Guest Post From A Reader

This is the first guest post from a reader. He shared with me his joy of how he managed to use the information I posted in this blog to help him to find his giant. I have edited some contents to protect the identity of the reader.

Dear Nighto Chan


Hi there! I’m Azlan from Tronoh, Perak!

My family and I would like to record my utmost appreciation to you as you’re my numero uno source of information when we decided to purchase the Giant!

We’ve take possession of the Giant recently on 28 June 2011. As you can see from the smiling face of my wife lovely wife, we’re definitely going to enjoy the Giant.



Over here is a picture of me together with the owner of the shop and my second youngest children.

I bought the Giant from Ah Bee from K. S. Used Car at Jalan Pasir Puteh, Ipoh.

My son and I posing beside the Giant in front of the shop before driving off to our home in Tronoh.

The Giant is a 2006 2.4L NFL Alphard V, first registered at Nagoya with a registration number “NAGOYA 399 ME 3019” in June 2006 with a serial number of ANH10-xxxxxxxx.

It is a DBA-ANH10W Model with a 2AZ engine with 8 seats. According to the Export Certificate issued by the Japanese Authority, it has clocked 98,100 km as at 21 June 2009 The funny thing is that the current trip meter clocked about 35,484 km, as at 14 June 2011.

The Giant reached in January 2011 with an AP from Sarawak.

Before confirming the purchase of the Giant, it was inspected by my respected and trusted mechanic Ah Foh at Tronoh.

The following pictures are taken during the inspection of the Giant by my mechanic. After checking Ah Foh recommended that the Giant to be fitted with a set of new tires for all four of them.

The right hand side of the Giant.

The left-hand side of the Giant.

The HU is not original and the Giant is not fitted with sonar sensor.

The Giant has only “Power Door Off” switch, though it has multi function steering.

The Giant has only “Left Power Door” switch.

My Giant Dash Board.

The rear end of my Giant.

That’s all from us at Tronoh.

Please feel free to share any tips and advice to us from time to time.

Nevertheless up till today, I’m not quite sure what is the exact model of my Giant either AXS or AXL. (Edit. I think this is an AX model based on the spec listed)

Another thing is that could you please direct me on how to change the middle seat so that they can face the third row seat.

Thank you once again for keeping the blog alive.

Best regards

Azlan
Tronoh, Perak

Season Greeting from EightSeatersBlogspot.com

Every morning when I start the giant, it will greet me with a sweet Japanese voice announcing what day is it. It will say “今は十二月ニ十三日木てす” which means “Today is Thursday, December 23rd". The greeting always put a smile on me as it signal a new day has begin and remind me which day is it.

I didn’t drive the giant this morning so I was pleasantly surprise when it greeted me just now at 9:30p, with the message“メリキリムス今は十二月ニ十四日金てす” which means “Merry Christmas, today is Friday, December 24th". It seems the Japanese engineer who programs the greeting message has included seasonal greeting into their software. I have no way of knowing if it will say the same message early in the morning today but it seems the program has detected that the time is close to Chritmas so it added the seasonal greeting.

I didn’t notice this before so I wasn’t aware it was in there at all. I’ll keep an eye out next week for the greeting of a new year.

In the spirit of festivity in Malaysia, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my reader “Merry Chritmas” and “Happy New Year”. May the new year bring you bundle of joys, good health and good luck. May all you wishes to “dress” up you giant come through.

Cheers

Update: Yes, the car greeted me with the Japanese version of Happy New Year when I drove the car on Jan 1, 2011. 明けましておめでとうございます.

I Am Back - Hopefully More Blog Posts On The Giant

I got a few emails from my reader asking me why I haven't been blogging for quite some times. I do ask myself the same questions many times over and I guess I know very well why.


