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Hi everyone, Driven is back, powered by PETRONAS Primax! This is the episode you've

all been waiting for, featuring the new Perodua Myvi

We've already reviewed this car in full detail when it was first launched late last year

In short it's a massive, massive improvement over the whole model

But the question is, should this really be the default small car for all Malaysians?

We've lined up two of its closest rivals to settle it once and for all

The Proton Iriz was designed from the get-go as Proton's answer to the all-popular Myvi

While it has completely missed the mark in terms of sales, we think it's still one of

Proton's best products to date, and it's going to be interesting to see how the

latest Refined version stacks up against Perodua's new Myvi

The second alternative isn't from a Malaysian brand but from Kia. The all-new Picanto may be from a

smaller class but it packs a lot of impressive features into its small frame

and the best part is, it's priced to go head-on with the two local models

As for the Myvi there isn't really much left that hasn't been said

It's already raking up the sales with Malaysians buying them by the thousands every month

Now that many buyers can't be wrong, can they?

Trust me, this is going to be the definitive video if you're choosing between these three cars

We'll be comparing all the vital aspects from performance, ride and handling,

practicality, refinement, safety, specs as well as quality

Of course, the all-important detail which is how much these cars cost when you go to the fuel pumps

will be answered as well. Everything you'll ever need to know

about these three cars you'll find out today

So Matt, take it away!

Well guys, I've been dying to say this. Welcome to Driven 2018 - now cue the music

The third-generation Myvi is all new inside and out, giving the nameplate a

fresh new image since the 2005 original. The winning formula hasn't changed much

so it's still a practical, dependable and most importantly affordable car for many Malaysians

The top spec 1.5 Advance model with all

the bells and whistles is priced at a reasonable RM55,300

That's less than the old one

The Iriz 1.6 Premium meanwhile is a little bit more expensive at RM56,950

The car Proton launched in 2014 was certainly a

head-turner but crucially it was flawed in many areas so it wasn't the game changer

the company had hoped it would be

It has taken Proton a long time to perfect its Myvi fighter but it has now

been significantly refined under the skin

Believe it or not, the Kia Picanto is the most affordable car here at RM49,888

Now in its third generation the Picanto hasn't grown by much but

it has matured into a much more accomplished product with a more mainstream appeal

Like the Iriz, there's high hopes placed on this model as it's

supposed to account for 50% of Kia's total sales in Malaysia

Now as usual we'll start off with looks. 99.9% of the design of the Myvi was done locally

and I love what they've come up with. I like the body kit and I also like the

design of the 15-inch wheels, but there's one thing that I don't get, which is the

lack of LED DRLs - now even the highest spec model doesn't come with it

If I was a designer, designing a car for the Malaysian local market, I would

definitely have them on. But maybe Perodua is keeping them for the facelift model

Now the overall good looks continues to the back, especially with this integrated

rear spoiler and the wide bumper inserts, but there is one thing though

the body kit, which comes with the car does not extend to the rear bumper

The Iriz, well, it looks just like the older Iriz, save for new black highlights on the roof, here as

well as on the grille, which also gets a nice 3D Proton emblem

Well it's just too bad Proton didn't give this a proper visual facelift

In terms of looks, I don't think the Iriz is particularly eye-catching

but you know what they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder

But I must say one thing though, now that the Myvi has dropped its tall hatchback

proportions for a more modern and matured look, kinda makes this car looked a little

bit outdated don't you think?

On looks alone, the Kia Picanto would be my pick

because it just looks so funky and fresh and the LED DRLs

look absolutely gorgeous here. One more thing, the colour options available on

this car is a lot more interesting than the other two cars. But on the other hand

it's kind of spoiled by this whole low-spec look of it with the small wheels

and body coloured door pillars.

As for the back, well, it really does remind you of the Perodua Axia, doesn't it?

But on the inside there's no mistaking this for

a Perodua because it just looks so unique. The Picanto may look low spec on the

outside but it doesn't from inside here because of this big touchscreen

And other than the fact that the side aircon vents feel a little bit cheap to operate

the rest of the cabin has impressive build quality, especially for the money

It's all hard plastics of course. I mean you'd have to be dreaming to expect any

sort of soft touch here, but the fit and finish feels far better than the other two local cars

And the leather steering wheel especially which i think is very

very important because it's the only thing you touch all day, feels of a

higher quality compared to the other two cars

If there's one complaint, it's this fabric seats, but then again I think good

fabric is much better than fake leather

Well the leather on the Myvi is not so bad but

I do feel that the steering wrap, well it could have been done better but overall

the design of the dashboard is very nice. I feel that it's the best dashboard design

that Perodua has ever come up with and at the center area over here it's a bit

more driver focused and the dual layered design gives it a bit of a modern touch

Personally I don't really like this airbag cutout over here - it kind of looks out of place

But there's good reason for it - now if let's say you get into an

accident and the airbag deploys, after that you need to replace the entire

airbag and you only need to change this area of the dashboard

You don't need to change the entire dashboard which can be very expensive

Now overall considering everything in terms of quality I feel

it's very decent at the price point and if you compare it with the Proton I feel it's better too.

