How To Find The Information You Need?

Lately as I read and responded to private emails from my reader, I realized that some of my readers are having a bit of difficulty in finding the right information to help them with their ownership of their giant (Toyota Alphard).

As the number of blog posts increases, some of the useful posts is no longer easy to find from the index page. As in any blogging platform the latest posts will go on the first page while the older posts will not be visible unless you go through the pages or search the archive.

The archive in the blogger.com platform is display by month and only the recent month entries are expanded by default in the index page. Therefore going through the archive to find the information you need is tedious and time consuming. This is one of the drawback of a blogspot blog compared to a hosted WordPress blog. I can't complain much since blogger.com is FREE.

I have recently included category into the my index page but then the category doesn't give you the context of the posts it linked to. Clicking any of the category link will bring you to all posts categoried under it. You still have to go through each pages to read through the content to find the information you need.

Therefore I decided to create an index page for all the posts that are relevant to help my reader with their ownership experience. This index page is like an FAQ related to our giant.

Please note that the FAQ apply mostly to the NFL model which I own.

You can find the index page here.

Hope this help

One Year On With My Toyota Alphard

Today is the one year anniversary of my ownership of the giant. Can't believed that time flies so fast and now the car is one year older. Mileage wise it is still pretty low as I hardly drive the car nowaday. So far I have only clocked about 10,000km for the full year in 2009!

Overall the ownership experience has been very pleasant. The giant hasn't given me any problem so far. Other than that once in a while crackling sound from the steering knuckle in the morning there is no other problem encountered so far. That is probably a testimony to the quality of Toyota car that I have heard off but never experienced it until now. It is funny that I have been a Honda fan for so long (I owned 4 Honda cars before) and none of them have given me the same ownership experience as my giant.

Other than the mis-fortune of an attempted break-in which cost me quite a bit, the maintenance of this gentle giant is very low. So far I have only done one maintenance service which cost me about RM400, I have not spend any other amount on maintenance other than the routine petrol costs. Out of the RM400, more than half of it is for the fully synthetic engine oil that I have chosen. Anyway I can't argue much about this as my ownership of my previous SUV costed me 3 times more within the same duration.

I have also installed a set of ICE into the giant for my own my passenger entertainment. However most of the time I drive the car alone and I thoroughly enjoyed the enhanced sound systems listening to my favourite CDs.

I have only driven the giant outstation twice! The first time was with the AOC members for their durian trip and the other was to Ipoh to attend a relative dinner function. This year I plan to take the giant for more outstation trips as much as I can.

I just change out the roadtax sticker this morning and then send the car to my regular accessory shop to fix the angel eyes. Yes one of the mod I did to the giant was to change the HID light bulbs in the front light cluster to projector lamps and added 4 angel eye rings (2 on each side). One of the ballast blown so the shop change it for me under warranty. This is the effect of the angel eyes when it is on.

Throuh 2009 I have really learned a lot about this car. I started this blog with the intention of just writing about my owership experience of the giant but it ended up more of technical know-how blog site for Toyota Alphard.

I have gotten a lot of queries and comments from my readers of my blog. I appreciate their times and efforts in readingmy blog. I hope my answers has help the readers in their ownership experiences. I have also received emails from reader asking for assistance to find their dream "giant". I am glad that I have managed to help a few of them in their purchase of their giants.

I know I haven't been blogging much lately as I am starting another project. I have a few technical posts that I wanted to finish up but have been postponing them for quite a while. I will try to find more time to write about the giant and will continue to respond to those who is looking for help on acquiring their own giant.

Cheers

Model Code for Toyota Alphard MZG

When I was researching for the model code of 1st gen Toyota Alphard, I didn't see the actual model code for MZG. What is listed in that table only shows that MZG is just another variant of MZ.

During today TT with a group of AOC members, I saw the model code of two different MZG and that bring back my continue research on this subject. The reason to continue with this is due to the fact that even though both are MZG models, one car has more features and fittings that another. Because of that, I started going back to the Net and found the following.

The Alphard G MZG carry the following model codes:

MNH10-PFKAQ-G for 2WD model
MNH15-PFKAQ-G for 4WD model

The Alphard V MZG carry the following model codes:

MNH10-PFKAQ-R for 2WD model
MNH15-PFKAQ-R for 4WD model

It is also interesting to note that Alphard G MZG supplied by Toyopet seems to have fuller specification that those Alphard V MZG supplied by Netz. The Alphard V MZG that I saw today was missing the front camera and 5.1 theatre sound system which I read is supposed to be a standard feature in an MZG. At least in today research I found it it not the case. There seems to be so much more to learn about the specifications of these giants from Toyota!

