It arrived with a huge impact on the above middle class buyers and was almost immediately known as a well built, safe, roomy, versatile, reliable MPV but it was a little bit underpowered and a tad pricey as MPV’s go when they first arrived some 11 years ago but today they sell for very reasonable prices as parallel importers have dumped these ‘bread boxes’ into our market in large numbers. I am referring to the Toyota Alphard MPV. It must be noted for the record that is took guts for Toyota designers to take a simple box design used primarily for commercial vans and pass it off as the next revolution in MPV design at a time when all other manufacturers were experimenting with adventurous ‘bullet train’ designs that promoted wind resistance looks and somewhat neglected possible space utility inside.
The Toyota Alphard is a luxury MPV produced by the Japanese automaker Toyota since 2002. It was sold as a seven or eight-seater with 2.4 and 3.0-litre petrol engines in 2 different versions, the Alphard G, and the Alphard V. It came with full electrical component features and complete comfort and safety features that rivaled the ever popular Toyota Estima. Today the Alphard has become Toyota’s bestselling luxury MPV in Malaysia when looking at the vast numbers in our urban areas. The question is who were the first owners of the many Alphards that come to Malaysia?
Well I am here to burst our bubble. In Japan, the Alphard is used as a taxi or private limousine mostly. Yes, there are private Japanese owners who cherish their Alphards, but Malaysian used/ reconditioned dealers will try and buy as cheap as possible and here comes the taxi Alphard!
We have ridden a few times in the Alphard taxi in Tokyo and also Fokuoka. Well, now you know.