Ah yes, Proton build quality It's actually not as bad as you think here

and it is definitely better than older Proton models

The textured plastic they use here look alright and it doesn't feel too cheap if you touch on them hard

But the thing is it's still not as polished as the Myvi and

especially the Picanto, and if you look hard enough you're gonna find a few misaligned panels

As for the design itself I honestly think it's alright

there's a newfound sense of symmetry which I like and you know the all-black

scheme here looks much better than all the Persona's half-black, half-grey approach

Now for the seats itself I think it's one of the best Proton has made

There's enough lumbar support and thigh support but I think larger

individuals are gonna find it a little bit too cosseting. On the bright side

you've got Martini racing stripes How cool is that?

Now let's talk about the rear accommodation, and I've got to tell you

that the Myvi wins in this department. The legroom is the biggest and the

center hump over here it's also small and very less intrusive and the best

part of everything, which is something that I really love, is this - you can recline the backrest

The proton is definitely smaller in the back here with

just about enough legroom for adults but then again it has shapelier, more

comfortable seats which can be very crucial for long distance journeys and

it's definitely better than the Myvi's flat bench

As for the Picanto, well there's no escaping the fact that it's from a whole class smaller - it's really really tight

back here and it's also far narrower than the other two, so you can forget

about fitting three adults in the back. As for the seats themselves, I've had

flat park benches that are more comfortable than than this

This lack of space continues to the boot too - rated a t255 litres

It'll fit no more than one big bag and the load lip is unnaturally high too

Surprisingly however, this is not the smallest boot here

That inglorious honour falls to the Iriz with just 215 litres of space

In the real world, it's not as tiny as it sounds, and you can always fold the rear

seats for extra space. But if you want to travel with 5 on board plus all their luggage,

this isn't the car for you

And that's precisely where the Myvi comes in

With 277 litres it has the largest boot here with the widest and deepest cargo bay

by far - simply put if practicality is your biggest concern, get the Perodua Myvi

Now there are more reasons to get the Perodua Myvi. For example the 1.5 litre

Dual VVT-i engine that's positioned up front. It is not the exact same engine

that's found in Toyota Vios, but it's from the same family and in fact

it's built in the same place in Seremban. If you drive this car back to back

with the old one you'll notice that this is a much smoother car to drive

Especially the 1.5 litre engine, it feels stronger and driving past the national

speed limit, it's not a problem, it doesn't feel like it's going out of breath

and it's also a big improvement compared to the 1.3 litre as well

Compared to the other two here, the Myvi 1.5 falls in the middle in terms of engine outputs

It makes 102 hp and 136 Nm of torque while

the Proton's bigger 1.6 litre motor offers 107 hp and 150 Nm of torque

The 1.2 litre Picanto is naturally the weakest one here with

just 83 hp and 122 Nm

All that translates directly into actual performance

We recorded a 0-100 km/h time of 11.3 seconds for the Iriz, which is

slightly quicker compared to 11.5 seconds for the Myvi

with a 13.5-second time, the Picanto is a whole two seconds behind the two more powerful cars

So yes the Iriz is the fastest car here. Say what you want about Proton's CamPro

engines but this latest VVT version is actually pretty good

All the vibration from before is mostly gone now and it feels really good when you plant your foot down

Some of you may or may not want to believe this, but Protons engines

aren't as old-school as some of you might have been led to believe

Its power advantage more than makes up for the extra weight which in this case is

nearly 200 kg more than the Myvi and Picanto

But the good news is you don't really feel it from behind the wheel

13.5 seconds may feel like an absolutely eternity getting from 0-100 km/h

But I'll tell you what, the Kia Picanto doesn't feel all that slow

It helps that it's the lightest car here, dipping under one tonne, so even with just a

1.2 litre engine it does not feel all that underpowered like how the Perodua Axia does.