The Real 2nd Gen Toyota Alphard

My blog has been focusing on the 1st Gen Alphard as that's what I am familiar with. I wasn't planning to do any posting on 2nd Gen Alphard since I can't afford one (now) and I don't have enough information to write something on that model. The only exception so far is that a reader asked me to put together the list of model code for 2nd Gen Alphard. I have to do a bit of research at the Toyota official website to come up with that list.

Recently I did a search on Google and noticed there are a lot of people blog about the new 2nd Gen Toyota Alphard. However one thing that baffle me is that they are not posting the picture/photo of the rear 2nd Gen Toyota Alphard. As I was doing research on the model code for 2nd Gen Toyota Alphard above I l so often looked the photo of the 2nd Gen Toyota Alphard that I instancely can tell how it looks like (see photo below).

If you do a search on the keywords "Toyota Alphard" in Google, the 2nd entry posted the photo of the FT-MV concept car but called it the "New Toyota Alphard 2009". The 11th entry also posted the same photo. As I go through the pages, I saw many other blogs also posted the same photo and yet called it the "Toyota Alphard 2009".

The Toyota FT-MV Concept car was launched in 2007 at the Tokyo Auto Show. The new Toyota Alphard took a lot of the styling cues from the FT-MV concept car hence they look very similar. Paul Tan actually did a write up on the FT-MV Concept car back in 2007.

So everytime I come across a blog showing the FT-MV concept car as the new Toyota Alphard 2009, I will just smile and move on.

PS. As the days goes by, the entry in the Google search results will change so if the above link doesn't work then it might have drop off/move to another position.

Model Code for 2nd Gen Alphard/Vellfire

So far, my blog has cover only the 1st generation Toyota Alphard. This is my first post on anything related to the 2nd generation Toyota Alphard/Vellfire. After I posted the model codes for 1st gen Toyota Alphard, I have received a request from an AOC member to also put up the model codes for 2nd generation Toyota Alphard and/or Vellfire. After I did a bit of research on the Toyota official website, I managed to compile the following table:

Model Code	From	Frame	Characteristics
Alphard
GGH20W-PFTQK(L)	05/2008 -	GGH20	350G L Package V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S
GGH20W-PFTQK	05/2008 -	GGH20	350G V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S
GGH20W-PRTQK	05/2008 -	GGH20	350G V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 08S
GGH20W-PFTQK(W)	05/2008 -	GGH20	350G V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S with Side Lift Seat
GGH20W-PFTSK(C)	05/2008 -	GGH20	350S C Package V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S
GGH20W-PFTSK	05/2008 -	GGH20	350S V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S *1
GGH20W-PRTSK	05/2008 -	GGH20	350S V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 08S
GGH20W-PFTSK (W)	05/2008 -	GGH20	350S V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S with Side Lift Seat
GGH20W-PRTGK	05/2008 -	GGH20	350X V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 08S
ANH20W-PFXQK	05/2008 -	ANH20	240G V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 07S
ANH20W-PRXQK	05/2008 -	ANH20	240G V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 08S
ANH20W-PFXSK	05/2008 -	ANH20	240S V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 07S *2
ANH20W-PRXSK	05/2008 -	ANH20	240S V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 08S
ANH20W-PRXGK	05/2008 -	ANH20	240X V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 08S
ANH20W-PFXGK	05/2008 -	ANH20	240X V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 07S with Side Lift Seat
Vellfire
GGH20W-NFTSK (C)	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5Z G Edition V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S
GGH20W-NFTSK	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5Z V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S *3
GGH20W-NRTSK	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5Z V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 08S
GGH20W-NFTSK(W)	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5Z V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S with Side Lift Seat
GGH20W-NFTQK(L)	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5V L Package V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S
GGH20W-NFTQK	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5V V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S
GGH20W-NRTQK	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5V V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 08S
GGH20W-NRTQK (W)	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5V V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 07S with Side Lift Seat
GGH20W-NRTGK	05/2008 -	GGH20	3.5X V VAN 2GRFE 6SETC 08S
ANH20W-NFXSK	05/2008 -	ANH20	2.4Z V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 07S *3
ANH20W-NRXSK	05/2008 -	ANH20	2.4Z V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 08S
ANH20W-NFXQK	05/2008 -	ANH20	2.4V V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 07S
ANH20W-NRXQK	05/2008 -	ANH20	2.4V V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 08S
ANH20W-NRXGK	05/2008 -	ANH20	2.4X V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 08S
ANH20W-NFXGK	05/2008 -	ANH20	2.4X V VAN 2AZFE 7SCVTi 07S with Side Lift Seat