Procastination!
I guess that no excuse but looking back I know I have procastinated because I always think I will get to it later. Later as in when I get back to my car I will be able to complete my post so I'll work on it later. It drag on and eventually I have a vacuum period of few months without any posts.
In fact it is almost 4 months since I last posted.
I was on assignment to the kiasu land for six months so I left my giant at home. While I was there I constantly thought of writing something about the giant. However since I was without my car I just can't seems to complete my writing everytime I started. The reason being I always like to confirm my writing by showing the features/functions of the giant or I like to take a photo shoot of the subject that I am writing about. However since I was away i couldn't do this so I thought I postpone it until I get back to my giant.
Even the few times when I came back to town, there are many other things that took my attention away that I didn't manage to look at my giant and completed the posts. So it just keep dragging on this way until now I am finally back for good.
From the various comments I recently I also needs to review some of my posts to see how I can improve on them. One questions I keep getting query on is the door lock programming. I have been forwarding the same reply I sent to one of my reader to a few others that asking about the samething. I'll have to review that blog post to see if I can make it clearer and hopefully the readers will get a better understanding on how to do it properly.
I will work on my blog posts more often again.

Leaving the Giant Behind… Temporary

I took up a new position with a company recently and have been rather busy with my new work. Since this company is headquartered in Singapore I am fortunately (or reluctantly) posted to Singapore for 6 months. This gave me the opportunity to learn more about their products and services with the aim to bring the solution to the Malaysian marketplace.

I always has the impression any Singapore company is well-prepared and efficiency in all aspects of their organization, including onboarding a new employee. However I have to change my perception as due to some unknown reason they were not able to provide me with a notebook so I was practically without Internet access for the last 3 weeks. I did tried one of those Internet café over here for an hour only because I needed to go online to look for a place to stay. Another reason I had to change my view is because after visiting a customer here I was kind of amazed that they are not that advanced after all as I imagine. I will write about this in future.

I did go back to Kuala Lumpur twice during that three weeks but I was just too busy running around for errands so I didn’t really have the times to update the blog. Today I finally got my laptop and I also borrowed a broadband dongle from my colleague and able to get online to this neglected blog.

It didn’t occur to me that I would be without Internet access for more than 3 weeks. In this day of Internet age and in nation like Singapore where broadband is much advanced it is hard to imagine that anyone cannot get access to the Internet. However due to my work schedule (too late to visit an Internet café) and also without the proper tool (a laptop) I was completely cut off from the Internet for such a long time.

I am glad there are still visitors to my blog during my absent and some have left comments for me. I have approved all the comments and hopefully I have answered all the questions posted.

For the last 3 weeks I have been taking public transportation to work. I really admire how efficient is the public transportation in this island. You can get to most destinations by bus or via MRT. Also I find that I don’t need to wait long for the next bus or MRT because they are so frequent and on time. In fact there is a bus every 4 minutes that passed by where I stay! Since the last time I was here, they now added the Circle MRT Line on top of the North-South Line, East-West Line and North-East Line so you can take MRT to more destinations now.

Occasionally I do take the LRT and monorail back in Kuala Lumpur and I must say that they are just not as convenient compare to taking the buses and MRT in the island because they are so accessible. Many destinations in Kuala Lumpur are just not easily accessible by bus or LRT that I go there with the giant (Toyota Alphard) instead.

So when I was back to Kuala Lumpur last week, it felt a little odd to drive the giant to get to a location that doesn’t even have a bus plying that road. I do think that I am rather pampered with the giant as it become a habit for us who own a car to drive out most of the time than to think of taking a public transport. I have not have so much walking since I last did a climb to Gunung Tahan 20 years ago. It just goes to show that we are so used to driving that we sometime forgot that there are other means to get to a destination!

Now that I am away the giant is now temporary left behind in Kuala Lumpur. I will try to go back home every fortnightly to see my family and to take the giant out for a spin.

I will try to update this blog with some posts more often whenever I have the spare time here.

People and Process Make the Different

I work in the IT line so one of the value propositions when proposing a new technology to a customer is that it should improve the productivity of the employees. With improved productivity it will bring about better service level to the end customer.

Of course introduction of new technology also require a supporting streamline process and the acceptance of the employee to achieve this objective. Therefore the return on investment in the new technology is determined by the people and processes supporting these technologies.

I received an SMS from my insurance company – Allianz - that the insurance of my other car will expire in a week time. Well it is good that they use technology to send reminder than using snail mail.

So I call ahead an hour before I reach their office making sure they have plenty of time to prepare. In fact the lady who picks up my call even asked for my car registration number and said she will prepare the quotation for me.

When I got into their office and ask for that lady, the first she asked me again is “Sir, what is your car registration number?” Well it looks like she has not done anything at all. Off she goes back to print the quotation and gave me a copy to check.

