Pick Our Ride!

After we moved out from the city into the district area, we sold off my mini cute black Myvi (thank you Music Box Myvi - our nickname for it- for serving us well for the past 3 years, shielding us from rain and heat) as to cut our costs now that both of us are working in the same hospital. We have been saving for quite some time and are now proudly able to afford a new car, a better car. Dear Hubby will be heading back to the city for work soon, thus this is the perfect time to pick our new ride!

Im a GOOD driver!

Byebye Music Box! Im sure the new owner will sayang you well!

Our current ride - Fiery Fiesta!

So, there we are.. Happily browsing through the catalogues and brochures.. Until... until we couldn't decide what we want! We have been debating for about a month now! Our budget is around RM150k. There are freaking many cars to choose from! The choices are unlimited! Overwhelming! OMG I'm having headache thinking about it now. 

Which one? That? No? What? This one? The colour? So-so? How much? What do you think? What? Stop asking me?

Therefore, this post serves as a overview of our recent car window-shopping. Plus, I REALLY need to objectify my choices and make decision accordingly, although we have agreed that Dear Hubby gets the final decision (but come on, I'll be sitting in the passenger seat so the car better make me look good too. Haha). 

Since I'm just a 'small lady', I will mainly touch the topic from MY point of view, tyvm. I don't mind what kind of engine or VVTi or DSG does the car have, as long as it runs and fits the below criteria:

1) Safety features must rated 5-star. At least 4 airbags with the erm... ABS... erm... traction control.... erm... whatever else that makes the car safe and grips well on the road. I might not know well but that's for Dear Hubby to check out. Haha.

2) Leather seats. With baby Maya onboard, I can only cringe imagining what will happen if she peed or pooped or decided she wants to throw the packet of drinks onto the car seat. Fabric seats stain and they smell funny too.

3) Air condition at the back seat. It's ridiculous to offer to drive anyone around if you are going to let them sweat at the back. Plus, this time I will be spending most of my time at the back with baby Maya in her car seat. So, must be comfortable for me! Haha. Even if there is no aircond fixed at the back, the cooling system must at least be strong enough to cool the whole car.

4) Exterior must be gorgeous. Hard to describe. More to see and feel kind of connection, if you get what I mean. Sleek black or shining white colour.

5) Practical. One car that can lasts us for a good 5 years and reasonable fuel consumption rate. Road tax and insurance cannot be up the roof (so 2.0L engine will be the best). One that can fit all our luggages and hopefully his Tallboy (Dear Hubby's precious bicycle which has its own welcome mat at home. wth right). Our current Fiesta can hardly fit Maya's stroller! Haha.

6) Affordable price within our budget, of course, duh. Better if they come with FREE services. Haha.

7) Versatile. One car that can bring us from the town, around town, to the winding road heading to Sibu, to the jungle (Dear Hubby is a mountain biker who likes to go off-road) and even save us from the occasional flood flashes in Sarawak. 



After few weeks of car-huntings and test-drivings, we have decided on Volkwagen Passat (OMG I know!). 

I love the sleek clean exterior and the beautifully wrapped leather seats, the luxury feel of the armrest, the dashboard, the everything. The whole car is so elegant I feel underdressed at that time sitting inside (was wearing just a knee-length dark blue pants with a flowery blouse in my sandals, carrying my Coach and baby Maya). 1.8L turbo-charged, and it basically has everything - even the auto-dimming rear view mirror, rain sensor and automatic everything!


That is.... until we got to know about the faulty gearbox problem. Reading about it online just gave us the chills. Highly dangerous especially for us as we frequently need to travel long distances and it's well-known that the roads in Sarawak is not exactly ideal. What happens if suddenly the car halts to a stop while we are going uphills? Cannot bear to imagine that! My baby Maya is in the car! Though we have been assured by the dealer that problem mainly arises for cars manufactured between 2008-2011 and that the gearbox has been improved, who wants to risk something like that? We wanted to splurge a little (RM168k after rebate RM8k) and upgrade to a new class, but what is the point of buying a not-guaranteed safety car?
Faulty DSG in China
Death in 2011

"Hopefully, the extended warranty will satisfy customers, but from what we can gather, nobody has actually fixed the problem, nor can we find out what the problem is, exactly."


Terrifying. So we cancelled our loan and the booking. And this is when the headache-almost-killing-each-other debacle happens. 

We have a family now. I guess we are ready to embark on a new journey with something different, something bigger, something for the family trips that we would have in the future. We need a bigger car, family car. Few years back, I would NEVER consider this at all (so conventional family car, duh) but as we grow older, our priority changes. We have different needs now. 

We need a SUV!!!

How pleased I was to find that almost all entrants in this class is new, exterior-wise and technology-wise. Bluetooth, navigation system, superior sound system, electric seat, etc etc etc. All of them come with 5-rated safety features. I am very simple and decision-making comes easy for me, even buying a car, unlike for Dear Hubby who is more meticulous and detail-orientated. He would scrutinized everything until he finds something worth his money. Stingy some say, I say smart. But it is also the reason it took us just a LOOONG time to choose. Ugh!

