Hi Jiffy22,

Doing well thanks!

Congratulations on the incoming new family member

I'd strongly recommend you give it a test drive to get a feel of the size and weight dude.

To be honest, so far the car has been great. I've clocked nearly 17,000KM on her since I got her in June of last year. I travel a lot to Singapore and Cameron Highlands because I have family there and the kids and wife love it for the space and comfort. Basically since all my 3 kids are under 10 so we still use a car seat for them. And there's enough space for my wife an we usually bring our helper as well - so everyone is comfortable. Plus I took the 7-seater configuration so we have a lot of boot space which is good because we're the type of family that packs a lot haha.

There's a ton of air-conditioning vents all the way to the last row so everyone is comfortable - in fact, most of the time, they complain it's too cold so I have to adjust the temperature or fan speed.

I've sent it in for servicing twice so far (first three are free) and the service centre I go to at Glenmarie has been very good so far, very informative and they listen to my queries about the car whenever I have any. They also give a free wash after every servicing - not sure if they will continue this once I start paying for servicing. I have a friend who works at Ford Malaysia and he said that Maxus' V80 van is a competitor to their Ford Transit and he said that the G10 was a good choice because many government organisations use the V80 for emergency vehicles, ambulances etc and since they are serving the government, they have to maintain a certain level of competency - so basically he said I did not have to worry about service centre reliability and parts.

If there were any issues with the car, I would say is that it's a 2.0 litre engine (with turbo) and therefore carrying a full load, you do feel the weight/strain at times, even with the turbo. Many a time I felt it when going up Camerons; but it does have the manual mode or treptonic mode so you can actually switch to that and drop gear or move up a gear depending on the situation - so that does help when you need that extra boost.

The other thing is that the reverse camera sensor has failed on me a couple of times but miraculously come back again even before I had a chance to get it checked at the service centre. Basically what happens is when I put the car in reverse gear, the screen initially shows a black image and then a prompt appears saying 'no camera input', but the reverse sensors work so you do hear the beeps. I did bring it to the service centre once to get it checked but they said it would be a whole day affair because they have to check the connection all the way from the front to the back - and at the time I didn't have the luxury of leaving it there for so long. So I said I'd bring it back another time - a few days later the camera worked again haha.

For me, I got it because I was on a budget but needed an Alphard/Starex sized car. It's a 2.0 liter engine which means I'd be paying the same for road tax as I did my previous Kia Forte. Big difference compared to the Alphard/Starex which is I think a 2.5/3.0 liter if I'm not wrong?

I was sceptical at first to be honest, seeing that the car was from China, but when I read that it was Weststar that brought the brand in, plus the parent company, SAIC bought LDV in the UK and supplies parts to several European car makers - that kind of gave me more confidence.

We had already put down a deposit on the Mazda Biante a few weeks before we saw the G10, but when we saw this car and the dealer managed to get a good deal for us (at the time) we went for it.

You know there are 3 variants for the G10 ya? I got the basic model which means quite a number of luxuries are not available but I can live without them, such as power doors, moon roof (the basic model does come with a sun roof however), birds eye view parking camera and some others I forgot. When I bought mine, they included an LCD/DVD player for free too.

Anyway, sorry if it was a bit long, hope my review helped and just PM me if you have any other questions - or just ask away in here.

Thanks!

Yea they let me keep the third row but I will have to bring it to the service centre to get it attached because they will have to change the configuration around. The bench is seriously heavy.

Hey no worries man, pleasure is mine. I'm glad to share and help where I can.

It is true, there are a number of options in the market just like you suggested. I personally like the KIA Carnival too; but alas, my budget does not allow for it hehe.

We also considered recond and second hand MPVs, but at the time, I did not realise that second hand car interest rate was much higher than buying a new car, plus 100% loan was a lot harder too for second hand cars. In the end, it all worked out well for the G10; the Biante which we put a deposit for - we were not able to get a 100% loan. Actually we did not get a 100% loan for the G10 either but it was close, we got 95% but because I made money selling my KIA and my insurance amount was 100% transferable since I had not used it, I combined the money made off my Kia Forte + the insurance and it made up for the 5%.

Regarding parking her, it can be a challenge without the reverse camera but during the times the camera failed, I've managed to get by. One thing I forgot to mention was parking lots in general, the G10 stands 1.9++cm, height-wise is not much of a problem but I had issues coming out of parking areas, especially at G-Tower and UOA Bangsar. Their parking is built such that it is a spiral entering and exiting, entering is not so bad, but exiting, that's where things get VERY tight. I almost scrapped the wall with the left side of the G10 at those locations, I had to reverse and re-adjust before exiting - quite scary!

Leg room wise it depends, for my kids and family it's big enough, the last row can be shifted front and back so we make adjustments as we pack our stuff in the boot to allow comfortable leg room.

If you want to go premium, I think the other two upper model variants of the G10 have leg rests on the second row; almost like the Mazda 8 - very nice.

Feel free to ask away dude if you have other questions.

Joe,

Dunno if you remember me, Azmir here.

You brought the G10 to test drive at my place in Kelana Jaya last year during Ramadhan. That sold it for me.