Once I agreed on the amount to be insured for this year, I gave them my credit card to be swiped for the amount and then started waiting for her to prepare the cover policy. Well it seems there is still separation of duty for this whole transaction to be completed.

She swiped the credit card but the processing of the credit is at another floor. She come back to me after 10 minutes and gave me the credit card without the credit slip. I then waited for another 20 minutes and there is still no sign of her.

I stood up and look around the office and found her answering phone calls. I signal her that I am in a hurry and she told me that the cover note is being processed. It looks like someone else in the department is doing the cover note and not her. So another 10 minutes delay before the cover note is ready.

When she passed me the cover note, I asked for the credit card slip and she told me that she needs to go to the 10th floor to collect it. Well by the time she comes back with the slip, it is already one hour since I walked in to the office. So does technology help? Hell no.

The way the process is put in place by this company to service their customer is absolutely ineffective. They don’t have a dedicated service counter and they still emphasized separation of duty so even with the use of technology there is no automation at all.

As I walked out of the office, I saw this expat who seems like a senior officer of the company and told him that the transaction took one hour to complete. He turned around and asked the lady what happened but I didn’t stay around to find out if he did anything. I am curious if he or any of his officers will bother to call me to find out if my complaint is valid.

3 years ago when I renewed my insurance there was a service counter so the process of renewing the insurance is very smooth. Everything is done with a counter staff and within 20 minutes (excluding waiting time), I will have my cover note and walk out of the office.

Two years ago Allianz took over the insurance business of that company and they decided not to have a counter. Even then last year experience of renewing my insurance with them was not so bad. That lady who served me was able to give me everything within 30 minutes. I don’t know why they are going backward this year and took one hour to complete just one transaction.

I also recently renewed the insurance of my giant but it was with another insurance company. The experience was totally different. All I did was walked into their counter, ask to renew the insurance. The officer gave me a payment slip and asked me to pay at another counter. After that I just wait for 5 minutes and the officer passed me the cover note and I am out of that place. All in less than 25 minutes time.

Anyway, after I got my cover note, I drove to the Public Bank branch where I got my car loan and asked to renew my road tax. The officer took down my car registration number, double check with the system on my details, wrote me a bank in slip, ask me to pay at the counter down stair. I pay at the designated counter without having to queue and the whole exercise took less than 8 minutes!

It is obvious that this bank has all the process in place and the right people to provide the services to their end customer. The technology is transparent in the service provided and it works because they have the right people and a streamline process to support it. That’s why I have been their customer for the last 10 years.

More Accidents Waiting To Happen?

Yesterday I just posted about drivers jumping red light at the traffic junction outside the condo where I stay, and tonight, there was an accident at that traffic junction.

When I reached the traffic junction, I saw a red MyVi collided with a small van. I have no idea how this could happen as the MyVi was out of position from normal traffic flow.

Well I was curious so after I parked my car, I walked out to the scene of the accident as a large group of people already gathered there.

I asked one of the guy who was already there before me what happen and it seems the small car hit a tree and then slammed into side of the van. The impact has crumpled the front of the small car and debris were lying everywhere.

All I can hear is that a group more than 10 Chinese national arguing over who should pay for the damage and it seems they couldn't agree to the terms of settlement. The whole road leading out of to the main road was blocked by the cars and people talking in the middle of the road.

A tow truck was already at the scene waiting for the drivers to decide what to do. Because of the accident, the traffic junctions had jammed up because of curious passer-by slowing down to look at the scene.

I have no idea if the accident is due to the small car jumping the red light and swayed right too much, lost control and hit the tree and then hit the van that is passing by or due to other reason.

As there is no police on the scene so the owners continue to try to settle on their own. In the 10 minutes that I was there I didn't get much from arguments from those involved so I just walked home and thinking how many more such accidents waiting to happen in that traffic junction.

Want To Upgrade The Rims and Tyres of Your Toyota Alphard

Once an owner found his giant (Toyota Alphard), one of the most common upgrade the owner looking for is what size of rims and tyres to upgrade to. I got this question quite often from my readers too.


This is the standard rim for AX/MZ/MZ/MZG. It is shod with 205/65/R16 tyres.


