The Perodua Ativa is Perodua’s latest vehicle launch back in March 2021. The hype for the Ativa started when an elongated Perodua Axia was spotted doing their real world testing, many speculations spread around the internet about Perodua launching a brand new SUV. Here it is, the Perodua Ativa finally hits the market.

Looking at it, the Ativa actually looks bigger in real life than in photos. Overall, the looks of the Ativa is rather muscular, but the size of it remains somewhat adorable. Being a Perodua product, the rear of the Ativa do have a resemblance of the Perodua Myvi from afar.

At the front, the full LED headlights of the Ativa are surprisingly intelligent. This is due to the adaptive high beam being able to switch on and off at certain section of the headlights to prevent glaring for the oncoming cars or the cars directly in front of you. With the sequential turn signals, it completes the upmarket look of the Ativa.

Moving on to the interior, the Ativa spots a much improved interior over any other Peroduas that comes before it. The main thing that was greatly improve are the seats and seating position. Being a huge person, the struggle of getting my thigh pass the gap between the steering wheel and the seat bench of the driver seat is no longer present. This is an issue that I faced on previous Peroduas. With the seats set to the lowest position, the seating position is still quite tall in the Ativa.

As for the build quality, the materials used in the Ativa are also sturdier compared to past Peroduas, it feels more like a Toyota now rather than past Perodua. Most of the dashboard are still made up of hard plastics, but it’s very well screwed together. Then again, some cost saving can still be found around the cabin for instance, the sun visor.

For the infotainment, the 9-Inch touch screen panel gets most of the basic functions such as the radio and Bluetooth functionality. As an avid Android Auto user, Android Auto was not available on the Ativa, which is somewhat disappointing. Storage wise, the storage location are generally quite limited, I would like to see Perodua provide bigger storage area around the cabin.

Seating at the rear, the seat bench is rather flat and lacking in thigh support. Even with adjustable seatback, I still feel that the seats are quite upright. The rear seats would be more suitable for short journey, not really recommended for long journeys.

One last thing about the interior of the Ativa is the NVH levels. Around town or in stop go traffic, the cabin of the Ativa is generally silent. At highway speeds, the road and wind noise will start remind you that you’re still in a Perodua.

When driving back from Rawang through the highway, the Ativa can hit the highway speed without even breaking a sweat. This is achieved by the help of the first ever turbo charged engine that is fitted into any Perodua. The new engine is a 1.0L turbo charge engine that produces around 97bhp and 140Nm of torque. This new engine is very responsive, and most of the power comes in at the middle of the rev range. Being a small capacity engine, it’s also very eager to reach the red line.

Sending power to the ground, the Ativa utilises the first ever CVT to be fitted on any Perodua. From standstill, the Ativa is very eager in getting off the line, but once up to speed, the in gear acceleration starts to mellow down. During initial acceleration and cruising speed, no CVT whine can be heard coming from the transmission. On the other hand, when the accelerator was pressed between 50-70km/h, the rubber band effect can be felt and CVT whine can be heard.

Speaking about handling, the Ativa has a rather firm steering characteristic, where after taking a corner, the steering wheel needs some persuasion to get back to center. On the plus side, at least it’s not over-assisted to the point where you don’t get any feedback from the steering wheel. The steering is quite direct and do provide sufficient confidence for me to throw the Ativa around the bends.

Even though the steering system is confidence inspiring, the Ativa will quickly remind you that the Ativa is still a SUV due to the understeer and substantial body roll. This is particularly obvious when the sudden change in direction due to inertia from the SUV. On city roads, the suspension soaks up road imperfection like a much bigger car. At times, the Ativa can still feel crashy over uneven roads.

Utilising front disc brakes and rear drum brakes, the Ativa has only sufficient braking performance to bring the SUV to a standstill. With the biting point of the brake pedal quite low down, you have to press quite deep to get the car to slow down. Safety wise, the Ativa has the most advance safety system in the Perodua range so far. It comes with the A.S.A 3.0 and this Advance variant adds on Lane Keep Control, Blind Spot Monitor, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Adaptive Cruise Control.

At the end of the day, with a pricing of RM71,200, this is one Perodua that I wouldn’t mind driving daily. I dare to say this is the best product that Perodua ever produced by far. If it comes with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, This would be the perfect Perodua to suit the modern day city dwellers. But if your work require you to travel long distance, I would still recommend you to look elsewhere for a much comfortable vehicle to do your journey in.

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