Similar to the model codes for 1st gen Toyota Alphard, the 1st column in the above table is the model code that you will see in a 2nd gen Alphard/Vellfire's chassis number plate. An example is shown below.
The 2nd column indicate the years in which this model was manufactured. The 3rd column indicate the frame type. ANH is the frame code for 2.4L model while GGH is the frame code for 3.5L model. The two digits after that indicates whether it is a 2WD (20) or a 4WD (25). In the table I only listed the 2WD model. Just substitute the numeral 20 with 25 for a 4WD model.

The 4th column indicates the characteristics of this car. The first set of alphabet is the model type. The Alphard will have the designation of 350 or 240 while the Vellfire will have the designation of 3.5 or 2.4. The next character Z/V/S/X is to indicates what fittings are available the model type. I will not go into details here as there are a lot of combination for each model type.

The next set of alphabet shows that it is of VAN (V) body type. The next set of code is the engine code (2AZFE for 2.4L and 2GRFE for 3.5L). The next set of alphabet shows the gear shift type (6SETC - 6 speed super ETC and 7SCVTi - 7 speed super continous variable timing) and final set of alphabet indicates whether it is a 7 seaters (07S) or 8 (08S) seaters. Some model also come fitted with side left seat to aid disable/elder to get in or out of the giant.

Note: Recently Toyota launched a few more variant of the Alphard/Vellfire. The side note in the table above indicates the following:

*1 350S “Prime Selection” Edition also share the same model code. It has Alcantara seats, and brown woodgrain for steering wheel, front door trim, shifting lever and shifting knob.

*2 240S “Limited” Edition also shared the same model code. It has special body colour (grey metallic) and special interior colour. It comes with twin power doors, original gross brown woodgrain decoration (for center cluster and folding side table).

*3 Vellfire 2.4Z and 3.5Z “Platinum Selection” shared the same model code as the 2.4Z and 3.5Z model. It is equipped with power boot, Alcantara seats, and brown woodgrain for steering wheel, front door trim, shifting lever and shifting knob.

Model Code for 1st Gen Toyota Alphard

I was looking through some parts reference site and found the following information that will be useful. The table below shows the model code for all the 1st generation Toyota Alphard.

Model Code	From	Frame	Characteristics
ANH10W-PFPGK	05/2002 -	ANH10	AX V VAN 2AZFE 4FC 07S
ANH10W-PFPSK	05/2002 -	ANH10	AS V VAN 2AZFE 4FC 07S
ANH10W-PRPGK	05/2002 -	ANH10	AX V VAN 2AZFE 4FC 08S
ANH10W-PRPSK	05/2002 -	ANH10	AS V VAN 2AZFE 4FC 08S
ANH15W-PFPGK	05/2002 -	ANH15	AX V VAN 2AZFE 4FC 07S
ANH15W-PFPSK	05/2002 -	ANH15	AS V VAN 2AZFE 4FC 07S
ANH15W-PRPGK	05/2002 -	ANH15	AX V VAN 2AZFE 4FC 08S
ANH15W-PRPSK	05/2002 -	ANH15	AS V VAN 2AZFE 4FC 08S
ATH10W-PFXGB	07/2003 -	ATH10	JPN 2AZFXE 07S
ATH10W-PRXGB	07/2003 -	ATH10	JPN 2AZFXE 08S
MNH10W-PFPGK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH10	MX V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 07S
MNH10W-PFPQK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH10	MZ V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 07S
MNH10W-PFPSK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH10	MS V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 07S
MNH10W-PRPGK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH10	MX V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 08S
MNH10W-PRPQK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH10	MZ V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 08S
MNH10W-PRPSK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH10	MS V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 08S
MNH10W-PFAGK	04/2005 -	MNH10	MX V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 07S
MNH10W-PFAQK	04/2005 -	MNH10	MZ V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 07S
MNH10W-PFASK	04/2005 -	MNH10	MS V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 07S
MNH10W-PRAGK	04/2005 -	MNH10	MX V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 08S
MNH10W-PRAQK	04/2005 -	MNH10	MZ V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 08S
MNH10W-PRASK	04/2005 -	MNH10	MS V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 08S
MNH15W-PFPGK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH15	MX V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 07S
MNH15W-PFPQK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH15	MZ V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 07S
MNH15W-PFPSK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH15	MS V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 07S
MNH15W-PRPGK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH15	MX V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 08S
MNH15W-PRPQK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH15	MZ V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 08S
MNH15W-PRPSK	05/2002 - 03/2005	MNH15	MS V VAN 1MZFE 4FC 08S
MNH15W-PFAGK	04/2005 -	MNH15	MX V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 07S
MNH15W-PFAQK	04/2005 -	MNH15	MZ V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 07S
MNH15W-PFASK	04/2005 -	MNH15	MS V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 07S
MNH15W-PRAGK	04/2005 -	MNH15	MX V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 08S
MNH15W-PRAQK	04/2005 -	MNH15	MZ V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 08S
MNH15W-PRASK	04/2005 -	MNH15	MS V VAN 1MZFE 5FC 08S

