Perodua Axia Mk1 Facelift (2017-Present) Expert Review
15 October 2015
Overall Rating
In isolation, the Perodua Axia is not exactly a bad car for the first-time buyer - certainly better than the Viva that came before it. But despite the low, low entry price, it doesn't offer that much value for money, and it feels low-rent everywhere you look. Given the strong, if slightly costlier, competition from both Proton and foreign brands, it's best to look elsewhere.
Performance
The all-new 1.0 litre three-cylinder engine belies its measly 66 hp/90 Nm output, pulling strongly from low revs; once you get up to speed, however, it does start to become asphyxiated. Fuel economy is a standout - you'll regularly achieve close to 20 km per litre in normal everyday driving. Manual shifts are clunky and imprecise, and the clutch lacks weight and feel - really, you're much better off with the smooth and fairly responsive automatic gearbox.
Ride & Handling
Mixed bag in this area. The ride is truly cosseting, soothing out much of what our pockmarked roads can throw at it - the trade-off, of course, is plenty of body roll. There's ample grip, but the steering is slow, vague and overly light in the bends; weirdly, however, it then becomes really rather heavy at low speeds, despite being electrically-assisted. For a city car, the Axia is surprisingly unsuited to manoeuvring around town.
Comfort
The Axia suffers from a lot of wind and road noise, and while the thrummy three-pot engine note is in itself not entirely unpleasant, it's loud and sends plenty of vibration into the cabin at idle, though it does ease up when you get moving. You sit quite high up - this gives a commanding view of the road, but the low-set fixed steering wheel can rub against the thighs of taller drivers. The seats are also very narrow and lack any form of meaningful support or bolstering.
Safety
Standard safety equipment on the four-star ASEAN NCAP-rated Axia includes dual airbags, ISOFIX child seat anchors and...that's about it. Forget stability control - shockingly in this day and age, ABS is not even present on the Standard E, although Perodua thankfully added ABS to the Standard G variant in 2016. That's somewhat an improvement over the Viva (which only had ABS on the top-of-the-range EZi and SXi variants), but these days, we expect more.
Space
Cabin room is the Axia's party piece - it's more spacious than the larger Myvi, both in terms of legroom and the commodious 260 litre boot; the rear bench only folds as a single piece, however. There are also plenty of convenient places to store your belongings, including a handbag hook to protect against prying thieves, as well as a handy tissue box compartment behind the front passenger seat.
Value
At RM24k, the Axia Standard E is the cheapest car in Malaysia, but items like alloy wheels, a radio, reverse sensors and a rear wiper are only available on the RM30k Standard G. Once you step up to the SE - which adds Bluetooth, front parking sensors and a bodykit - it starts to get pricey, as the decently-equipped Proton Iriz 1.3 Standard (with ESC!) is just a few thousand ringgit more expensive. The RM39k Advance adds little and is an absolute no-no.