Hello MPV

We received the delivery of the new Starex earlier this month, and since then Anita had been doing plenty of her own driving with it. In fact, she even drove all the way to Port Dickson last weekend!

It was an 11-seater "people carrier" with a diesel engine, spacious and hopefully also a fuel saver. And it was huge and took a bit of manoeuvring to get around tight spots and parking. I was also worry about blind spots during driving, but so far it had been handling very well. Much more nimble than the size suggested.

It did not have all the trimmings of the old Estima. The boot were manually controlled, and the power doors had to be installed as an extra. The alarm system was also pretty basic but it had the standard audio unit and a couple of screens, GPS - which was actually a Papa-Go unit - and nice seats. No sunroof though, something that I missed!

It had to be done however after counting the amount of money I had been spending on the old Estima doing repairs. The Estima was bought with limited warranty and it was not a brand new unit - one could not get one in Malaysia due to the good Government policy of protecting the local car manufacturers! So, even though it felt like a bit of a down grade, I was pretty happy with it! The main thing was the children and Anita loved it.

Good Bye MPV

Our Estima had been a loyal servant for the last 5 years. Unfortunately in the last year, it had been causing plenty of issues, and I had spent a lot of money fixing it. After much deliberation, we decided to let it go.

It was quite a spur of the moment thing, after Anita got fed up during one of the breakdowns. She went around looking for good offers and found that Hyundai offered the Starex as brand new units and it came with very good warranty package. Her mind was set ....

Setting Off

Finally, the packing was done. But not before realising that a few things were amiss - such as my pants. That meant a stop in Gombak before setting off proper.

We finally rearranged the seating in the MPV - losing the last row and pushing back the middle row - into a four seat configuration. The boys actually ended up sleeping on the floor!

The journey back to Penang was a smooth one, although the stops were still pretty packed. We decided against making any pit stops, a straight drive to Penang, via the new bridge. We were already at the hotel by 3.30.

The room was already ready, and before we knew it, we were already unpacking. More about the rooms later ...