The 1st column is the model code that you will see in your giant's chassis number plate. An example is shown below.

The 2nd column indicate the years in which this model was manufacture. The 3rd column indicate the frame type. ANH is the frame code for 2.4L model, ATH is the frame code for Hybrid model while MNH is the frame code for 3.0L model. The two digits after that indicates whether it is a 2WD (10) or a 4WD (15).
The 4th column indicates the characteristics of this car. The first two alphabet is the model type (AX/AS/MX/MS/MZ). The next set of alphabet shows that it is of VAN (V) body type. The next set of code is the engine code (2AZFE for 2.4L and 1MZFE for 3.0L). The next set of alphabet shows the gear shift type (4FC - 4 speed automatic floor shift and 5FC - 5 speed automatic floor shift) and final set of alphabet indicates whether it is a 7 seaters or 8 seaters.
If you see a giant and wanted the absolute confirmation, just match the model code of that giant to the table above to verify the model and characteristic.
Hope this help with the identification of your giant.

Update: I have uploaded the table here. Click the link to download it.

Less AP so the price maintain

I got a call last week from a fellow forum member who enquire on what to look out for as he is looking for his giant (Toyota Alphard). We spoke at length on the various models and features that comes with each model.

Last week I took a drive to the dealer whom I bought my giant from. I was surprised to see that his yard has only a few unit of giant remaining. I remember when I was searching for my giant at his yard 7 months ago, his yard was full of giants. So I enquire with my Sales Advisor (SA) what's going on there. He highlighted that lately there is a lack of Approved Permit (AP) hence the lack of supply of cars.

The rumours goes that there is a new person looking after the AP issuance now and strictly enforce the usage of the AP. It seems owner of AP cannot sell the AP to dealers anymore. Also, dealer who is also AP holder must display their car within their own yard and hence non-AP holder who is getting their cars from those AP holders must now ask their customer to visit the yard of the AP holder. This will make it difficult for the non-AP holder dealer to sell their car now and inconvenient the customer to have to go to different places to see the car and then back to the dealer yard to negotiate the price etc.

I actually asked the SA to show me what he got and he took me to another dealer yard 5 minutes drive from his place. I had a look at that giant which is same year and selling the same price as mine but come with one less power door, no bluetooth and no roof-mounted LCD. Looks like the price of the giants has maintained for the last 6 months.

Due to the lack of supply of AP, the number of giants that are brought in also getting less. I also took a trip to Cheras AutoCity a week later to check out the availability of giants there. I remember back in early January I visited AutoCity almost every weekend just to check out if any new giant have arrived at the dealer yards.

Back then, almost every dealer would have a few unit of giants in their yard waiting for buyers. However, this time I noticed that only a handful of dealers are have stock for the giants. These dealers are also AP holder so they can afford to import the giants.

Also I noticed some of the larger dealers also started to import the 2nd generation Toyota Alphard and Toyota Vellfire. That means the number of 1st generation Toyota Alphard imported will also be smaller as the dealer will make more money selling 2nd generation Alphard/Vellfire as these cars cost almost double the price of the 1st generation.

While I was there, I did check out a few dealers to find out what spec are available now. Most the 1st generation Alphard are either 2005 or 2006 2.4L new facelift model. However, the spec are quite low compared to what was available many months ago. Most of them has one power door, rear camera and HU without the bluetooth function. There were some with twin power door but fitted with after market HU that don't come with bluetooth function.

