During this Eid festive season, surely many of you faced the same problem; packing all the luggage to the week-long balik kampung trip. Also, since we live in Malaysia, we are blessed with many similar long vacation throughout the year, covering Chinese New Year, Raya Aidiladha, Christmas, Deepavali and that does not include other public holiday that falls on the strategic day of the weekdays that usually prompt an extension of the weekend. So we are likely to face the packing problem many times throughout the year, and likely to get pissed off more than once. Especially if you wife want to bring back the whole wardrobe along! Plus maybe the washing machine!
What is the perfect car then for the occasion? Let's form the requirements. How many kids typically a family has? Let set it as 3 kids for the young 30-something couple. How far do you travel? Lets assume from Kedah to Johor to cover the worst case scenario to cover both sides of the family. Let's also assume the back seat is occupied by wife who need to take car of the small baby in the baby seat. So the rear seat has to be comfortable too.
From family requirement point of view, the more spacious the car is, the better and merrier. Take into account also the need to have a quick meal inside the car while the R&R is cramped like stadium during World Cup finale. Take also into account the necessity to pack a bag each for each of family member. Don't forget about the baby too which needs diapers and milk, hot water etc. As if it is not enough, what about taking in-laws for a ride at kampung for family-bonding things? So the perfect car for this case has to be as below? The kid will appreciate the presence of the DVD player too.
The enthusiastic driver may not agree. During the lengthy trip, often congested (even after forking out the hard-earned money on toll), there's an opportunity to enjoy the back road. The winding sweeper, or tight right hander combines with some undulation is a stress-reliever for many. So, to drive around a minibus that threatened to topple over at every bend is not a good idea too. It is also not too fun to sit perched up too high like a London Bus driver, hence a low slung seating position is a desired. The perfect option. Look at any car the bachelor guy might choose. Like this.
In ideal case (or in other country) we might choose a different car for each purposes. Thanks to the exorbitant car price in the our home sweet home country, and really inconvenient salary to car price ratio ( Honda Jazz 1.2L in UK costs GBP12k, the fresh graduate on his first ever year of working gets GBP20k a year!), we need a car that can perform all of those above in one package. Meaning that one car that fits it all. Clearly a compromise has to be made. Who should sacrifice? The father? The baby? Does the ideal car exist? Read more after the jump.
