Naza Forza 1.1 Manual Test Drive Report
The Naza Forza is Naza’s latest foray into the high-volume A-segment market and they obviously hope to reverse their fortunes after the Naza Sutera failed to get into 5-digit sales after 18 months on the market. But what is it exactly?
First of all, it’s got an Italian name, unlike the rest of Naza’s offerings which have had specifically Malaysian names in the past. It’ll be launched today but Shannon Teoh was part of a media sneak to Port Dickson recently to find out exactly what sort of pizza Naza is baking with their latest car.
More after the jump, including the new price and warranty/service package.
Once you see it, it’ll definitely look familiar and Naza made no secret of the fact that the Naza Forza is basically a Sutera facelift. The highlighted exterior changes include an even weirder front signal lamp but better looking rear bumper, front and rear lamps.
Inside, the Naza Forza has a new colour scheme, meter panel and seat trim and the first technical change you’ll notice is a Blaupunkt CD/MP3 unit instead of the integrated audio on the Sutera. Simply put, it’s a better unit.
This is the first step in what Naza hopes will rebrand the sedate Naza Sutera into the funky Naza Forza. The new target market is a buyer who is young with a low-income, looking for a first car or a mature buyer getting a second car for the kids. Hence, Naza’s tagline, ‘the fun car for fun people’.
But sound system aside, it’s hard to get away from the thought that “it’s the same car.†And it is the same. Which unfortunately includes the same seating position which always leaves you either too close to the pedals or too far from the gearstick, the same shaky fitment and the same engine.
Which wasn’t bad at all for a 1,075cc unit. Mated to the 5-speed manual ‘box, it gave the same elasticity in torque as the Naza Sutera, with 88Nm coming in between 3,000-3,500rpm. The result was that 3rd gear was a comfortable ratio once above 20km/h, making this a very capable city car, what with its small dimensions (only 3,633mm long and 1,563mm wide not including wing mirrors – which are electrical but slightly wonky) and 50km/h is good enough to engage 5th, so you can cruise comfortably on the trunk roads too.
Which is relevant since Naza thinks you might want to take this to balik kampung once in awhile. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the Naza Sutera hitting 170km/h on the highway with just 64hp – albeit downhill – but on my car, the area between 100-110 produced a juddering steering wheel.
The ride feels better than on the Sutera, if not the handling, as on some twisty trunk roads on the Sepang-Lukut trunk road, the only way it could keep up with a 206 Bestari filled with four passengers was to cut into the opposing lane.
There’s exciting and then there’s frightening. The skinny tyres on new six-spoke 14†rims can hardly keep itself planted on the road as the car leans out at corners although, I’m not sure if I could tell how far the tyres were giving way since the steering wasn’t exactly the most conversant on earth.
Yet despite this, the car feels better put together – better NVH for sure. Information on technical changes to the internal workings were not given to us, although the question was asked by yours truly.
Perhaps they just want to keep it simple, like how they’re naming the colours. No more two word names like Fusion Green and Onyx Black, the colour words have been dropped, leaving us with names like Amber, Satin and Atlantic, although the exception to the rule is Gun Metal, which is as expected a kind of grey.
But in fact, it just complicates things, because I’m sure that at the showroom, they’re just going to say green, or black or blue. But let’s give Naza the benefit of the doubt and say that they can pull off this rebranding exercise. Then at least, the choice of changing the marketing base colour from blue to, uhh, Fusion, at least gives the Naza Forza a sprightlier outlook. This shade of green, Naza claims, represents the young and growing consumer and also an environmentally conscious one, as they claim the Naza Forza is very fuel efficient. Once again, no technicals were given but on our roughly 200km drive, less than half the 40-litre tank was used, which is good given the pace we were driving at and the jams we had to contend with in KL and Lukut but still, not astounding.
Forza means forward but whether that’ll be the case for Naza depends on the pricing which should be released during the launch. As of now, the RM36,218 OTR figure for the Sutera is the mark to beat. If that price couldn’t sway customers then, it probably won’t now, despite overall improvements. It’s a lot to ask, but dipping below the RM35,000 mark will probably eat significantly into the Perodua Viva’s sales performance.
Story and photos by Shannon Teoh.
UPDATE: The new OTR price for the Naza Forza is RM37,999 OTR with insurance. It comes with a 3-year warranty along with 2 years of free service.
tq.i dah pun order..tp belum dapat lg…nak tanyalah..betulke forza ni lebih ok dari kancil and kelisa…dari segi minyak mcm mana?jimat x?u punya forza tau sutera..it diffrentkan?mula2 saya ingat nak beli suria sb cantik…tp stok pula dah habis,,,,forza ni ada air bag,,,,u pakai ok x?blh x u sms kat i,,,coz i online kat cc…what ever tq berikan maklumat….
Hi Amy,
a few comment about the car..
i bought the car about 3 months ago and i find it so convenience …i like it so much.. its bigger than kancil or kelisa.. might similar to myvi but of course myvi looks ‘fat’ than forza.. :p trust me, it is better to own this car.. i love to speed ,, and forza gives me a lot of fun! u can buy it if u really wanna feel the different from malaysian car
hai…saya nak tanya pendapat anda…saya ingin membeli kereta foza ni….ape pendapat anda?adakah bagus atau lebih baik beli kereta malaysia….
0177445338
i like the car but clearance gie me problem in driving , becoz of nepals road
one of the ugliest car on malaysian road
Salam, I want to buy front and rear bumper for froza (naza) car.How much and where can I get the nearest shop?. I’m from Bintulu sarawak.