The PFL AS and MS has 17-inch rim with 225/55/R17 tyres. This is the PFL 17-inch rim.

The NFL AS and MS is also shod with 17-inch rim but it has a cleaner design as shown below.

I have tested both the 16-inch and 17-inch fitted on the giant and I feel there is much different in the ride quality. The 17-inch will feel slightly heavier because the rims and tyres are both heavier than the 16-inch set up. Also the extra 20mm contact patch on the 17-inch will give more rolling resistance so it will take a little bit more effort to get the tyres moving but not a lot.

If you want to upsize the rim, then the next option could be 18, 19 or even 20-inch. The correct tyre profile for each should be 235/50/R18, 245/45/R18 and 255/35/R20. Of course, the bigger the rim, the unsprung weight will be higher. Also lower profile tyres will have harder side wall so the ride quality suffer as it will be harsher compared to the stock set up.

There are many rims available in the market that fits the giant. You can choose either the Made-In-Japan rim which is more expensive than those made in Taiwan OEM rim. Just make sure that the rim has a PCD of 114.3.

Another commonly asked question is should the owner choose staggered rim set up. If you own a 2WD model, then it doesn’t really do you much good since it is a front wheel drive car so you are not getting much traction from the real wheels at all. For 4WD model, the traction switches between 2WD and 4WD so there is not much functional advantage in having larger rims and tyres at the rear.

Also beware that offset of the wheel mount is not very deep so if you are using staggered rim, the rear tyre should not be too wide. Otherwise, if it goes beyond the wheel arch, you will not be able to lower your car at all. One AOC member shod his rear rim with 275/50/R18 and it does look very cool with the tyres sticking out if view from the back of the car, but he can’t lower his car at all as the wheel arch will hit the tyres.

One interesting question that comes to me is what’s the biggest rim size that can fit into the giant? Well an owner I know of fitted a 22-inch rim with 30 series tyres. It look so cool with this set up but it also cost a ton of money to own it. He drives his giant daily and he hasn't complain about harsh ride at all.

A Casual Trip Around Penang Island With My Toyota Alphard

After the AOC Northern TT, I stay back two more days in Penang and took the opportunity to travel around the island. I stay in a hotel in Tanjung Bungah which has a nice view to the sea.

The beach in front of the hotel

Nice sunset view

The next day, I took a slow drive up to Batu Ferringi and Teluk Bahang to check out some of the hotels and beaches there.

A nice stretch of beach in Teluk Bahang

After that I head south to check out Queensbay Mall. I have heard about this new shopping mall from TV quite often and always wonder how it look like. Well I finally get to step inside the mall and look around some of the shops. It gave me an impression that it is similar to our Mid Valley Mall in KL.

From the open car park outside the mall, it has a nice view of the Penang Bridge as well as Pulau Jerejak.

The bridge is too far. The right patch of land is Pulau Jerejak

After lunch, I head further south toward Batu Maung again looking for a fishing village to buy some seafood. The timing was just right when I reach the village as the fishermen just got back from sea with their catches.

The entrance to the fishing village

The signboard on the left in the photo above is the same restaurant where the AOC Northern TT was held the night before. The right signboard shows the way to a small fishing village about 50meter away.

I bought a kilo of big prawn for RM36 only which is rather cheap compared to what you can get in KL. I only bought the prawn as I wasn't sure what fish to buy as they have so many variety.

One kilo of big prawn, yummy

After that I head back north to visit USM. It has been more than 23 years since I left this university so a lot has changed. Some of the old hostel that I had stayed before are no longer in their former form. Most of the old wooden long houses are now replaced with multi-story building.

Driving around the campus in the giant feel a bit odd compare to those time when I ride around in a 80cc motorbike!

I went up to the Chancellery Rock to try to catch a glimpse of the Penang Bridge and Pulau Jerejak.

The Chancellory hasn't changed much

This spot used to be the favourite place for undergraduates to come here to catch a view of the open sea as well as looking out to the majestic Penang Bridge then. However that view is no longer visible anymore. Right in front of the campus now stands the Penang Twin Tower which block off most of the middle section of the bridge.

The Penang Twin Tower!

To the right, there used to be a clear view of Pulau Jerajak but now that view is blocked by condominiums that sprung up recently.

