Owner Review: It rides like a premium sofa - My 2006 Naza Ria 2.5 GS

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Basic information

2006 Naza Ria 2.5 GS

Time of purchase: 15th May 2006

Price of vehicle: RM120,000.00

Purpose: Family needs

Car selection process

• I have a budget of RM 100,000

• Model(s) that I have considered include: Toyota Alphard, Toyota Estima, Nissan Serena, Naza Citra, Toyota Avanza, Honda Odyssey

The reason why I choose this car is because of the usability of family needs and more are easily achieved by this car. The car has a 3-row seating layout with 2 at the front, 2 seats in the middle and a bench seat on 3rd row. Meaning that the needs of transporting a family of six already achieved, and sometimes it can also fit 7 people although the 3rd-row bench seat will lose the usability of the centre armrest and passengers need to squeeze a bit for space constraints. But need no worry, the Naza Ria also comes with full front air-cond and 4 individual air vents with fully controllable fan speed so a problem of cool air not getting to all the passengers is not of the concern.

Then, the price of the car is also reasonable. Pricing starts at RM 120K at the time for a full-size MPV, as the others are relatively more expensive and start at around RM 150K which were totally out of originally RM 100K budget. The others such as Toyota Avanza, Naza Citra and the rest are considered more of small to mid-size MPV as they have a dimension similar to a 5-seater sedan, the only difference is that they have elongated length and a higher ride height. While the Naza Ria has a dimension similar to a standard full-size MPV. Not only that, but the Naza Ria also comes with a bigger engine that is adequate enough to power its enormous weight of around 1.75 tonnes. The engine also operates very smoothly and at a point you can put a zippo lighter on a standing position without it falling off. Thus, offering the gimmick that is same as the Lexus LS400 back in 1990 which can hold a tower of champagne glass without falling off.

The other options vary from Toyota Avanza, Naza Citra and the rest, all face with the same problem. Lack of power to overcome the extra weight of the body. Because most of these cars derive their engine from normal 5- seater sedan which shows their anaemic sides when put inside a heavier body. Last but not least, is the ride comfort. Back in the day while test driving the car ( Naza Ria ) it felt very different from other cars back in the day as it has one of the softest and absorbent suspensions in that price range. It feels similar to when you sit on a really cheap sofa comparing to the IKEA sofa that price maybe triple of that cheap sofa. It is really that soft. After all of the consideration, at no moment we just bought the Naza Ria and turn a blind eye on that exceeding RM 20,000 budget, luckily at that time the Naza guys were also offering 100% full loan, 0% downpayment solution making it easier to buy the car.

User experience

• I have already done 355,700 km

Since the purchase, my thoughts about the car are really exceeding our original expectation as the car is surprisingly good at almost all marks of driving. At that time we started to explore the features that were available on the car and what a surprise it is. The middle row of the seat can swivel 180 degrees to face the 3rd-row seat and instantly becomes a conference room, which my sibling always swivel them around for playing poker or any sorts of card game while in a long trip. The air-cond works well. They are cold and freezing even in its half setting. But after a while of driving, I noticed that the steering wheel does have this strange feeling that you are disconnected from the road which actually quite dangerous as I cannot feel the obvious feedback from hitting something on the road. Maybe the steering was set up that way to emphasize relaxing while driving. One thing for sure, the cruising speed that can be achieved by this car were sort of amazing as it easily stayed around 150 km/h on the highway and the ride are constantly comfortable until it hits the cut-off speed of 180 km/h by the ECU. Also, this kind of confidence does make a problem for a person like me which has a heavy feet pedal which always pushes the pedal deep into the pedal box, thus driving the Naza Ria past the speed limit is frequent, ending up having me a lot of speeding fines caught by AES...haha.

