Faults:

We have recently taken delivery of our new Myvi, and the helpful dealers took our order and part-ex details over the phone and delivered the car to our house and drove away the part-ex without us ever having to visit the dealers.

A condition of the deal was that the key-in alarm warning was disconnected, and any beeps or alarms turned off, except the lights-left-on warning. This was done perfectly-well done Perodua. (See my 2006 Swift DDiS report for why this was vital-Suzuki "could not" disable the same so I sold my three month old Swift in a rage.

We bought this car on the strength of road test reports, our knowledge of the similar Daihatsu Sirion, and the fact that our other car is an excellent 2002 Perodua Kelisa, which replaced our vandalised, but excellent Perodua Nippa.

We used the main dealer in Leighton Buzzard as they would deliver and offered us a very good deal. They are a long way from where we live, but our nearest dealer is 30 miles away as the network is sparse.

On delivery, the car was presented well, but had a slightly cracked offside rear light lens, and the nearside rear light fitting was cracked around the mounting bolt. It appears that the factory tightened them both too tightly. The dealer has apologised and offered to courier both fittings to us under warranty, to save us driving back to the dealer.

For a budget car, the fit and finish really is good, but I rectified the following which the pre-delivery inspection should have spotted.

1/ Foam strip inside bonnet lip needed more glue.

2/ Screenwash tube fitting/pipe catches in door hinge when opening/closing bonnet. I have modified this by removing some of the plastic guide.

3/ Boot lid is very slow to rise-will improve with use?

I have noticed another fault-when the air-con is switched on, the radiator fan comes on for eight seconds, off for six, on for eight etc etc. The dealers say this is the same on all of their stock and is not a fault. I do not agree, I believe that the temperature switch is faulty or has not been set to come on and off at the right temperature-it comes on at one temperature and immediately goes off as soon as the fan brings it down by one degree or so. It is minor fault, but noisy and annoying.

There is a very slight paint fault on the bonnet which appears as a very slightly darker patch on a small area above the nearside headlight.

General Comments:

I must say that my early impressions are good. The car looks great, and after having 67 cars (6 brand new in three years), I do expect a few items of snagging, and will see how the dealer rectifies these. I have a very sharp eye for faults, and inspect every vehicle in great detail, finding more faults than most!

I will update this report or add another as the miles go by, but at 800 miles at an average of 46mpg, here are my thoughts:

The car is so refined and quiet, with a very smooth drivetrain, low wind noise and very quiet suspension, and the overall ambience of the fittings and interior is superb.

The car is set up to ride softly and be very refined (for the price), and escapes the daft hard suspension and huge low profile tyres or run-flats which are the fashion now. It is delightfully comfortable, but the rear end suspension is soft and makes the car lean if you push it too hard. It is well composed on the road, very quiet and is a much better handling/ride compromise than most of the current hatchback offerings which are just too hard for mixed surface roads.

I particularly rate the excellent stereo which has four bassy speakers and a marvellous integrated head unit with simple controls, pause, mute and an ingenious "sound" button which offer a variety of pre-set equaliser settings. This is fantastic if you regularly swap from music (bass required) to news/spoken (bass is not required). It is honestly the best unit I have ever used. At this price, I would expect a naff and fiddly face-off unit with two tinny speakers, and not a high power intergated top-end four speaker set up. Superb.

All of the controls are intuitive, well damped and feel of good quality, and are well sited to always be where you expect them to be-your fingers fall to the exact spot that they are located-no hunting for window switches etc. The indicator stalk is well weighted, with a lane change option, and the wipers have a one touch/one wipe setting which is helpful. The auto wiper operation on using screenwash is good, the four electic windows and intelligent interior lighting etc all bely the price. With the daft alarms switched off, the electrics on this car are cleverly designed and good to use.

The air-con is ICE cold, and the face level vents are very high set, giving you cold air without freezing your hands on the steering wheel like in most cars.

The controls are all very light, and with good visiblity (except wide C pillars) and soft, supportive seating, it is an easy car to spend time with-apart from the fact that there is NO CLOCK!!! This is most annoying.

The rear seats are very clever, having the seat base able to pull forward and down to floor level to make a large totally flat low-lip area to load from the side doors without folding the seats is up their with the Honda Jazz magic seat design-I think the Myvi design is better. Again, a 60/40 split rear folding seat which folds flat, with a two postion rear seatback is not what you would expect at the price.

The proper boot handle (no key required) is excellent too, and the boot always shuts first time, even though it is slow to rise.

My early conclusion is that the Myvi is an excellent budget buy, using proven Daihatsu technology and made under the supervision of Toyota. It feels very well sorted indeed for a new £6700 car, but the minor points as listed need addressing. I have never managed to buy a newly launched model of any brand before without a few minor things-manufacturers tend to eradicate the early faults as the years go on-my experience is that the final edition of a model sold for five years or so is ALWAYS more sorted than the newly released replacement model.

In brief, it is much better than my previous 2006 Suzuki Swift DDiS (see report-sold in a rage to buy a lovely, but impractical Daihatsu Copen which was traded for this).

The deal of £6700 included tax, standard metallic paint (inc body colour mirrors and door handles), five floormats and front mudflaps.

I am currently very happy with the car, and await the dealers fix on the minor items. If these are done, and it then turns out to be 100% reliable, then it will have been a fantastic buy- apart from the lack of a clock. Still, with the money saved, I could buy a Rolex!!