You have done your homework. When one mentions comfortable car, what are the aspects that contribute to comfort. It's predominantly two factors, which is the noise and ride which is low noise from the engine and road, and good suspension that contributes to plush ride. For vehicles which come with suspension tuned for comfort, they mostly can't be driven at high speeds when taking a 90 degrees corner for instance, that's my experience with the 1st generation Nissan Sylphy 2.0. In my experience, the most comfortable car which I have owned is the old Nissan Sylphy from year 2006 around. When I switched on the engine, I can barely hear the noise of the engine. Even when cruising on the roads at moderate to high speeds, the noise remains fairly low. The soundproofing is really good, better than all cars which I owned after that which include the Ford Focus 2.0. Honda cars have one of the poorest sound proofing and additionally comes with excessive rattling sound in my experience, a prevalent or normal trait even with fairly new cars.

As for the next importance, the suspension. When the vehicle is moving on bad surfaced roads, irregular surface or bumps, with a comfortable car you won't feel much of the jolt as the suspension soaks up most of the shocks. What you get is a smooth and slow bounce with the vehicle when going over these uneven or bad surfaces on the roads, a plush ride. With other cars especially those tuned for spirited fast-n-furious drives, all the sharp shocks and thuds will be felt as you feel your body bouncing up and down together with the car as the springs or suspension react more quickly and rapidly when going over the unevenness on bad roads.

Sorry I was being long-winded. To cut a story short, I can only recommend one vehicle based on my experience, the Nissan Sylphy 2.0 from year 2006 or 2007 though I'm not sure if you can get it below RM20k now but for an almost 18-year old car I guess it should be around that mark or lower. I'm not sure about the newer Sylphy 1.8 if the suspension and soundproofing matches the older 2.0 model. The Nissan Teana also should be good though not sure if you can get it below RM20k.

I'm not sure about others, but for very old cars which are mostly in bad shape already due to wear and tear, people usually don't go for high cc, maybe 2.0 max to minimise paying for the road tax. Above 2.0 the road tax is already rather high for a old and cheap RM20k car mostly in bad shape which to me is not worth it. That may be one reasons used cars 2.2 or 2.4-litres and above all have a low resale value especially very old cars as most people will avoid them due to the high road tax.

Yes. To put it bluntly, getting a used car below RM20k, depending on the age of the vehicle if mostly above 10 years or close to 20 years old, sorry to say even though it's a bit harsh, these cars are considered to be junk already. People who consider these cars mostly want to save money and cut down wherever as they can, but do not realise the "hidden costs". The maintenance costs will be higher for old cars, but for certain models especially European (I know since I gone through the process with the Ford Focus), the yearly maintenance costs may actually be higher than the price that you pay for the car. Imagine you pay RM20k for the car but spend 10k or more than that yearly for the maintenance, how does that feel to you? Add in the high road tax for above 2.0 litre it's totally not worth not to mention to continue to "service" the car, wasting your time in workshops when it should be the other way round where the car serves the owner, not the owner serves the car.

Well, it may be prudent to avoid "problematic" cars when buying used, get one which does not cost much to maintain and has cheap spare parts. It's mostly Japanese or local Malaysian. European cars are mostly high maintenance. But OP here wants comfortable, so Proton and Perodua would be out I guess, the selective Japanese Nissan and Toyota usually fair much better.

I"m not sure where did you get the idea about my wrong thinking as I didn't touch about safety aspects at all. It's a separate matter whether one wishes to consider a 2.0-litre vehicle which doesn't come with added safety features or not. You may not consider the Camry 2.0 but there will be others that will buy them as people have their own priorities and preferences.

Well, it's still almost double that of the 2.0..

Well, there are still people who want to drive a Camry but don't have the budget for the 2.4, so no choice.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Mar 17 2025, 11:50 AM

Good to know. I presume it's the same variant of the Nissan Sylphy 2.0 which I owned when I bought it new back in 2006 if my memory doesn't fail me. It comes with 195/60 R15, I can still remember the size of the tyres as it's certainly unique to have a C-segment 2.0-litre vehicle to run on 15" tyres, surely tuned for comfort with that high profile 60, good for comfort contributing to the plush ride.

All your impressions mirrored mine. It's a great car, good rear legroom length-wise which helps with comfort for the passengers sitting at the back, silky smooth CVT transmission. Highway cruising is surely enjoyable, smooth drive and when you want to speed up a little, the power is there as the vehicle will accelerate effortlessly when you step on the pedal. Fuel consumption in city drive is not very good as reported but the strengths of the car more than make it up. Sometimes I miss the quality and performance of the vehicle as I can't find anything in the market right now up to RM150k that can give similar quality and performance as the Sylphy 2.0. The closest is the Toyota Corolla sedan and I test drove the 1.8 last year with the intention to purchase but it fell slightly short in terms of acceleration power. Not only that, I felt that the sound insulation (soundproofing) of the car although was OK is slightly lacking when compared to the Sylphy. The Sylphy's soundproofing is the best I've experienced so far, even my Ford focus 2.0 also can't match although it has decent soundproofing. The current Nissan Almera which I bought last year also can't match the Sylphy in all areas of power, comfort and soundproofing. The only area the Almera wins is the improved handling and slightly nimble drive but those things are not so important to me now as comfort and quietness takes top precedence.

The only disadvantage of the Sylphy, a nitpicking is the interior design as it would be rather old now with the wood trimmings and all. When I bought it almost 20 years ago, I could accept it but looking at it now, it's rather outdated. Mine was the light beige leather seats with rosewood trimmings. I wished the market would come up with a vehicle with similar quality as the old Nissan Sylphy 2.0 in areas of comfort and quietness around the same price range but couldn't find one. Regrettably the Teana and Sylphy had been discontinued several years ago, and the current Almera couldn't really compete and was a downgrade in almost all areas except for the interior and exterior looks and design.