Unless you compare these three cars back-to-back you will

not feel the power deficit of the Kia Picanto - I mean none of these three

cars are performance cars anyway so they don't have to feel like a GTI to drive

As a city car, the Kia Picanto is more than powerful enough

One big advantage for the Kia is its transmission - it may only have a four-speed automatic but

it's the best one here. It up shifts very very smoothly, far better than the Myvi

and as soon as you flick your right foot down, it reacts very quickly with the

downshift and off you go. There's very little of that lag, annoying delay that

you get in the other cars. I've always maintained that having a 4-speed auto

there's nothing wrong with that, as long as it's done right

and this is the perfect example of that. I mean yeah it sounds a little bit lame just having

four speeds but if it works it works

Now the 4-speed automatic in this Myvi is not as good. It hasn't changed much really compared to the

original Myvi from 13 years ago. The performance is a bit old-school it's a

bit clumsy, for example if you're driving uphill it tends to hold gear longer

than it should or when you are driving and you give it a bit more gas

it tends to downshift roughly to a lower gear and high revs. And overall when you

compare it with the four-speed automatic on the Kia Picanto, it is not as smooth

So where does that leave the Iriz with its Punch CVT then? Well it's hard to

say really because on one hand it's a massive, massive improvement over the

older model - you no longer get a 1.5 second delay when you want to

accelerate but it's down to half a second now so it's much quicker and much

more responsive as well. But on the other hand it's not as direct or immediate as

a conventional automatic. A lot of people seem to think that CVTs

are more modern than torque converters, but in this case I much rather prefer the

four-speed automatic over this any day of the week

On the bright side, the Iriz still has the best ride and handling package here which is expected

of Proton, really. It's a real joy to drive especially through the corners

This steering wheel itself might be electrically-assisted and might be a

little bit too big for my liking but hey it has the best feel in this group

Simply put, if you enjoy driving, the Iriz is the only car here that's actually any fun to drive

Now the thing is, fun driving may be important to people like

you and me - enthusiasts. But for your everyday driver, all you want is a car

that's reliable for you to drive from point A to point B and the Perodua Myvi

does that perfectly well. So overall it is not a car that you can have a lot of

fun with when you're driving behind the wheel but if you're just like any other

driver, it's perfectly fine and Perodua knows this well!

The Picanto falls right in between the other two cars - it's not as enjoyable to drive as the Iriz

not by a long shot, but on the other hand it's not as numb as the Myvi either

And it strikes a really good middle ground I think and the way it handles will

impress pretty much everybody whether you like driving or not

It just feels so effortless, so secure, so nimble and yet so relaxing to drive

Better yet is just how comfortable the Kia is. This may only be an A-segment hatch but it has the

best ride here. It's the only one to have that coveted big car feel

especially in the way it handles low speed bumps

It doesn't rock you about so much, it just stays solid and stable

As far as ride comfort is concerned, this is nothing short of outstanding!

Now as much as we would like to talk about our two local car makers have

reached global standards, the difference in ride here really proves otherwise

Basically our two B-segment hatchbacks can't even match a true world-class

A-segmenter that is the Kia

Now it's not to say that the Perodua Myvi is not a comfortable car, because it is

In fact to most drivers they would find this perfectly acceptable

The thing is it has a bit of a stiff suspension setup

but the bump absorption is good and it's better than the previous model

Overall, it is a more controlled car but the thing is when you compare it against the

Kia Picanto it feels like it's one class below

where technically, it's supposed to be the other way around

The Proton Iriz fares slightly better in this aspect as the ride feels a little bit more sophisticated

than the Myvi. It's not as great as the Picanto though, which is a shame but it's

still impressive in its own right. Those who have never tried or sat in any

Protons before should really experience it yourself to see how far Proton has come

What I'm most impressed about this car is its refinement

The older car was loud - you know you can hear the engine,

the transmission drone and the vibration it was just reverberating throughout the entire car

But all that's gone now because the engineers have revised the positions of

the engine mountings and it also has a brand new exhaust system

You'd be surprised by how all these little things make the cars so much better

In fact we measured that the Proton is the

quietest car here under full throttle as we recorded a maximum noise level of

just 71 dB compared to 72 dB for the Kia Picanto and 77 dB for the Myvi

Now who would have guessed that?

Peroduas having a vocal engine is more

like a brand characteristic now but having said that it is still

significantly better than the previous model and when it comes to idling it is

still quieter than the Proton as well because it does not have a loud fan

Now Malaysian traffic being the way it is, that counts for a lot!

The Kia meanwhile, is even quieter still at idle - we recorded a maximum of 43 dB at a standstill

That's a full 5 dB less than the Iriz and 3 dB under the Myvi

If you understand sound levels, that's a big difference! The same story goes for a steady cruise too

We recorded a maximum of 69 dB for this car at 110 km/h, while the other two cars are

slightly louder at 71 dB. Combine that with this car's impressive ride

and surprise, surprise, the cheapest, smallest car here is the most refined

most comfortable car in this group!

