Friday, August 25, 2006

MPVs everywhere and not a child in the 3rd row!

It occurred to me the other day as I was driving along Jalan Duta that most mornings, people in MPVs carried no one other than the driver himself (or herself). This is exactly the same as what I’m doing in my own reasonably sized 4-door saloon. Driving to work, feeling shitty, thinking how good is it to be on some tropical island sipping a nice cola or some funny named fruit punch with an umbrella stuck to it. However, the biggest difference is that I don’t take up the space of 3 Perodua Kancils. Even my car does not use up so much steel until the price of steel plate rises by 1 decimal point. It’s pretty pointless when you try to convince yourself that you’ve bought it because you’re married and have 2 kids and a maid to transport around. I mean, since when do you take your maid on an outing with the kids? The only time you’d do so is for the Aidilfitri celebrations or for the Chinese New Year when you have long breaks. I suppose you have tons of luggage to lug around also. But not all MPVs carry luggage if you were to load it up with seven people.

So, aside from those 2 occasions and maybe going home to your kampung because some relative passed away you hardly use the seats in the third row of your huge MPV. And that is why I see you driving all by your lonesome self in a barge most of the time around 8.30am to 9.30 am in the mornings, around lunchtime when you do go for lunch and the evening rush hour when you want to get home. This statement is quite true as I once counted 10 MPVs on my almost daily trip from Petaling Jaya to Ampang, of which only one MPV had more than one person in the vehicle.

It also tells me that you are about as cool as being dead. And putting that large TRD sticker on your Avanza does not mean that it can breathe fire. It only means that you actually want a 2 door AE86 but all you can own is a dumpy looking MPV.

Its not that I hate MPVs (I despise them actually). But how can you love anything that has 90% of the time no purpose to their existence? They are too big most of the time, too fuel hungry and most importantly, too empty most of the time. I think that if people those days managed fine having three kids, a wife and himself all nicely cosy in their Fiat 131s, their Ford Escorts, their pre-1990s Proton Saga, what is your problem of not buying a decent 4 door car?

Nowadays, I believe the thinking of some Malaysian is that if you are ABOUT to get married, you have to run and buy a Naza Ria. If your wife is expecting a child, you have to buy a Naza Ria. Those statements are absolute rubbish. Why do you need to go round in a curvy barn when a smaller MPV can do just about the same thing? If you wanted some style, although buying a stylish MPV that seats seven is impossible, you should at least be driving a Honda Stream or a Toyota Wish. (Which seats 6 fairly comfortably). I think why some Naza Ria (nee Kia Carnival) drivers drive like hooligans is that deep down inside, they yearn for a proper, decent car.

However if it were me, if God forbid, I needed an MPV, it’d be the Toyota Caldina GT4, as it looks pretty good, goes pretty fast but I think it only carries 5. Then again, it goes to show that I don’t need an MPV. No one needs an MPV.

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