Perodua has the a smart marketing team, official launching the Axia on eve of Malaysia Day, giving all Malaysian a whole day of holiday to flock to their showrooms to place booking for the best value for money car. Though based on Daihatsu Ayla platform, Perodua has tweaked the exterior and interior to offer 2 different facial variant of the Axia. The differences are so obvious that the bumper and headlight are not interchangeable, thus owner of the standard variant that want to do after market facelift need to spend a lot of money to have some major components changes. However, in no times, third party look-alike facelift kit should be available, which shall even include the rear spoiler to tame some of the owners.
The Axia is powered by the all new aluminium 1.0-litre 3-cylinder engine which is also the first commercially available Energy Efficient Vehicle, mated to either a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic gearbox. Looking inside the neatly layout engine bay, one could notice the missing ABS control module for the standard version. Dual airbags are standard across all Perodua's car for quite awhile now. With 66hp/90nm of power, the Axia is not any fast car, and a short test drive shown that one has to rev the engine to around 4500rpm to get enough torque to pull the car from standstill to crossing the road. While idling, the vibration from the imbalance 3-cylinder movement could be felt, which make me wonder whether this is the nature of it or the engine has yet to be fined tune properly. A city car the Axia is, and what else could you ask for...maybe making traction control and ABS standard across all the ranges. Malaysians deserve to have better car with no compromise on safety.
The Axia interior built quality is good, as standard like all their other models. Plastics are everywhere, but fitting is good, and with Perodua experience, they should last in our hot weather. Different variant get a different meter cluster where the Advance and SE get a lot of silver insert in the dashboard, a sportier red meter cluster instead of standard amber. The standard version get a very basic player without any USB or bluetooth connectivity. Isn't such features quite standard nowadays! What's with Perodua on having a CD Player but sealed up the USB port! Make no sense! No wonder the most basic model are getting the bulk of the order, as it does not even have one. 8 months wait for the RM24,000 EX variant!
One smart, yet not too smart feature in the Axia is the handbag hook located at the passenger sit, which is activated by a push button to lock down your handbag from snatch thief. Is Perodua trying to tell someone that crime rate is high in Malaysia? It is however not a smart thing to place your handbag in anywhere that is easily visible. If you have seen some Youtube videos, the thief is daring enough to have its body into the window to reach for it. Don't be an idiot and make this hook your display case for your handbag!
Except for the most basic variant, the rest are available for viewing at any Perodua branch, and test drive unit is the fully loaded Advance version. Anyhow, with similar powertrain, it does not matter which unit is available for future owner to give it a try. A total of 8 colours are available this round, with 2 distinct new colours available for the Standard and SE/Advance version. Green is making a come back this round, and it look nice. The Axia even comes in a pinkish Cherry Blossom colour for the lady. Now, let's hope the eco-friendly water-based paint will not fade under our sunlight. Do you remember the Myvi green and gold colours, which eventually faded into different tones. It just look weird with the bonnet is lighter shade and the door in darker shade, which lower the residual value of the car. The Lava Red and Sunflower Yellow look nicely matched for the SE and Advance version.
Like what you see...the Axia is like VW beetle as it will be marketed as the peoples' car. It is designed to be spacious, with a boot size that is larger than the B-Segment Myvi, and comfortable rear passengers' knees space. The price as as follow:
Axia Std-E (Manual) - RM24,600 (OTR) + RM400 for metallic paint (Only in White and Silver)
Axia Std-G (Manual) - RM29,800 (OTR) + RM400 for metallic paint
Axia Std-G (Auto) - RM32,800 (OTR) + RM400 for metallic paint
Axia SE (Manual) - RM36,800 (OTR) + RM400 for metallic paint
Axia SE (Auto) - RM39,800 (OTR) + RM400 for metallic paint
Axia Advance (Auto) - RM42,130 (OTR) + RM400 for metallic paint
Waiting period is getting longer...and for those who are looking at the SE or Advance variants, wait till September 25, 2014 for the new Proton B-Segment hatch. It could be even better than this A-Segment Axia!
Updates: Pricing for the Axia has since been increased, with the most recent increment again with additional ABS added to all G variants. This is in fact good news, especially it already obtained a 4-star safety rating from ASEAN NCAP. For a small price, safety is the top priority! Don't buy any car without these basic safety equipment. Life is precious!
Updates: Pricing for the Axia has since been increased, with the most recent increment again with additional ABS added to all G variants. This is in fact good news, especially it already obtained a 4-star safety rating from ASEAN NCAP. For a small price, safety is the top priority! Don't buy any car without these basic safety equipment. Life is precious!
