Recently, a retired German mechanical engineer residing in Malaysia, Wolf Vaupel, alleged that there is something wrong with the way the Perodua Myvi and Alza’s instrument cluster works in his personal blog.
In his blog-post dated 10th March 2015 (read here), Mr Vaupel said that the self-illuminating instrument cluster featured in both the Myvi and the Alza is “deadly”. According to Mr Vaupel’s logic, the self-illuminating instrument panel confuses drivers into thinking that the headlights are on.
He claims that when Perodua Alza or Myvi driver enters the car and start the engine, the dashboard light will be lit automatically – regardless whether this is done during day or night. This ‘deadly’ feature according to Mr Vaupel, “misleads you terribly and give you a wrong impression that you have already turned on your headlights when in actual fact, it is not turned on!”
He further claims that the self-illuminating feature is against international regulations but didn’t provide any evidence for his statements.
In response to this issue that has gone viral in the social media, Perodua President & CEO, Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh released a press statement to clarify this matter.
First and foremost, we wish to ensure our customers that our products and services are offered with safety-first in mind which strictly adhere to domestic safety standards set by the Malaysian government via its Ministry and various agencies.
In fact, even the first generation Myvi (circa 2005-2011) is Euro 4 certified as Perodua exported to the United Kingdom previously. We have since improved on those safety features for our customers.
That being said, it has come to our attention that a blogger by the name of Wolf Vaupel has accused the Perodua Myvi and Alza of posing a high safety risk to our customers.
We wish to clarify, that based on inquiries made to both the authorities and insurance companies showed that there is no such linkage concerning self-illuminating instrument cluster and road collisions at night.
In addition, the self-illuminating instrument cluster is featured on other international brands and we are perplexed on why Mr Vaupel’s attacks are only directed to Perodua.
CW says…
Why was this attack only directed at Perodua, when I for one see numerous different brands of cars driving around at night with their headlights off? To my knowledge there aren’t any cars out there which inform the driver that it’s dark and his/her headlights are off. Are modern day drivers getting so complacent that they don’t even know their lights are off at night? Do we really need a warning sign flashing on the dashboard that says ‘hey it’s night time, turn your lights on!’ Seriously? – CW.
Perodua owners, do you experience the same problem too? Share your thoughts on our comment section below.