Then the ownership the car for around 7 years has been very fruitful as it were totally worth it and problem-free as it comes with 5 years warranty. All of these years the mentioned service were only regular service of oil change, tyre change, gearbox oil change and the rest. After nearly 8 years of ownership, the car interior starts to rattle as the plastic trim are well,.... kind of cheap and that is why probably the low starting price of the car while it was new. The most obvious was the inner infrastructure of the head unit in the dashboard, which just gave out and disintegrated which were made out of very cheap and thin plastic. I think at this period of time KIA which were the originally made rebadge of Naza Ria were still at their infancy in designing their cars. It's as if they take the corrugated plastics in the biscuit barrel and make that their materials of choice to make in cars.. huh what a disappointment.

At the 8th year of the ownership, the car had already passed its 150K km marks which indicates for a major service. Indeed at that time the car engine does shows some wear and tear and loss of power were apparent. Time to overhaul the car. While overhauling the car, a discovery was made that actually the car engine was originally based on U.K Rover Cars engine which was codenamed KV6, and I thought good. No wonder the engine was creamy smooth to operate, in actuality the engine really does have a bit of British heritage. So actually what I have bought is not only an Asian Korean car but also has a bit of British in it. After the overhauling job was done, the car keeps continuing the long-distance travel usage until 2017. Then in this year, a tragedy happens. A defect car battery short circuit the whole car which fries everything even the main harness and the ECU. This was really the most annoying and tedious task ever done as me and my dad had to replace or repair all the wiring in the car. Luckily, as the car were already 11 years old many of the Naza Ria were scrapped. I found a complete set of harness from front to back thus replacing the all of it in the car. It was suffering without release while replacing the wiring...Until now the car was used and abused with care throughout the years, the car paint started to diminish and some of the plastic trim already broken off, so a restoration plans were in order. The plans started in 2019, and it has taken a year to find parts and repair anything that broken in the car as the car already at 13 years mark so new spare parts are scarce so sometimes some of the parts needs to be outsourced from a scrapyard. Now in 2020, the car restoration are almost finished as some of the parts are not available. The interior is also restored to its former glory and now the car resides as a pensionist car at our home as a retiree.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Big interior space and seating for 6 sometimes 7 people.
• Comfortable ride quality.
• Powerful and creamy smooth engine
• (bonus) can hold a candle against latest Toyota Vellfire cruising speed
• The body design language is mostly influenced by the shape of minivan in United States so not quite outdated and not similar to commercial vans design language.

Cons

• Fuel consumption will impact budget if ( RON 95 ) Becomes RM 2.00/ltr
• Vague steering feel, lack of feedback from the road.
• The driveshaft tends to snap if too aggressive on start-stop condition.
• The interior trim plastic feels very cheap and brittle after 7 years.
• Not all workshop can figure out the right solution for a problem in this car, usually worsened it.

Ratings

Total Score: 4
Performance: 4
Quality & Features: 2
Space: 4
Ride Comfort: 4
Fuel Economy: 2
Price & Cost: 3

Summary

The conclusion of all this is, the car now is still in continuous restoration and the search of parts now becomes a scavenger hunt as they are getting rarer by the day. All in all, the Naza Ria overall is a very good family transporter and one of its targets is bang for the buck and comfortability. And you know what? After all of these years owning the car, the Naza Ria just achieve the intended target, not only that the car also bang for the buck in today age as proof in the marketplace the car nowadays only cost under RM 20K for a good restored one, not only that the car also offers full-size MPV's experience without big money involved but if you want to go for the cheaper one just standby at least RM 7K for repairs. I'll admit the technology in the car is really outdated but hey, at least it has airbags and abs what more do you want?

Lastly, any interesting event?

There is one period of time that the car was used as farming material transport as in 2013 until late 2014. My dad and I opened up a quail farm supplying for their meat. At that time we use the car for transporting the food grain which weighs around 50 kg per bag, we transport around 6 bags a week thorough our farm that was located in the woods. Know what, the Naza Ria also cope the off-road trail with 300 kg in the back just fine. I just thought what manners to destroy this car....The only concerns at that time were only the smells of the food grains in the car that already inseminate in the air-cond filtration which I think need 3 to 4 times to clean the car air-cond completely. Whatever it is, I have successfully proved that Naza Ria can also become a midweight commercial vehicle at the same time.

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