After I have spent some time checking out various schools building in the campus, just as I did 23 years ago, I passed the small roundabout at the top of the slope heading toward the main gate.

The sculpture that greet all newcomers.

In the middle of the roundabout is a stone-made sculpture that has two sides with different carving. The front section facing the entrance is rough which signify that those who are entering the university is still unpolished. The rear section which you'll see as your drive out is smooth to indicate that (hopefully) you have learned wisely and bring with you your newfound knowledge and ready to go out to face the world. With that I bid farewell to USM again.

On the way back to the hotel, I drop by at Ghee Hiang to buy some Penang biscuits (tau sar pneah and hneoh pneah) as souvenier for the relatives.

I spent the night meeting up with my former univeristy mates before I left for KL the next day.

Clear traffic on Penang Bridge toward Butterworth

Traffic on the way back to KL is smooth but slow as there are a lot of traffics. As this is the week before All Soul Day, a lot of people took the opportunity to go back to their home town to pay respect to their ancestors. That's why the traffic over the weekend in Penang was very bad.

I am not sure when I will visit Penang again but I thoroughly enjoy this trip.

Should I Keep the Forum Alive?

The original idea of setting up the AlphardOwnerClub.com forum was to provide an alternative to those members who wanted to have their own forum as they move away from AlphardAsiaClub.com forum. Also the domain was acquire in anticipation of the setting up of an official Alphard Owner Club and this domain will be used for that registration, hence becoming the official website for that club.

However since the inception of this forum, things has change quite a bit hence it is time to review if there is a need to keep this forum alive. Currently it is kept alive as an information source as it is felt that some of the discussions and reference information might still be relevant to those who want to learn more about Toyota Alphard.

However since the last major meeting among the members from various regions in October last year, it was agreed that all active Toyota Alphard owners will participate only in one forum which is the AlphardAsiaClub.com forum. Since the domain registration for AlphardOwnerClub.com is still active therefore it is decided that it should be kept open until such time when the official Alphard Owner Club is registered and then a decision will be made on the existence of this forum.

However, lately there has been a lot of registration of new members from the western world that has no presence of Toyota Alphard in their own country. Most of the IP addresses shown that they are coming from UK, USA, Canada, and Russia.

I think most of these registration are done by the so call "robots" that go out to search for forum and try to do an automatic registration. The idea is that once they are registered, they can either spam the forum with whatever they have to offer or try to trick members to click on certain link that will cause some malicious codes to be executed and infect their PC.

Luckily the Alphard Owner Club forum is set to required activation before anyone can participate in the forum. Therefore those registrations can be safely rejected and remove from the forum.

However the frequency of new registration is getting higher and higher each week so clearning up these new registration become a chore. I am thinking of temporary shutting down this forum for now. If you are registered in this forum, please take note that this forum will no longer be active from April Fool day.

If you have any other questions on this forun, you can post a comment here or send me an email at askds@live.com

Why Do You Choose Toyota Alphard

I had a discussion with another giant owner and we go were sharing why we love our giant.

We summarized that the two main factors why we fall in love with Toyota Alphard because:

We like the style of Alphard, the spacious, comfortable interior and the abundance features.

1. From anywhere, any place or anytime you see Alphard from far or near, you'll see the sharp edge and muscular look of the Alphard from the front or the 3/4 view.
2. There are plenty of space inside the Alphard. You can stretch your leg straight anywhere inside the Alphard, be it in the front, the middle seats or the rear seats. You normally expect this kind of spaciouness in a limosine and now find it in the Alphard.
   
   The seats in the Alphard are comfortable. You can slide the middle seat along it track to accommodate whatever space size you need. Unfortunately the 2nd generation Alphard has do away with this sliding middle seat feature.
3. The Alphard is fitted with a long list of features that is ahead of many of it competitors (even as early as 2005). It has DVD, MP3, Mini-disk, HDD, Satellite navigation (only in Japan), bluetooth, front and rear camera, sonar sensors, cruise control (two versions), power sliding doors, roof-mounted LCD, Automated Front Lighting System (AFS), sunroof/moonroof, electric curtains, heater seats, sound theatre system etc etc.