Anyway guys, if you are interested, I HIGHLY recommend dealing with Joe. Solid, sincere and trustworthy dealer with good after sales service.

I'm not sure about the base model that I bought. Should still be available I think.

Can ask Joe the dealer who posted a couple of posts ago. He's good.

No worries man. I'm more than happy to get the word out on this MPV. Love it so far.

About your question on the third row; I think it is possible to have it removed too. This is because the seating configuration, to a certain extent, is a bit flexible. If I remember correctly, the original 10-seater seating configuration is:

1. First row - driver & front passenger (this one cannot be removed obviously haha)
2. Second row - 3 seater bench
3. Third row - 2 separate seats (with an aisle in the middle)
4. Fourth row - another 3 seater bench.

But for me, I removed the fourth row and switched the second and third row around. So my second row is the two separate seats and my third row is the 3 seater bench.

To answer your question, the rails on the floor of the MPV are flush with the floor too so there's nothing sticking out as far as i remember and is quite flat. So yea if you removed the third and fourth rows, or heck ALL the back seat rows, then yea you could have a pretty neat camper van with enough space for two to sleep.

However, just as alternatives, if you are looking to do something like that, you could go with a few other options:

1. Maxus' own V80 van - You may see MBPJ, Massimo bread and some emergency vehicles use this van.
2. Ford Transit - Looks a lot like the V80.
3. Toyota HiAce - I hear in Thailand, they really go to town with this van as it is highly modifiable in terms of the seat configuration etc.

Anyway that's my 2 cents and limited knowledge on this hehe. I'd one day like to explore this camper van/mobile home thing more.

This post has been edited by McF7y: May 26 2018, 10:28 AM

Hahaha, yea a bit tough to leave the kids with someone else, would always want to bring them with us.

If only mobile homes or RVs were more available and affordable here in Malaysia.

Ahh yes, that's right, we don't have the proper facilities too.

Hi Revolt,

Sincere apologies for the late reply. It's been an uncharacteristically busy week for me these last few days and while I did see your query much earlier, I just did not have the time to formulate a proper reply.

Anyway, thanks for your queries and I've answered them in bold below, I hope you are OK with that. I feel that it addresses your queries better.

Bro, man you know I haven't logged in Lowyat in ages, and the first time I logged in after maybe a year or so your message comes in...talk about good timing hehe.

I can't remember the contents of my original reply but I'm glad it answered all your questions

Just bear in mind my model is the 2017 Base Model Variant yeah bro...so no bells and whistles hehe.

Actually, to be honest I think there are far more experienced G10 users here that can probably answer your questions in more detail, actually there's a telegram group you can join and they're very helpful especially to new buyers/potential buyers.

To answer your question from the most recent post, if you are looking for something with size and on a budget (as compared to Alphard/Vellfire/Staria/Starex) I'd say go for a G10. When I made the decision, I was also wary about it being a Chinese car, but because Weststar is the company behind it I had more confidence.

I also considered roadtax/insurance issues, the other MPVs I mentioned like Alphard and Starex have a bigger CC and the road tax would be above my budget.

About spare parts, honestly I haven't faced any major issues yet thankfully. I just changed my brake pads for the first time in May of this year (bear in mind I've had the car for 6 years now) last month I just did the 80K+ servicing and the foreman said he was surprised all my engine parts were still original and I haven't changed them yet. Only issue I've had for the past year is my left front LED all day running lights went bust last year and I haven't been able to replace them yet. Just recently in the telegram group they were talking about it as well and some were saying it almost costs 2K to change the LEDs..so perhaps that's something to think about too. But I'm waiting for others to contribute, maybe there are some after market ones which are cheaper.

One thing I was surprised is, and this is anecdotal at best, but back in February I was meeting a friend and picked him up in the G10. It was the first time he had been in one and he was surprised I've had it for 6 years because he didn't hear the usual creaky sounds (like doors, and joints making sounds etc.) you'd get from a old-ish car.

Honestly, my G10 has served me well, I have a fairly big family and we were living in Camerons for the past 4 years (just moved back to PJ) and we had no issues climbing up and down the mountain. We've gone to Singapore several times, Langkawi twice etc. just got back from Cherating yesterday..thankfully, all these trips no breakdowns whatsoever, my battery died on me while I was in Singapore last year but you can't predict battery issues I think? If I'm not wrong, I also mentioned previously that my seating configuration is 7 seats as opposed to 10 seats because we want the boot space..and it's huge when you remove the last row.

In short, I'd say go for it, but if you have a bigger budget, get a new one or a more recent used one, maybe 2020 and above model.

Hope this helps bro

Actually, they do have a buy back program. I'm not sure if it's still on-going, best check with them directly or if you want you can give Joe a call/whatsApp, not sure if I'm allowed to share his number here but you can send me a message if you'd like. Joe was the sales representative who sold me on the G10, his service was awesome and still is!

Hopefully the choice you make will be the best for your family needs bro!

Yeah man, hit me up on private message or something. I am still 50/50 in PJ/Camerons these days, still running the family business there so can't be away for too long