We veto-ed Korean made cars - Kia and Hyundai. Why? Many said their cars are like their ladies: beautiful on the outside but last only 4 years max. Haha. One of our criteria is for a car to last at least 5 years. I don't want to have to visit the mechanics for petty issues all the time and waste my time & money. Why keep spending on cars which are liabilities when we can save to buy another property, right? Property prices are rocketing. If we don't buy/save soon, baby Maya will suffer later. But that's another topic, another issue for another post.

Also, I usually don't like to buy the same car when another family member has bought it (because then I wouldn't have the chance to flaunt it, get it? I don't think I am the only one here. Haha.) That's why Kia Sorrento is out of our list. Dear father-in-law is already flashing it around. Haha. SantaFe Hyundai is overpriced in Malaysia in respect of the specs and things you get (Dear Hubby has already done his research) as compared to Sorrento. No doubt it has the almost-complete package except the reverse camera and airbags. Car so big and huge, how to reverse parking if no reverse camera? My record was not perfect clean with scratches on the back of the previous Altis and dents in butt of Music Box and also our current Fiesta. Haha. I don't do well in that area. Haha. And why would they skimp on airbags (only 2) of all things? Is it because Inokom tender? Maybe. We don't know for sure.

No Subaru dealer in Sarawak. How sad right. That's why we didn't consider Subaru Forester as our option. Also we do not have RaV4 here. Don't ask me why. Someone bring them in! Haha.

Personally, I have always admired Mazda CX5 4WD. Obviously, it is because of its sporty classy exterior that attracts me a lot. It has what I would call the 'WOW' factor whenever I see one on the road. Totally soccer-mum image. Haha.

It is high on my list. I love the overall solid, simple stylish clean look. And the large rimmed wheels don't hurt either. At RM157k OTR, it has won so many awards AND it's the car of the year Japan. Comes with 6 airbags and with the new breakthrough fuel-saving Skyactiv technology, I get to be eco-friendly and save $$$ on petrol. Blanketed in nice leather and quality designing of its interior, there is only one problem as according to Dear Hubby : SIZE - the cabin feels a little cramped, legroom in the back is tight, boot space is comparatively smaller than the other SUVs. I'm small-sized, no problem here. Haha. This wasn't exactly claustrophobic Dear Hubby's favourite. Oh yea.. It doesn't have aircond at the back. Why don't have? *wailing

Next on list is the Ford Kuga 1.6L Turbo. This is the car to go to if you like techno-new-gadgets kind of guy. The space and size seems to satisfy Dear Hubby better than CX5. The general look is more masculine, more modern sort of feel. I hate to admit, but the more-rugged-manly style seems to suit Dear Hubby more. What impressed me most is the handsfree power liftgate! Can open the boot with a swing of your leg! Especially useful when going bargaining grocery shopping! Awesome. No other SUVs has this feature. Yet. It is powerful (turbo-charged, duh), safe and has great-looking sound system. Honestly, I feel car is worthwhile of its money. It gives you all for the price of RM163k OTR, slightly more pricey than CX5.

However, in Malaysia, the Kuga only has semi-leather seats and it's not electric seat. I wonder why. Just a minor setback. Dear Hubby said he can live with that. Me? I'm not too sure. Maybe I'm already biased. Haha.

Lastly is the Honda CR-V. We would REALLY love to get the CR-V 2.4L as it has ALL the features that we both wanted and fit in our criteria. Efficient, safe, spacious, advanced feature, modern-styled with leather electric seat. Perfect for family and functional. But it is priced at more than RM170k, which is a leap off our budget. I wouldn't want to pay close to RM2k monthly,  just for a car. Well, not yet anyways. Maybe in the future. For those of you with extra cash to spare, this is the car to sport around. In our humble opinions.

Fabric seats. Ugh.

Which leaves us to Honda CR-V 2.0L. Space cabin, head room, legroom is big. Airy. Ample room in the boot. Outlook is satisfactorily sophisticated. Drive is predictable and smooth. I like the polished metal metallic colour especially. It is relatively the cheapest car in our selection of SUVs at RM150k OTR.

But sadly, that ends there. It is fabric-seated and its that kind of cheap fabric people used to make sofas. The kind that would take days for your seat to dry up if your baby accidentally (or purposely in some cases. Haha) spill his/her drinks in the car. No electric seat. No pushstart button. No free services (you still need to pay for service oil. Both Mazda and Ford has 3 years free services, which is fantastic). Only 2 airbags. Who design a medium SUV with only 2 airbags? Interior lacks of design and uninspiring. It feels kinda plastic to me. In fact, the whole car gives me the flimsy kind of feel. The space might be big, but I feel it's because of the thinness of the door, seats etc. I don't know. 

Admittedly, I don't fancy sitting in that car. I don't feel comfortable. For RM150k, I expect it to make me feel better than sitting in my Myvi SE of RM55k. Oddly it feels emptier than my old Myvi. 

Then why are we considering it? Simply because of the price. Practical. Getting from point A to B. 

Now that I see the points substantially, maybe we will scratch Honda CR-V 2.0L off our list.

We still haven't been able to make up our minds. 

Soon. We will. Haha.

Stay tuned.