To measure fuel economy, we tested the cars with

PETRONAS Primax, the Winning Formula that keeps the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Motorsport Team

winning time and time again

Designed to deliver on track and on the road,

this is truly advanced Formula 1 engineering, available at the nearest PETRONAS station

Over everyday driving conditions, the Proton Iriz averaged

12.4 km/litre

Surprisingly the smaller and lighter Kia Picanto

only faired marginally better at 13.6 km/litre

Best of all was the Perodua Myvi which managed to return 14.3 km/litre, or a good 15% better than the Iriz

Alright, before we wrap up, we're gonna take a look at each other's cars

to see the five things that we like or don't like about them. Matt's gonna start

with the Kia Picanto first, so do your worst, man!

Right, let's do this!

I think it's a shame that we don't get this sportier GT-line package because

that looks so much better and the optional Novus body kit that we get is

not.. it's not nice because it's really ugly

But it does get full Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, making it the

cheapest car in Malaysia to get this. I think that's awesome

Too bad though that there's only one USB charging port available and it's the

only car here that doesn't offer any for the rear passengers

On the flipside it is the only one of the lot to come with rear disc brakes. Now I know it's not

gonna do much in terms of stopping power for a car this size but it does look nice, right?

And lastly, the warranty. All three cars

here come with five years warranty but only Kia offers it with unlimited mileage

The other two on the other hand are limited to 150,000 km

Now as part of the 2017 refinement updates, Proton removed quite

a few things, one of them being automatic headlights. Why?

Now on to the inside, the steering wheel feels a little bit too big, so it gives you that feeling that it is not nimble

Now Proton has also upgraded the instrument panel, giving it

a new design but the numbering on the meters - they are a bit too small so if

you are looking at it while driving at a quick glance, you might miss it

Still, I'll pick the Proton Iriz when it comes to crash safety - one of the reasons

behind that is a material called hot press forming (HPF). Now this material is used at

certain sections of the car to make it stronger when it comes to a crash

The other reason is that the Proton Iriz comes with something called

impact-sensing door locks which will automatically unlock the car in case you

get into a crash, so it's easier for you to get out of the car all to be taken out

All three cars have six airbags and electronic stability control all as standard

But the Myvi is the only one to have autonomous emergency braking (AEB)

Yes, it may only work at up to 30 km/h but hey it's better than nothing right?

The downside is, having cameras right there does mean that if you do need to

replace the whole windscreen, you have to bring it back to Perodua to recalibrate them

So guys, please check windscreen coverage for your car insurance

What I do love is the built-in SmartTAG reader complete with a balance display

and a top-up reminder - I think that's genius!

What's not so great is the Eco Idle start/stop system. Yes it can save you a little bit of fuel here and there

but having the engine turn on and off all the time can get really annoying

really quickly. It's the first thing that I turn off when I get into the car

Last but not least, the Myvi is the only one to give you a full-size spare tyre

instead of space savers and not only that, you also get a full-size alloy wheel

Now that's convenient!

Okay boys time to pick a winner. So at the beginning of the video we asked the question

Should the Myvi be the default choice for all Malaysians? Well, the answer is not so simple

Our take is, it should not be your only option because there are alternatives - two very good ones, actually

The Kia Picanto especially may only be an A-segmenter but it still

manages to offer the best refinement, best ride comfort and build quality

The same goes for the Proton Iriz as well - it may not be brand new but the 2017 update

actually made it a significantly better car than it was before. Plus it handles

the best in this group no doubts about that!

So where does that leave the Perodua Myvi? Well that'll be on top of our list

Now the Perodua Myvi deserves every bit of its success because it is a big leap

forward for Perodua. Now at the end of the day, good looks and fun handling

well that caters to a certain group of people only. With the Perodua Myvi, you

have very good fuel economy, you have ample space and you have Perodua's very

dependable brand image, which caters to everyone else right?

So for all that, the Perodua Myvi is the best, most complete car here

So where does that leave the other two cars, Matt?

Well as much as I like the Iriz, I think it's really

starting to show its age right here especially if you put it against these two

It's still very much a relevant option for you to consider if you enjoy driving

but for those of you who want to get from point A to point B, these two are

the better options. Yep so the Kia Picanto falls in between

the two local cars. It may be very small inside but it's still a very good option

I think for youngsters who want to be different. And let's not forget

it's the cheapest car here!

So it's settled then - the Myvi comes out on top, but don't discount the other two

I hope you've enjoyed watching this episode of Driven

powered by PETRONAS Primax. Thank you so much for watching

We will see you in the next one!