The 2005 model was asking for RM185K onward while the 2006 model is going for RM195K before negotiation. Given that the spec of these cars are not high, I would imagine the price should be lower. But then since there is lack of AP which means less car to choose from so it also drive the price high up again. I would recommend any potential buyer to wait for another batch to get a better spec giant.

Pre-Facelift and New Facelift?

In my last post, I show you how to determine the year of manufacture on the unit you are interested in. I also mentioned that from May 2005 onward, the Toyota Alphard receive a minor face lift. In this post, I will show you how to differentiate a pre-facelift unit from a new facelift unit.

Exterior

On the exterior, there are some changes in the head light cluster at the front and at the rear.

In the photo below, it show side-by-side the front head light cluster of a pre-facelift (left photo) and new facelift model (right photo).

The new facelift front light cluster has two extruding white lip at the side. The pre-facelift light cluster has an orange signal light at the back portion of the light cluster while the new facelift has clear glass at the back. If you view from the side, you'll see the different as shown below.


Since the front light cluster is different in size, the front grille size is also different but it is not easy to see through the naked eye. The easiest way to identity the different is that the new facelift top grille is thicker as shown in the right photo below.


Anyway one should not use the grille as the absolute way to differential the model because the previous owner might have change to after market grille.

At the rear, there are changes on the appearance of the signal light cover and the reverse light cover.

The new facelift rear signal light cover has two white strips (right photo) while the pre-facelift has only one large strip (left photo).


The pre-facelift reverse light cover is smaller (left photo) while the new facelift model (right photo) has a larger cover with distinct round shape internal light element.


Interior

The major change in the interior is the head unit. In the photo below, the left photo shows the new facelift unit has an 8-inch head unit while the pre-facelift unit has smaller head unit.


Since the new facelift model come out in May 2005, by looking on all the features at the exterior mentioned above, you can be certain that a it is a NFL unit.

Is it possible to upgrade a pre-facelift unit to a new facelift look? The answer is a resounding YES. However, the cost is also very high because the entire front light clusters, the grille and the side panels has to be changed. At the rear, the entire rear light cluster and the center panel also needs to be changed. Last I heard it will cost RM8K upward for the facelift to be done locally.

Even if the owner has change the exterior from pre-facelift to new facelift, the interior such as the head unit cannot be easily change. The wiring harness from the pre-facelift model cannot be fitted into the new facelift hear unit. I have seen cases where the dealer posted the ad for a NFL unit but then the interior clearly shows that it is a pre-facelift model.

My next post will go cover the front and rear camera operation.

Learn More About Toyota Alphard

Before I write more on the features available on my giant, I do get a few private queries from interested buyers on where can they get more information about this car, specifically from local used car dealer.

Since Toyota Alphard is a product of the Land of the Rising Sun, almost all information on this car is in Japanese. Most non-Japanese speaker will find it hard to extract the relevant information from the Toyota official website. Also, most enthusiasts of this car in Japan will be blogging about their beloved giant in (naturally) Japanese so a non-Japanese speaking reader will find it hard to understand what has been blogged.

So where do one find out more about this car if they are interested to buy one unit?

A typical buyer would like to start with the official Toyota Japan website. However it is in Japanese and even if you do read Japanese, they only publish information about the current model (May 2008, aka 2nd generation Alphard). As of the writing of this blog, most of the Toyota Alphard we get in here are year 2007 or below. Fortunately the official Toyota website do kept the catalogs of the 1st generation Alphard.

I managed to find these catalogs during one of my search on that website and you car get them from the links below.

Alphard-G
Pre-facelift - manufactured 2003/7 onward - http://web-cache.stream.ne.jp/www09/toyota-catalog/pdf/alphardg-1/alphardg-1_200307.pdf
Minor facelift - manufactured 2005/5 onward- http://web-cache.stream.ne.jp/www09/toyota-catalog/pdf/alphardg-1/alphardg-1_200504.pdf
NFL model - manufactured 2007/6 onward - http://web-cache.stream.ne.jp/www09/toyota-catalog/pdf/alphardg-1/alphardg-1_200706.pdf

Alphard-V
Pre-facelift - manufactured 2003/7 onward - http://web-cache.stream.ne.jp/www09/toyota-catalog/pdf/alphardv-1/alphardv-1_200307.pdf
Minor facelift - manufactureed 2005/5 onward- http://web-cache.stream.ne.jp/www09/toyota-catalog/pdf/alphardv-1/alphardv-1_200504.pdf
NFL model - manufactured 2007/6 onward - http://web-cache.stream.ne.jp/www09/toyota-catalog/pdf/alphardv-1/alphardv-1_200706.pdf

Note: I intend to blog about the difference between the G and V model in future post.