The Alphard is easy to drive, it is rather quiet, smooth revving and bring a fresh look to the local automotive industry. Although some who are used to the soild build of the continental car tends to think the Alphard can do better in the sound proofing department.

Of course we also agreed that it is a Toyota brand. Toyota car is know to be reliable and easy to maintain. The fact that it share the same engine and mechanical components with Toyota Harrier, Camry, and Estima means that there are plenty of spare parts and venue to maintain your giant.

The low point of the Alphard is the it is not generous in fuel consumption. Of course we can't expect too much from a car that weight almost two tons. After all it is fitted with petrol engine and fuel consumption depends on how heavy is your right foot!

We think the the 3.0L 1MZ-FE has plenty of torque and horsepower to drive the Alphard. However with a maximum speed limit of 180k/h, you can't fully utilized the full power of the 1MZ-FE engine on our road. Most owner of the 3.0L model will probably be cruising at the official speed limit on highway so the 1MZ-FE power is under-utilized.

The common complain about the driveability of the Alphard is that it understeer when pressing into corner. It has soft suspension setup (for comfort) so you cannot throw the giant around corners.

The evergreen 2AZ-FE engine has been around for a long time and it has powered many generation of Camry, Estima and Harrier. It is long lasting, economical and has lower road tax. Despite it lower power rating, it can still haul the Alphard on long haul or short trip. I have take it up to Genting Highland with the incline from 20-30 degree and I don't need to use 2nd or 3rd gear at all.

It would be nice if the Alphard come fitted with a diesel model.

So what's your reason for choosing your giant?

A Trip Up The Hill With Toyota Alphard

For a long time I wanted to take my giant (Toyota Alphard) up to Genting Highland but never get a chance to do that.

Some AOC members have been sharing their experiences of driving their giant up the hill and some of them are not too happy with their giant capability. Some say the suspension is too soft to handle those corners and slopes while other said they felt the 2AZ-FE engine is too sluggish.

I wanted to test out these two areas with my own giant so I took a trip up the "hill".

The stretch from the Gombak toll to the foothill is an easy drive as there was not much traffic. The last stretch of the road before reaching the foothill is an uphill slope followed by S curve before entering the slip road toward hill. I didn't have any problem with this stretch as I just hang on to the throttle and let the gearbox do it job. There is no kick-down at all so there is plenty of torque from the 2AZ-FE engine to handle that stretch.

As I start the ascent, there were some light traffic so I just let off the throttle and follow the queue. Once I passed the police hut I start to tackle the corners going up the hill. I decided leave the gear in 4th and continue to use the aircon and see how the giant perform.

As I ascent I continue to lightly hold on to the pedal and let the gearbox to it job. At several places after I come out from the corner it slight upshift on it own momentarily to maintain the speed. From the first police hut until the second police beat I didn't have to kick-down manually once. I felt that there is sufficient torque to pull the car up the hill so I continue to drive at a leisure pace.

After the second police hut right at the small roundabout next to the entrance to Awana Genting Resort, I decided to switch off the aircon. With the aircon switch off, the giant now feel much lighter and I continue to drive at an leisure pace up the next stretch of road. I didn't switch to 3rd gear as I want to see how the giant perform at 4th gear. Even though this stretch of road is steeper, the giant can easily pull itself up the slope without any problem.

Even at the steepest corner, all I need is to let off the gas pedal, turn the corner and then lightly tap on the pedal to continue the journey. I didn't felt any drama at all as far as negotiating the corners are concerned.

I stop at the car park just right below the Ria Apartment to take a snapshot of the giant.

The giant might look big but against the backdrop of the car park the building behind it, it looks a bit small!

When I reached the peak, I decided not to park in any of the covered car park as I am not sure of their height. I choose to park at the open car park next to the Genting Resort Hotel just behind the theme park.

I saw a lot of Alphard and Estima at the open car park as well so these people have no problem getting their giant up the hill as well. I spend some time up on the peak looking at surrounding before I start my journey home.

The decent is very smooth as there were not much traffic at that hour. I shift the gear to the 3rd throughout the journey except the flat section in front of Gotong Jaya. I kept the speed of the giant below 60km/h on most of the stretch. With this speed, there is ample time to brake before each of those road humps and take the corners. The brake of our giant is sufficient to slowdown the car before each hump and also when you go a bit too fast, the gearbox will also momentarily upshift slightly to help to slow down the giant.

