What does it take for a carmaker to be No.1?  Perodua, Malaysia’s second automaker, recently knocked the dominant Proton off its perch to claim the top spot at home. Those of you who aren’t too familiar with how this happened might be thinking - “Wow! That must’ve cost billions for them to be able to accomplish that.”    

Only it didn’t. We’re not saying it didn’t cost them a pretty penny either. Instead of spending loads of cash on design, engineering, research & development, Perodua’s tactic was simply to badge engineer their cars. 

What this means is that Perodua’s cars aren’t of their own making. In a nutshell, badge engineering means one carmaker takes models from another manufacturer they’ve signed a contract with, slightly alter the interiors, slap their own badges onto the body and presto - you get the same product (perhaps with differing equipment levels) under a different brand name. 

So Perodua took the Daihatsu Sirion, slightly changed the interior and rebadged it as the Myvi. The Myvi then went on to sell so well, that it made Perodua the top-selling brand in the Malaysian market.  

To begin with, the Myvi is a rather squarish looking four-door hatchback. This is by no means a bad thing, since the squarish shape does indicate that in practical terms, there is bound to be lots of interior space. At 3,750mm long, the Myvi happens to be a good 175mm longer than its Viva sibling. And with a width of 1,665mm, parking the Myvi should also be a breeze.

The Myvi’s flared wheel arches dwarf the dainty (but cute looking) 14-inch wheels and tyres – the car could easily accommodate a set of wider and grippier tyres, which would give it a more planted stance. The wide front and rear bumpers with lower lips give the car a more substantial look, but without making the Myvi seem aggressive. No roof spoiler here though – that’s only standard on the range-topping variants.

Also present are the turn-signal lamps which have been integrated into the wing mirrors. The vertically stacked tail-lamps look neat and trim - we like that kind of simplicity in cars like these.