PERODUA, the second national car, appears to have the knack for building cars that Malaysians want. Sensing that the Kancil was getting too long in the tooth, it has just launched a bolder entry- level compact car with three engine options under the one-litre capacity and has given it a rousingly-apt name; the Viva. It chose Viva because in the original Latin, it is used as an exclamation to indicate salutation and applause.
Indeed, there's much to applaud Perodua. Not only it daringly discontinued the Kelisa line for this entrant, but it also priced it above the Kancil. This ensures that the Kancil remains affordably priced, while remaining the mainstay of the entry-level segment.
Indeed, the Viva's specifications make it more expensive than the Kancil and just a little cheaper than the MyVi. This top-of-the- range one-litre manual transmission variant - the Viva SXi - has been specified with features one would rightly expect in sedans twice more expensive.
An interesting feature announced during its launch was that this Viva has 90% local content. Now that would raise the heckles of a few skeptics but consider this; manufacturing in this age of globalisation means sourcing for parts from all corners of the globe, putting it together in the cheapest-wage location and sticking a label on it to show its hybrid origin. Going by that measure, we can proudly say the Perodua Viva is put together in the Perodua plant in the town of Ulu Choh in the district of Rawang in the state of Selangor and is made, therefore, in Malaysia!
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