New Myvi Elegance is one hot cake

Close to half of new Myvi buyers have given their hearts to the most expensive variant, the Elegance, which is sold at a substantial starting price of RM53,900.

One Perodua showroom manager, who declined to be named, said 40 out of 100 buyers who booked the car since it was released on June 15 have picked the Elegance variant.

He told Komunitikini that many view the Elegance as a good deal for its extra features of leather seats, body skirting, touchscreen multimedia system and tinted windows, compared to the standard variant.

“We did not expect the most expensive variant to top our sales chart,” sales representative, Helen Ng said.

She noted that Elegance variant buyers are mostly young people.

14,000 sold in two weeks

The 1.3 manual Elegance is sold at RM53,900 while its automatic version is RM56,900.

The standard variant, on the other hand, is RM43,900 and the “premium” variant is RM46,900.

The manager said the waiting list is now up to three months long, depending on the variant and colour.

“Mystical purple, which is a new colour, will only be available from August onwards,” he said.

In spite of this, 14,000 units have been sold nationwide in just two weeks.

At a glance, the new Myvi is a relatively sleeker design compared with the previous model, with improved “projector headlamps” that strike the noticeable difference from before.

The rear lamps, which together with the headlamps are known in car design lingo as “jewellery”, have also been made more bling.

In the cabin, the dashboard has “3-D effect” dials to keep showroom punters interested once they open the doors.

In the automatic models, the gear lever is located on the instrument panel for better ergonomics and increase footwell space.

Perodua managing director, Aminar Rashid Salleh, has been reported as saying the new car’s improved aerodynamics give it better fuel economy, something everybody is looking for amid rising fuel prices, except those who drive company cars, perhaps.

He added that the new automatic Myvi can go 14.6km on a litre of petrol as compared to 13.5km with old Myvi. This works out to a saving of 8 percent.