By downloading these catalogs, you can compare the various features between the pre-facelifted and facelifted model. Again, these catalogs are all in Japanese so you might not understands all the wordings. However, they do have a lot of pictures that highlights most of the important features.

Now that you have an understanding what features are available in which model, you want to know which dealers carry these cars. There are several local sources of advertisement for these cars. The most popular one is The Star Classified section of The Star Newspaper. The other is the weekly Motor Trader magazine. Both also has the equivalent online version of the classified ad. I prefer to use The Star Classified online because it is much easier to search than the online version of the Motor Trader . The advantage of the Motor Trader online search that you can do more granular search (by year etc) and each of the ad normally comes with a photo of the car.

So you took down the details of the ad and visited the dealer on the model you are interested in. After you check out the car, test drive it, you brought home some further details of the cars you are interested in but you wanted a 2nd opinion. You start to look for online forum wanting to post your questions but you are not sure which forum to post because there are hardly any forums on Alphard at that time.

As of the end of last year, this car is heavily discussed in the Motor Trader forum. They have a section dedicated to discussion on Toyota MPV . Prior to end of last year, most of the enthusiasts or owners of this car will gathered at that forum. Topics on Toyota Alphard is very active so there is lot to learn from some of the more experienced owners/enthusiasts. However since that forum is on Toyota MPVs many other threads on other Toyota model will also be discussed so one has to constantly follow the Alphard thread to read the up-to-date discussions. Also, once a thread has gone beyond certain (I think 24/25) pages, a new thread will be created so it is not easy to keep track of the active topics. Fortunately the old threads are archived so whoever new to the topic can always refer to the archived thread. You can still post your questions to that forum but most of the active Alphard members have already move on to another forum so your questions might not be answered. The other issue with the Motor Trader forum is that it doesn't support photo attachment.

I used to frequent that forum and learn a lot from there. Toward the end of last years, a bunch of very active members decided to create a dedicated forum for Alphard. Through the initiative of one of the member, a group of Alphard owners from KL as well as some owners from JB come up to KL during the 1st week of Jan'09 to have a mini TT (TT stands for Teh Tarik - the unofficial slang for group gathering, drinking tea [the the teh tarik part] while chit-chatting). After that mini-TT, the group decided to create a dedicated forum for Malaysia Alphard owners. Through the generosity of one of the forum member who hosted a website, the forum called "Alphard Asia Owner Club" (AOC) was born. A lot of the Alphard owners/enthusiasts who used to frequent the Motor Trader Toyota MPV forum now have moved over to AOC forum. I now frequent that forum to share what I have learned so far about my giant.

If anyone is interested to learn more about Alphard, do visit AOC, registered as a member and joined in the discussions. You don't have to own an Alphard to be a member.

Hopefully after you join AOC and gotten all your answers you can made your final decision and become an Alphard owner. Congratulation and welcome to the club.

What features are in my giant - Toyota Alphard?

Let have a look at some of the features that come with my giant (Toyota Alphard).

The twin power door is an very important features because it provide the flexibility for the passenger to get in or come out in whichever side that is convenient. Here is a rear view when both power doors are opened.



Also with the power doors, the opening and closing of both doors can be controlled by the drivers. Similarly the power doors can be controlled via the remote buttons on the master car key. This feature is very handy whenever I go out with my wife. She doesn't like the hot sun and before we get into the car, I would have already open the door for her to get in. Yes, she like to sit in the middle row seats because she can move about (whichever direction the sunlight come, she can always move to the other side!)

If you couldn't find a unit with twin power door and decided to take one with a single power door, do note that the cost to retrofit the other vacuum door with the power door is quite expensive. Last I heard it will cost upward to RM7K. Take your time to find one unit with twin power door if you think your really need it.

This is the view of the steering wheel and tachometer from the driver side.


You'll noticed that on the steering wheel, there are a few buttons on both sides.

Let start with the right hand side. The top two button on the right side are used to control the telephone function. The top button will disconnect the phone while the 2nd button below is used to receive incoming phone calls. One of the reason I have chosen the NFL model is because it comes with Bluetooth function. With this feature, the moment I step into the car, the built-in Bluetooth unit will automatically establish connection with my mobile phone. Whenever a call comes in, I just have to press the receive button (the 2nd button) on the steering and I will be able to speak to the caller and listen to the phone conversation via the car speakers, without having to press any key on that phone.

