspension wasn't too good, therefore we dropped option on MPV.
Among Toyota, Honda and Nissan, Nissan price seem like more attractive for the same range of car, like Nissan Slyphy is around RM120k for a full spec 2000cc vehicle, we couldn't get a 2000cc Honda or Toyota at this price. Nissan Slyphy is the second car we tested and SL was quite satisfied with it, he even decided to raise his budget for another RM20k. Honestly, Nissan Slyphy is quite attractive but we heard a lot of negative news about Nissan company and its car, therefore we decided to test other car first.
Then, we tried with Toyota. Since SL raised his budget, so we tested Toyota Vios and Toyota Altis, for sure Toyota Altis is more comfortable than Toyota Vios but SL doesn't really like Toyota, he said that engine sound is a bit noise when he was driving them. Also the agent let us tested an used car, so SL felt the car looks old and he didn't feel impressed with Toyota car. Toyota is the first car that we eliminated from our shopping list.
Later, we tested Honda which was SL previous owned car, so I think he got some bond with Honda as his previous car didn't bring him too big problem. And we tried Honda City and Honda Civic, of course I prefer Honda Civic because it is more comfort and better suspension, well Honda City wasn't too bad as well. However if compared price between Honda Civic 1.8 with Nissan Slyphy (as they are similar price), of course Nissan Slyphy win a lot, Honda Civic 2.0 full spec is more than RM120k, which is much more expensive than Nissan Slyphy, so we left at a undecidable state here.
After that, we heard something about Ford, Ford Focus is a car with a lot of feature, like auto parking and a lot more, then we tested drive with Ford Focus, I like it's suspension and I felt suspension is much better than other car and similar with Volkswagen Polo Sedan, SL also commented the engine was smooth. However, Ford Focus price is more than RM130k for full spec car, this is over our budget and the low spec one is less than RM120k but a lot of defeature. Actually, we almost thought of top up our budget for a full spec Ford Focus, but we find an excuse to reject the car. Our excuse is we are afraid if we will be too depend on the feature until we are not able to drive other car next time. Well, we also felt spending over RM130k is too much for us.
Actually, we got thought to try Korea car, like Hyundai and Kia, but we heard that a lot of people need to wait for about 4 months to get their car, SL didn't want to wait that long and listened that Korea car is less second hand value, so we decided to eliminate them from our list.
Finally, we left Nissan Slyphy and two Hondas in our view list, obviously we like Honda the most thought Honda Civic is much expensive than Nissan Slyphy. Then, we thought of our budget back and we still don't really want to spend more than RM100k for a car because car price will immediately drop at the moment you drive out from car factory, this isn't worth for investment. So SL decided for second test drive on Honda City to see it's suspension and I didn't feel it was bad because we didn't test honda Civic for comparison on second test.
That time, we saw Honda Freed, a MPV with huge discount and a little glitch in our decision making. However, we finally decided to buy a full spec Honda City.
So, we bought a Honda City now though it wasn't the best car we ever tested, but it suited our criteria and we should be happy with what we have chosen, then we only can live happily :)
Before hand, we listed some criteria for our car shopping: good suspension, more space in boot and within our budget which is around RM100k.
The first car that we tested was Volkswagen Polo Sedan, SL commented this car got a very smooth engine, he didn't hear any sound between gear changing and I very satisfied it's suspension, it was priced at RM99k which is within SL's budget but it didn't have much feature and the car look normal. According to news, Volkswagen Polo Sedan's engine wasn't new technology engine that they used in their other cars. Therefore we keep this car in list but it is not in our top shoplist.
At very first, we planned for a MPV because it can take more people, but in fact, we only have two people use the car for most the time and I tested Nissan Grand Livina, I found that it's suspension wasn't too good, therefore we dropped option on MPV.
Among Toyota, Honda and Nissan, Nissan price seem like more attractive for the same range of car, like Nissan Slyphy is around RM120k for a full spec 2000cc vehicle, we couldn't get a 2000cc Honda or Toyota at this price. Nissan Slyphy is the second car we tested and SL was quite satisfied with it, he even decided to raise his budget for another RM20k. Honestly, Nissan Slyphy is quite attractive but we heard a lot of negative news about Nissan company and its car, therefore we decided to test other car first.
Then, we tried with Toyota. Since SL raised his budget, so we tested Toyota Vios and Toyota Altis, for sure Toyota Altis is more comfortable than Toyota Vios but SL doesn't really like Toyota, he said that engine sound is a bit noise when he was driving them. Also the agent let us tested an used car, so SL felt the car looks old and he didn't feel impressed with Toyota car. Toyota is the first car that we eliminated from our shopping list.
Later, we tested Honda which was SL previous owned car, so I think he got some bond with Honda as his previous car didn't bring him too big problem. And we tried Honda City and Honda Civic, of course I prefer Honda Civic because it is more comfort and better suspension, well Honda City wasn't too bad as well. However if compared price between Honda Civic 1.8 with Nissan Slyphy (as they are similar price), of course Nissan Slyphy win a lot, Honda Civic 2.0 full spec is more than RM120k, which is much more expensive than Nissan Slyphy, so we left at a undecidable state here.
After that, we heard something about Ford, Ford Focus is a car with a lot of feature, like auto parking and a lot more, then we tested drive with Ford Focus, I like it's suspension and I felt suspension is much better than other car and similar with Volkswagen Polo Sedan, SL also commented the engine was smooth. However, Ford Focus price is more than RM130k for full spec car, this is over our budget and the low spec one is less than RM120k but a lot of defeature. Actually, we almost thought of top up our budget for a full spec Ford Focus, but we find an excuse to reject the car. Our excuse is we are afraid if we will be too depend on the feature until we are not able to drive other car next time. Well, we also felt spending over RM130k is too much for us.
Actually, we got thought to try Korea car, like Hyundai and Kia, but we heard that a lot of people need to wait for about 4 months to get their car, SL didn't want to wait that long and listened that Korea car is less second hand value, so we decided to eliminate them from our list.
Finally, we left Nissan Slyphy and two Hondas in our view list, obviously we like Honda the most thought Honda Civic is much expensive than Nissan Slyphy. Then, we thought of our budget back and we still don't really want to spend more than RM100k for a car because car price will immediately drop at the moment you drive out from car factory, this isn't worth for investment. So SL decided for second test drive on Honda City to see it's suspension and I didn't feel it was bad because we didn't test honda Civic for comparison on second test.
That time, we saw Honda Freed, a MPV with huge discount and a little glitch in our decision making. However, we finally decided to buy a full spec Honda City.
So, we bought a Honda City now though it wasn't the best car we ever tested, but it suited our criteria and we should be happy with what we have chosen, then we only can live happily :)
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