Seems like they made avanza solely to test the market with underpowered compact 7 seater then to really unleashed this design. If I were too tight with budget I might head into this direction as it met all my requirements except for the engine power. I need that power to cross Titiwangsa or overtake a 'freighter'. Livina 1.8 is currently in my list of budget transporter. Im not bothered, cosmetically, as Savvy was in the list back in 2008 but myvi gained the upperhand in space and extra fart in can produce.

Extra airbags? Buy a lot of pillows and padded them spots where you think necessary. Heck, implore the passengers to wear float jacket, helmet on, seat belt and sealed the will before boarding. Not enough? Contact Russia for cheap spacewalk suits.

Nice preview.
in term of size, Sienta is comparable to Alza and Avanza. It offer better safety feature, comfort level, .. ...
Need to pay fork out premier of 20k to 30k over the others 2.

What color is nice for sienta? I'm thinking the grey or white.

If you jump out of the window, you think a small pillow is going to save you?

How is 107 hp too little for a small MPV? It will do fine. If you want to accelerate, here's a hint: Push the pedal to the metal. Maybe you'll need to rev the engine (especially since it is NA... in terms of power delivery turbocharged 1.2s with the same amount of power are better to drive, more effortless). If you watch (many) Malaysians and how they accelerate, you'd think they all have 40 hp at most. Would more power hurt? Probably not. But it'll do.

Our MPV has 75 hp, and a crappy 4 speed auto box that ate up most of the power. Guess what: It was enough to go with the flow and drive faster than most other drivers.

Anyway, it's an MPV, not a sports car.

White is nice, resemble space trooper

If you jump out of the window, you think a small pillow is going to save you?

How is 107 hp too little for a small MPV? It will do fine. If you want to accelerate, here's a hint: Push the pedal to the metal. Maybe you'll need to rev the engine (especially since it is NA... in terms of power delivery turbocharged 1.2s with the same amount of power are better to drive, more effortless). If you watch (many) Malaysians and how they accelerate, you'd think they all have 40 hp at most. Would more power hurt? Probably not. But it'll do.

Our MPV has 75 hp, and a crappy 4 speed auto box that ate up most of the power. Guess what: It was enough to go with the flow and drive faster than most other drivers.

Anyway, it's an MPV, not a sports car.

I would say avanza and alza is less premium since both are basically daihatsus, with cost saving in mind. It was probably never meant to target customers who can afford b segments like the of vios/city. More for those who want a budget people carrier.

The premium for the sienta would be on the finishing,comfort and safety features. At below 100k i believe thats a large market for it to potentially eat through.
Initially considered white, but after seeing the orange, it seems to have a more metallic look to it giving the car a more expensive look but worried it might look dated after some time, and possibly affecting its resale value.wonder if the white is metallic.

Picking a dark color like black or grey might mask the prominent lines that this car features. Would love to have the yellow highlighter color.

In conclusion........ 

I am driving an 10 years old Avanza 1.5G which still work for me to take 8 persons(2 kids) from KL to Penang to Cameron highland without any problem.. I was looking for an  upgrade now and was considering Nissan Serena(to me, quality so so after test drive and car too big for occasional use as MPV-fetch more than 5 persons).
Honestly I am happy with Toyota build quality but sometime not so happy about their service center(particular the aircond guy) but still I am servicing my car in Toyota for the past 10 years.. Anyway, plan to trade in at UMW and book white or silver Sienta end this week..

Please keep us posted. You are one of the first in this forum to get the sienta.

I'd say it's economics. The question is, what do customers want? What are they going to pay for? So far the thinking at car makers seems to be that while additional airbags cost money, people just don't care that much. If you show them a car with 6 airbags and steel rims, or a car with 2 airbags and alloy rims + maybe leather seats or a flashy aftermarket radio, both costing the same, they will get the car with alloy rims.

Now, if that is still true... who knows. But as long as they can sell cars without additional airbags, they will.

For my Golf there is the option of 2 additional airbags for rear passengers, it costs RM 1600. In comparison, some other popular items: Sun roof: RM 4700. Leather: Minimum RM 8900. HID: RM 3800. Radio (stock comes without radio I think): Minimum RM 1800. Rear doors: RM 9000.

And going back to safety features: Adaptive cruise control with automatic braking in emergency situations: RM 2400. Lane assist with self correcting feature (doesn't only warn you if you leave the lane, but steers the car back into the lane/holds the lane): RM 3200. Traffic sign recognition (has the same camera as lane assist, so if you have it, the car can be hacked to offer lane assist too): RM 1400.

So airbags are a cheap option, relatively speaking, but it is one deemed unnecessary for the SEA market. Just look at Proton sales vs Perodua sales. The significantly safer car easily loses. Or look at the Golf in Malaysia: VW could have ordered all the safety features, which would add up to RM 8600 (airbags, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and lane assist). Maybe drop the 150 hp engine, get 120 instead, that should pretty much even out what you pay extra for the safety features.

Went to take a look at the car awhile ago. Was lucky that i had a good 15 mts alone with the car.

Not a single sole, around including the salesmen. It was all empty. All electrics on the car were off. Assume battery was dead. Doors open only by push and couldnt open the rear door to checkout the cargo space properly.