The 3rd button is the front camera button. Because the car is tall and you sit up high, it is not easy to gauge the distant to the front of the car when you are driving or parking. Pressing the front camera button will turn on the camera view on the head unit and you can see how close you are to the object in front of the car. The front camera view will only come on the head unit when the car is either stationary or it is moving below 10km/h.

Now to the left hand side. The lowest button on the left of the steering wheel is the mode button. It allow you change the operating mode of the head unit from radio to DVD player, MD player, HDD media player or GPS function (which is not operational in this country). The top 2 buttons on the left of the steering wheel is used to control the volume of the head unit. The next two buttons below that are used to change the channel/selection depending on which mode the head unit is operating on.

This is a view of the center console from the middle seats.


And this is a close up view of the center console

The head unit in the center console has an 8-inch LCD display. This is a standard fitting on the NFL model. Older model would have a head unit with smaller screen. This is also one of the reason why I choose NFL model over the older model. This head unit has more functions than the head unit from the older model. Specifically it support DVD, MD, GPS, Bluetooth and front/back camera. In future posts I will share more on these features.

Below the LCD display are the air conditioner control buttons. These buttons allow you to control the front and rear outlets of the air conditioning. To control the rear outlets, you'll have to first push the "Rear" button on the left side of the airconditioner control buttons panel.

On the left handside of the clock display, there is a rectangle shape of a car with 4 dots at each corner. That is the sonar sensor/indicator. The sonar sensor button is directly below that rectangle shape (the left most black button) is used to activate the sonar sensor. In this post, I covered the sonar sensor functionality briefly.

If you look closely at the gear shift, you'll notice that this car is still a 4-speeds model. A lot of people has the misconception that all NFL model comes with 5-speed gearbox. Only the 3.0L NFL model comes with 5-speeds gearbox. The 2.4L NFL maintain the 4-speeds gearbox as in previous model.

On the passenger side, there is a two-layer glove box as shown below.

In some model such as those with 5.1 theatre sound system, the DVD player is installed in the upper glove box.

This is the view from the rear seat looking up at the roof.

On the top are the control buttons for the rear air conditioning outlets. The rear passengers can control the air conditioning independent of those at the front. There are 4 separate outlet for air conditioning on each side for both the middle and rear row passengers (actually there are more but I won't go into each location).

Further upfront is the 9-inch roof-mounted LCD. This is not a standard option for an AX-L model. The previous owner in Japan has chosen this as an installable item when he purchase this car. If your model don't have a roof-mounted LCD, you can retrofit it locally but it is going to cost quite a bit.

The roof-mounted LCD has it own remote control unit so that the rear passenger can control the head unit as well as the LCD display. This is how the remote control unit look like.


I will cover in another post on the sliding seats function.

My Giant - A Toyota Alphard

Now would be a good time to introduce my giant (a Toyota Alphard).

Mine is a 2.4litre 2005 NFL Alphard V model. It is a 8 seaters with 2 power doors, original head unit with front and rear camera, bluetooth function, roof mounted LCD, front and rear sonar sensors, and multi-function steering.

This is front view of my giant.
A view from the rear
This is called an AX-L model, which doesn't has any body kit, standard 16-inch rims and the tail pipe is small and not visible from far.

I have choosen the pearl white colour unit because it brings out all the lines of this boxy car.



An AX-L a high spec model in the AX model range for Toyota Alphard. The standard AX typically comes with single power door on the passenger side while the driver side will have vacuum door. Also typically a AX-L will have multi-function steering while an AX comes without. Mine also comes with a roof-mouted LCD which is typically not available on AX.
Here is a view of the middle row seats. Notice the large space in between the middle rows and the front seats
We have choosen fabric seats because my wife cannot stands leather smell. I like the beige colour because it make the whole car looks neat and clean, although it is not easy to maintain.

Here is a view from the rear with the boot opened.

The car is still in stock form since I owned it and the only modification I did was changing the stock 16-inch rims to 17-inch rims. Here is a before and after image of the rims.


In future blogs, I am going to cover more details of the features in this giant.

Updates: I have since change my rim back to 16-inch stock set up as shown on the above photo on the left. I also swapped in a new set of Goodyear LS2000 Hybrid II tyres imported from Japan.

