During this Hari Raya holiday season, we have spent 2 days and a night at Port Dickson and Melaka. As usual, it is time for my Exora to show what it capables of.
2 cars are involved. One is Perodua Alza Premium, and another one is my Exora. Since mine is marginally bigger than Alza my car was fitted with 5 adults, plus whole bunch of travel luggage and utensils for BBQ purpose. Whereas Alza carried 4 adults plus a 2-month old baby and of course, the required baby's necessities.
Since it is first day of Hari Raya we decided of not taking the Seremban highway route due to known heavy traffic at the KL-Seremban highway all the way to Melaka. We instead selected Sepang-Port Dickson trunks and pathways to avoid jams despite of the longer distance and slightly curvy routes.
The ride in the Exora was a meaty one even though we have to twist and turn the steering because of the roads. There was not much of body roll at occasional hard corners and although made for comfort the tyres seems biting the tarmac while its steering offers a appreciable good response.
Gliding over holes and bump proved how solid the chassis which the Exora built on. Potholes, bumps, uneven tarmac and road irregularities or whatever you name it, were swallowed entirely by the beast without much fuss.
Moving into PD's city lanes this car showed no problem chasing the stop-and-go traffic. There were not many vehicles on the roads at PD during Raya hari pertama, until we reach Tanjung Kemang beach.
The beach there was surprisingly crowded with loads of people. The sand seemed polluted in orange color, and lots of cemented stones along the shore and the bay was short probably due to the rising tides. Frankly, Tg. Kemang beach is not as good as the locals suggest. There were other better beaches along the coastal way.
After checking out from the hotel, we started moving to our second destination - Melaka.
Driving on the Seremban highway down-south to Melaka seemed to be a bit tiring. It might be due lack of sleeps or due to the car's body weight and the full load. Sometimes I felt the car loosing power like what a typical Campro react. Though it has been blessed with CPS it only shines after 2.5K RPM. So here choosing right gear ratios and throttling all the way to the optimum RPM is the right way to run this monster.
During the returning trip we continue using Seremban highway. Here where most cars driving drastically fast, I had hard time to keep pace on the right lane. Not because it is underpowered, it was sluggish in building up speed. Probably it was because of the engine displacement with only 1,600cc. Hence driving at high speed on fast lanes for speed of 130km/h above with handful of car queues requires generous throttle, because slowing down and rebuilding speed proved laborious and tiring.
So recommendation for more relaxing and sedate drive is on the left lanes. Because after switching to the left lane I almost dozed off because of the stability of this car, plus a good NVH did the trick. I would say it's a bit boring driving this car because it felt stationary even at high speed. The NVH here felt better than my Vios and the Alza Premium, where I can still can listen to human conversations crisply at the legal speed of 110km/h.
I reached home on second day Raya. It was a fun trip with my family. And it was not tiring riding the Exora because it has a good chassis and nice seat supports. It felt so secure riding it even at high speeds. Though the fuel consumption is a bit let-down, at roughly RM0.23 per km. But considering it is a big and heavy monster, when full loads of humans and baggage. It did served a good job and deserved a reward. Overall I give 7 of of 10 of total for this car :).
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