Hi, my new forza, I only got it for RM29,999 and it is on special offer. It has been about 2 months now and the fuel consumption is not as it should be, on my car I can get about 13Km/ltr for town driving.
i am about to my forza for my 1st car.. as a beginner i was thinking of buying a cheaper car n fuel efficient as well.. to improve my driving skills so after get pro will go for a big car soon.. heheee
I own a Forza for a month already, the drive is smooth and firm, it has good pick-up especially on 3rd gear onward.
The built is better than Viva, it is spacious on the inside and alot of headroom. Many do not like Forza, could be because it is manual and not auto transmission. For your information, manual transmission allows you the option to move the car at a pace you like, either to shoot off or to stroll along. Manual give you the max. power to move and pull you out of tight spot. Not like the Viva and Myvi Auto transmission, you have step on the accelerator to the floorboard and yet you are hardly pushing yourself out of the tight spot.
Actually every car whatever 40k or 100k should have some minor defect.
i’m honda civic owner . I had try to use my friend forza .whatever price only 38k but it had dual airbag , good sound system 6 speaker with remote control , no need change the timing belt and so on strongpoint as shown as
above . That’s really quite good and stable when drive he car . i really can’t believe why this car so un-reasonable cheap !! and the outlook really cool !
The important is it can save lot of fuel . Please don’t mocking and nonsense anymore before you guys try this car forza .
Crap car. Not worth the money. I suggest buy somthing else or go on the bus.
Nothing to comment about this car… but i do think that this is better than Perodua viva 850cc interms of power and looks(it’s subjective)… the perodua viva is dammmn expensive for an 850 and 660cc car… and this froza has air bags and ABS which din’t have viva on 850 and 660cc…
The Front look much better than the older sutera but still not than nice(boleh tahan la for cheap car)… just hope that the NVH and the built quality have improved… (i don’t own this car)
wow… i guess u guy must know this “The 1.1 L straight-4 engine is an all-aluminium DOHC 16-Valve design from Harbin Dong-An Engine Manufacturing Company, a joint venture between Harbin Aviation, MCIC Holdings (Malaysian) & Mitsubishi Motors which has an output of about 65 PS (48 kW). Transmission is a 5-speed manual type, and an automatic is being explored.” source from wikipedia… the engine no wonder can hit 170km per hour… it has mitsubishi motor DNA…
i’m just being objective. to me, the new interior colours and rims and rear lights especially make a big difference to the way it looks. hated the old wheels and lights though. saw the car in the showroom and the quality is oklah for what it is.
it’s no go-kart though. just an honest little city car… without an auto box. maybe it’s ok for smaller towns with less jams!!
pretty sure the people at naza are reading the posts here. with the car market being so competitive, i’m sure everybody will notice what is said here and do the necessary. but i guess it’s kinda hard to change ppl’s opinions though. especially those who have different experiences.
by the way, i normally support the underdogs as i think they all need a second chance!!
lowprofile and lovemycar…
do you guys have any connection with Naza?
I hope that Forza’s will be available in AT along with ABS.
stop produce silly car NAZA..
keep designing ur own dsign…
even perodua still depend design from daihatsu..
try to find our own identity la….
COME ON …
WAKE-UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Expected to grow in market in a very short time. Good Luck.
forza – sutera.. should say facelifted sutera maybe.. but still ok la.. theyre growing up.. good luck!! =)
please….. no more dumb cars on this blog anymore! take it away! throw it into the longkang….! lol
Yes, Bring it on!!! FORZA!!!
i don’t think the forza is supposed to take on the myvi. it is not even in the same price range. the viva probably yes. but, the only thing the viva has over the forza is the name isn’t it? and that’s why everybody is supporting it isn’t it? size wise, i think the Forza is bigger than the viva both inside and out. do have a look at it in the showroom and even test drive it (against a similar spec MANUAL viva) then only post your comments.
Come on guys…give Naza Forza a chance!
After all, it took Proton 10 years to improvise their cars…Naza took less than 2 years to do it!!!
Bring it on!!! FORZA!!!
no interest in it…
its the bloody same car leh
but still cant fight with myvi in terms of space and comfort…
no fight against the VIVA too …
OMG ! what is the world coming too ?
si beh sien leh
sutera and later, forza.. give it any bombastic name but it’s still a ‘celup’ car. maybe it has quality, but does it have identity?
maybe you should go to the showroom to see for yourself if it’s quality is really better than before before forming judgements. what most of you guys are doing is condemning it without really even having a look at it, just because it looks similar to the old car. it’s like judging a new book by it’s cover even though the new cover looks like the old book, the contect may be different. i agree also that looks are subjective. maybe there are others outside this forum that like the looks?
y always the malaysian car do new facelift? and sell on higher price even the quality of car is poor?
hhahaha…forza?
not much diff wth old base model…
i dont like design of Sutera@Forza abt the signal n tail light…like under construction….but if this car do lowered n bodykits n oso black color…..ganaz babe on the road.
This is totally a failure production…. couldn’t believe they keep this production alive !!!!
at least proton has design department, not only car a whole, but how to manipulate some facelifting, color,r3 image
if proton goes r3, naza goes sportiveo same body stripe,
if proton having that orange and green, they wnat orange and green,
naza really has no ideas what so ever about ‘beauty’ or ‘design’
adeehhh!!!! feenin2x.. @_@