Beginning Of The Eight Seater Story - A Toyota Alphard

When I started looking for a car to replace my previous ride, I wasn't thinking of driving a giant on the road everyday.

My previous ride is an SUV and in this part of the world it size is consider quite big on our road. I have got used to it size so when I am looking at replacing the car, I was thinking of something slighly larger but not the largest at that time. That SUV served me well for 3 years and as many owners of this brand of car quite rightly said, it will start to break down after 3 years. Mine really start to act up after 3 1/2 years of owning it so I started to look for a replacement.

My initial plan is to look for an MPV which is slightly larger in size than my SUV. I already got used to sitting high up with the SUV so driving the MPV is not an issue for me. My brother-in-law own an MPV and it 7-seaters arrangement come in handy as it can carry as many family members whenever we go out. However, the 2 individual seater arrangement in the middle row of that MPV gave away one seat so when I started looking at mine, my first criteria is that it must be an 8 seaters (in 2-3-3 arrangement). At least when I need it I can carry one more passenger since the middle row of a 8-seater is a bench seat arrangement (actually 60/40 split of two seats). With that in mind, I started going out to the used car dealers yard looking for the car.

My original plan is to get an Estima as it has that aerodynamic look from the front. Also, the price range of the Estima fits my budget. I went to almost every dealer in the surrouding of KL hunting for one that has the specifications I needed. 8 seaters, two power doors, sunroof/moonroof, head unit with reverse camera function. Well after looking at many units, I couldn't find one that either fit my specifications or the price is not right. I wasn't even thinking about it bigger-size brother at all.

One day we drop by in one of the dealer and saw several units of Toyota Alphard with almost all the specifications I wanted. My wife and I also test drove the cars and we start to change our mind. Both of us is debating whether we really need such a big car for just the two of us. I reasoned that when we need the space, the Alphard can carry as many of our family members when we need it. We actually went back to the dealer 3 times to look at that car, negotiated the price and then only on the 3rd visit, we signed on the dotted line! In fact the dealer make the deal sweeter for us by offering us a reduction in the price voluntarily on the last day.

As we walk out of the dealer premise, we are still asking ourself do we really want to drive such a big car everyday?

Well, that was 3 months ago and today I am actually driving this giant on the road almost every day. My wife has a choice of 7 seats to choose from whenever we go out.

And this is the beginning of the eight seaters story.

Index of All How To Pages

This index lists all the informational and howto pages that help with the ownership experience of Toyota Alphard owners.

General

1. How to learn more about your giant? Click Here

2. How to determine the year of manufacture of your giant? Click Here

3. How to know if your giant is a pref-facelift (PFL) or new-facelift (NFL) model? Click Here

4. Learn what are all the buttons in your giant. Click Here

5. How to differentiate between a G and V model? Click Here

6. Model Code for 1st Generation Toyota Alphard? Click Here

7. Model Code for 2nd Generation Toyota Alpharrd? Click Here

8. How many grade of Toyota Alphard are there? Click Here

9. What are the body colour available for the 1st Generation Toyota Alphard? Click Here

10. How to tell if it is a 2WD or 4WD model 1st Generation Toyota Alphard? Click Here


Operation

1. How to operate your front and rear cameras? Click Here

2. How to operate the head unit (NFL)? Click Here

3. How to operate the radio function in the head unit? Click Here

4. How to operate the CD player in the head unit? Click Here

5. How to operate the DVD player in the head unit? Click Here

6. How to operate the HDD function in the head unit? Click Here

7. How to operate the Bluetooth function in the head unit? Click Here

8. How to set up the Phone Book in the head unit? Click Here

9. How to operate the Hands-free function in the head unit? Click Here

10. How to configure other options in the head unit? Click Here

11. How to set up the maintenance reminder in the head unit? Click Here

12. How to initialize the content in the HDD in the head unit (NFL)? Click Here

13. How to delete a track or playlist from the HDD in the head unit (NFL)? Click Here

14. How to program the door auto-lock and unlock? Click Here


Maintenance

1. How to replace the air con filter element? Click Here

2. How to replace the air filter element? Click Here

3. Location of fuses in your Toyota Alphard? Click Here


Ownership

1. What options should you choose for your Toyota Alphard? Click Here

2. Why full specs model is rare? Click Here

3. Learn more before you buy that unit? Click Here

4. Looking for English owner manual? Click Here

5. Retrofit doesn't not equal original? Click Here


Updated: Jan 14, 2010