Perodua Alza

Here it is – the new Perodua Alza! We’ve been following the development of this MPV ever since we first got news of its existence back in early 2008, where it was reported that Toyota and Daihatsu were going to build a new MPV and produce it in Indonesia. When the Daihatsu Luxio MPV came out we all got a shock – that more of a van so we waited patiently until Christmas last year when the Toyota Passo Sette was finally unveiled in Japan. Nearly a year later, the Perodua-badged model with a new front, rear and interior is here. Read the full details after the jump.

Alot of people that are casually (not urgent) in the market for an MPV will have probably been waiting for the D46T project to be launched for a long time now. After all, the majority of the country can only afford either a Proton or a Perodua, and you really have to wonder why it took them so long to serve this market niche when all of its competitors have been priced out of affordability.

The national MPVs should have come sooner so that consumers who have big families would not have needed to stuff their 5-seaters to the brim whenever they needed to balik kampung.

I have to say that with the Myvi, the Japanese Passo looked better, but with the Alza I feel our own Malaysian design team has trumped the Japanese guys. The Passo Sette had this slightly bulgy-eyed look while the Alza looks far more sleeker. I don’t see any reason why anyone would want to ‘convert’ their Alza back to a Passo Sette but then again design is a subjective personal thing.

As for the name Alza, it actually means ‘to rise’ in Spanish. Probably symbolises Perodua rising up the product segments once again – its cars are getting bigger and bigger.

The Perodua Alza’s headlamps also come with projector lenses for the main beam across the entire line-up. I’m not saying you should be doing this but for those that want to retrofit HID bulbs to the Alza, the projector lenses will result in a relatively cleaner and nicer looking light beam.

On the rear you get LED tail lamps and for the Premium version you also get a spoiler. There is a bee sting antenna located towards the rear of the roof but towards the left rear instead of being positioned smack in the middle. Perodua says this is so that the owner will be able to flip the antenna down when required easily as compared to if it was in the middle. There are a few colours to choose from but personally I’m digging the Classy Purple, which is a new colour.