Perodua has updated the Aruz seven-seat SUV with some useful features and no change to the price.
Both variants now get side steps to ease ingress and egress, plus automatic door-locking above 20 km/h (doors will automatically unlock in the event of a collision). A new Passion Red colour (exclusive to the AV variant) joins the existing palette of Granite Grey, Electric Blue, Glittering Silver and the only non-metallic Ivory White.
“With well over 60,000 units sold since its 2019 birth, the Perodua Aruz was already the nation’s best-selling SUV in 2019 and 2020, but, true to the principles of Kaizen (continuous improvement), we believe there are always ways we can make our products incrementally better.
“This incremental adaptation of the Aruz is in line with the Perodua Smart Build blueprint; another example of our symbiotic collaboration with our suppliers to customise our products to better suit Malaysian needs and wants, and through this, developing further the capabilities of our suppliers towards true self-reliance,” he added.
The heart of the Aruz is a 1.5-litre 2NR-VE engine, the same unit you’d find in the new Perodua Myvi and the Aruz’s stepbrother, the Toyota Rush, but makes slightly less power with 102 hp and 133 Nm of torque. The fuel-efficient Dual VVT-i unit with idling start-stop feature is paired to a four-speed automatic transmission and drive the rear wheels.
Standard features include LED headlamps, 17-inch alloy wheels, a reverse camera, keyless entry, power folding door mirrors and roof-mounted rear air-conditioning vents.
The key difference in the higher-specification AV variant is the Advanced Safety Assist (ASA) 2.0 system which includes Pre-Collision Warning (between 4 km/h to 100 km/h) and Pre-Collision Braking (4 km/h to 80 km/h) with pedestrian detection (4 km/h to 50 km/h), front departure alert and pedal misoperation control.
Other niceties are leather upholstery, Android-smartphone mirrorlink connectivity and front fog lamps.
The Perodua Aruz is available in two variants – 1.5 X at RM 68,526 and the 1.5 AV at RM 73,226 – attached with a 5-year/150,000 km warranty (whichever comes first). The Perodua Aruz commenced its first international export last month, with our neighbours down south being the first to receive it.
Thanks to their multi-tier taxation system plus a right to vehicle ownership called Certificate of Entitlement (COE), the Aruz 1.5X is priced at SGD92,999 (approx RM286,400) in Singapore.
A quick check at the Toyota Malaysia website also shows the Rush adopting the same colour palette but sans side step.