I had a few criteria as my priority to look out for today, in summary

COMFORT
- seat comfort beyond expectation. Currently driving a peugeot 207 and the comfort of the sienta far exceeds that
- 2nd row too was very comfortable as well. Wife was happy with the seat padding and the chair reclines up to 45 degrees with the headrest shaped perfectly as a pillow.
- 3rd row, didnt expect much to be honest from the thin seat materials in the photo. But again it exceeded my expectations. Seat was firm and comfortable enough and surprisingly leg room was sufficient with the second row moved slightly forward. (My Height ~175cm) in the alza i had to bend my knees sideways but could comfortably fit my knees in the sienta. With the second row pushed all the way back, not so comfortable as the front seat frames pushes into your shins.

I believe the extra space at the last row comes from the higher position of those seats and the large space available under the second row.

PRACTICALITY
- the Sienta excels here. Was surprised by how effortless it was to tuck the seats in and out under 30 seconds even when accessed from the side doors. I believe female drivers will appreciate this.
- storage and cupholders and secret compartments everywhere and blended in well with the design.
- however i did find the front cupholders to be slightly annoying when getting into the car.
- wife could very easily get in and out from the car with a baby in hand.
- the flat flooring in the rear is a big plus for a car like this. Really does give a spacious feel.


Flat floor on the rear

CARGO AREA
- in 5 seats configuration, space is abundant. Distance from the rear to the seats are standard as per normal sedan, vios/city.
- not happy that there doesnt seem to be a cover to form a flat surface to cover the gaps between the folded seats. japan specs seems to have this.
- trunk tray is available but the size is for 7 seat configuration and with seats folded, i doubt that it will be useful at all.
Imagine putting in a heavy luggage bag with half of it on the tray and the other half outside. Moght probably remove it all together
- couldnt judge the space properly due to the rear door not working
- with 7 seats configuration and fully reclined seats, a standard luggage back would not fit upright.
- with 5 seats configuration you can fit a baby elephant there. (Luggage can be stacked compared to sedan)


Looks like the tray cant be removed due to a hidden compartment under
DESIGN
- beautiful in flesh
- rear might not suit many but not much can be done with such a flat surface
- the car actually appears lower than it actually is. Might be the curves or overall stance shying away from a typical van look.
- The dashboard motives actually looked good in flesh. Materials looks good to the eyes but of course, all plastic. (would have preferred those orange touch like the Japan model)

OTHERS
- aircond panel doesnt look as cheap as in the photos. The glossy finish and soft button touch was actually good.
- if you are sitting in the rear, you might notice that the driver is very low due to the stadium seating arrangement

Thats all i can remember as of now. Will upload some photos as soon as i have the time. paultan seems to have an extensive undressing of the car with hi-res photos as well

Next of course would be a test drive to see the NVH level ,comfort and if it has sufficient power for casual driving. If it scores decently there, i think my decision would be quite clear. 

I m now in mitsui
Sienta is no longer here
They moved and replaced with Fortuner instead

Oh really? thought those SA keep on telling me that, there are lots of booking for now since they open for booking from 2nd June. Anyway, will see and anyone could recommend which bank offer the best interest rate?

I would say avanza and alza is less premium since both are basically daihatsus, with cost saving in mind. It was probably never meant to target customers who can afford b segments like the of vios/city. More for those who want a budget people carrier.

The premium for the sienta would be on the finishing,comfort and safety features. At below 100k i believe thats a large market for it to potentially eat through.
Initially considered white, but after seeing the orange, it seems to have a more metallic look to it giving the car a more expensive look but worried it might look dated after some time, and possibly affecting its resale value.wonder if the white is metallic.

Picking a dark color like black or grey might mask the prominent lines that this car features. Would love to have the yellow highlighter color.

In conclusion........ 
Probably at the cost of higher fuel consumption. 

For me you can never have a combination of everything.

Price
Features
Safety
Performance
Comfort

They give more of something, something else has to go. If they give everything price has to 'go'.

And i apologize in advance for probably being one of those 40hp drivers. 

I have no complains about my avanza. It gets the job done going from A to B. It's just budget mpv, as you say. It does lack safety features that are currently present is newer car models. So, the safety aspect would be in my criteria list when buying next car.

You could be right about dark colors masking the prominent lines of the car. I need to have a look at the real thing. 
PedangGila, I think kadajawi meant his renault kangoo mpv.

I don't think the white is metallic... looks quite flat on photos. But who knows.

I think the black version could be for people who want a more subdued looking Sienta? Like, those lines are pretty striking, but if you don't want them to be, go for black. Or perhaps the black version features accents in alternative colors?

For example:



Or maybe you could get the black one, and respray the contrasting elements in white or orange? I think that could look pretty cool too.

Aaah:

The orange is missing, instead there is marker yellow... not sure I like that version. And the white looks a bit cheap.
Yup. The Kangoo it is.

The Ertiga, just like the Avanza, is specially developed for second/third world countries/developing nations. Particularly India. The Sienta is developed for Japan and other first world countries. Different priorities. When the Ford EcoSport, which was developed for Brasil, was imported to Europe, it was universally panned. The car just isn't good enough. I'd expect more from the Sienta... I'd expect a car that is competitive with other MPVs.

available for test drive? anyone have tested it yet?