Perodua rose to international fame back in 2005 when Jeremy Clarkson did a review on the Perodua Kelisa. You would think that the Malaysian car maker would have been ecstatic to have their car reviewed by a certain controversial motoring journalist on probably the most popular auto show in the world, Top Gear, right?

Well, I’m sure Perodua would’ve been delighted if the review Jeremy gave was positive but unfortunately his opinions about the car were far from it. He remarked that the Kelisa was nothing more than a cheap soul-less appliance whose only purpose in life is to turn a profit for the corporation that built it. A car totally devoid of passion in its design and engineering.

After collecting his soon-to-be-thrashed Kelisa fresh off the showroom floor, he parked it within eyesight and proceeded to take a sledgehammer to it. All the while mouthing out all that was wrong with it. If the Kelisa were given a chance, it would’ve reminded Jeremy in between blows to its panels that not everyone can afford a car built with style and panache.

The reason for its existence is to take four people in reasonable comfort from one point to another while providing basic amenities like air conditioning and relative safety (I will elaborate further on this later in the article).

As if thrashing the Kelisa with a sledgehammer wasn’t enough, Jeremy proceeded to rip it apart from both ends using a crane to pull it while having the front tied down with a dead weight. Personally I think that Jeremy might’ve expected a little too much from the little Kelisa.

Then again, I can’t blame him. He is British after all and they’ve been spoilt with affordable and relatively well-built cars for as long as anyone can remember.

Exterior

The Viva’s looks resemble that of a typical city car. Although at certain angles the car does look a little familiar. For example, the entire front fascia up till the A pillar looks as if it was lifted directly off the Chery QQ but with triangular headlamps instead of the QQ’s circular ones.

Beyond that point, the Viva’s designer went kindergarden on us. The side profile is uninteresting with no significant efforts to differentiate it from its pressed sheet metal origins. Obviously it was done to keep production costs low but it makes the Viva’s design about as interesting as a box.

Take a walk to the rear and you find that once again it all looks vaguely familiar. For me, it conjures up images of the Subaru Viki I used to see plying our streets when I was a much younger lad, albeit with a thicker rear bumper and taillights that are set higher up.