When you’ve got the trust and confidence of an entire nation, expectations can be high. The Perodua Bezza has become the defacto vehicle for small families and Grab drivers who are looking for a dependable, practical vehicle to ferry passengers around in. It has seating for 5, a spacious 508L boot, and a fuel efficiency rating of around 22km/L. All this for a car whose price still starts below RM35,000.
When it first broke covers in mid-2016, it was already a hit in the making. Perodua have been improving the vehicle behind the scenes and all those improvements and more come to a head in the facelift model. This new Bezza now has a more modern look, as well as modern features like LED headlamps and Advanced Safety Assist 2.0. It’s hard to imagine that one of the most affordable vehicles you can buy in Malaysia comes with autonomous braking and pedestrian detection, but in 2020 Perodua has made that a reality.
With Advanced Safety Assist 2.0, the full spec Perodua Bezza 1.3 AV has Pedestrian Detection up to 50km/h, Pre-collision Warning (up to 100km/h), Pre-collision Braking (up to 80km/h), Front Departure Alert, and Pedal Misoperation Control. The all-important Vehicle Stability Control and Traction Control have also been added to the 1.3 X model.
In terms of its new design, there’s a lot to talk about. The front end is a lot more stylish thanks to its new bumpers and grille but it’s really the LED headlamp design that brings it all together. A new 15” rim design has been added as well, as have new body colours Garnet Red and Granite Grey to give even more options to buyers.
Overall, the Perodua Bezza takes our award for best compact sedan because it brings advanced safety and a bit more desirability to the Malaysians who need it the most.
Perodua Bezza 1.3 Advance Specifications
Engine: Inline-4, 16 Valve, DOHC
Capacity: 1329cc
Gearbox: 4-speed Conventional Automatic
Max power: 94hp @ 6000rpm
Max torque: 121Nm @ 4000rpm
Price: RM49,980
About the VOTY Awards 2020
The Vehicle of the Year (VOTY) Awards is sponsored by Allianz Malaysia Berhad and is judged by Daniel Sherman Fernandez, Ross Hadi, Amirul Mukminin and Subhash Nair from Drive Safe and Fast (dsf.my) and GohedGostan.com.
The selection process is simple and clean. All cars launched in Malaysia within 13 months of our cutoff date are eligible for entry. We contact all car brands officially operating in Malaysia and ask them for test cars for each of our judges. There’s no participation fee, no tables to buy, no package deals — nothing. Any judge who drives an eligible car gets to vote for it. A simple majority is all it takes for a vehicle to win in a given category.
The categories are kept as consistent as possible from year-to-year with some modifications when a certain category is not adequately represented or is over-represented in that particular year. You can view the categories over the years by looking through our “VOTY” tab on the dsf.my page.
Our title sponsor Allianz recognises the integrity of our team and all players involved in deciding on winners and leaves all decisions to us regarding the winners. We hope our readers appreciate the efforts of all parties involved and provide us with feedback on how we can further improve on this.
This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had to postpone our VOTY awards presentation and have instead decided to stream it LIVE on facebook and youtube. This would make VOTY the first automotive awards show to be streamed live in ASEAN as far as we can tell.