Overall I didn't find a lot of body roll when I negotiate any of the corners nor I felt there is any squatting from the suspension. I suppose it is because I am not using the stock absorbers. I have fitted a set of TRD Waydo Sportivo absorbers some time ago and it probably help to reduce the body roll. I don't know if this is the same with the stock absorbers set up. I think the wider 17-inch tyres I have also help a bit on the stability of the giant maneuvering those corners.

Even though I was driving it leisurely there is sufficient grunt from the engine to pull the giant up the hill without much drama. I believe if you have a full load of passengers, pressing the pedal harder would have no problem in taking your giant up the hill too.

Overall I don't feel any sluggishness from the 2AZ-FE engine if you can throttle the engine properly. If you are driving the 1MZ-FE then I would think it would be an no issue with your giant going up the hill.

I have driven up the hill many times with other smaller size cars and I must say the giant gave me a very comfortable ride going up the hill. As long as you are not in a rush to reach the peak, the giant can maintain it comfort level even going up the hill.

So, what is  your experience driving your giant up the hill?

Is the warranty of your giant good enough?

I lost access to the Internet for couple of days as my PC “died”. It started with the Vista operating system partition extremely fragmented causing excessive disk activities.

When I try to defrag the Master File Table and the partition using the so called boot-time defragmentation the defrag software somehow go haywire. When the system rebooted it complained that the windows loader was missing. Yeah big time mistake.

I had another partition running Windows 7 so I booted it up and it “senses” that my Vista partition is corrupted and tried to recover all the orphaned files. During the recovery the PC suddenly shut down by itself.

Pressing the power button doesn’t power the system anymore. Initially I thought it was the power supply unit so I took it out and indeed it has some burn smell emitting from the power supply unit.

Since it comes with 5 years warranty so that’s good and I took it back to the computer store when I bought it. Unfortunately the warranty claim cannot be processed immediately as they have to send the unit back to the dealer to get a replacement. This whole process will take one month!

So I bought another power supply unit and upon fitted it the PC still doesn’t want to power up. Another hour of investigation and I finally found the culprit. It was the new graphic cards that I bought a month ago. The moment I removed the graphic card from the motherboard, the PC immediately power up.

Again I took the graphic card back to the computer store and initiated a warranty claim. As expected the same one month waiting period apply.

If you have assembled your own PC lately than you would know that the latest motherboard from Asus/Gigabytes doesn’t come with any onboard graphic adapter. Without a graphic card, you will not be able to connect the monitor to your PC. I can either wait for a month for the warranty claim to be processed or my PC remained non functional during this period.

So I bought another graphic card (ouch) and reassembled the PC. Now I am back online and but still sore with the warranty system for computer parts in this part of the world. Apparently they favoured the seller rather than the buyer.

Their current practice is that if you return the part within 7 days, they will give you a one-to-one replacement on the spot. If you come back after 7 days, then they put the liability back to the dealer. Some even charge your some small amount for the delivery fees to send the part back and forth from the dealer.

This is the standard practice for most of the computer parts dealer in Low Yat Plaza. The main the reason they do this is to reduce their risk of carrying too much inventory just to cater for warranty claim. Given that some components like motherboard and high end graphic cards carry a 3 year warranty nowadays. They don’t want to keep stock for that long so they put this responsibility squarely back to the dealer.

My reading of the many posts in computer forums that the warranty claims in other places like the United State is much fairer. Most warranty claim will be processed within a week and the owner can get their PC up and running again. Over here we are at the mercy of the computer parts dealers and will have to fork out money upfront to fix our computer.

This reminded me that when I bought my giant, I only have one month warranty from my dealer. Luckily my giant was in good shape so I don’t have to make any claim from the dealer. I understand that some dealer gave longer warranty period but I think at least they will honour the warranty claim.

The most the owner will have to do is to leave the car for a day or two and then you are back on the road again. In fact I would imagine that the warranty costs for any fault parts on the giant will be much more expensive than those computer parts. Well I think the warranty claim for our giant is fairer than the computer parts!

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.

How difficult could it be?

I was always wondering how difficult it is to transfer a domain from one host to another host. I have done enough of research on the Net and have also confirmed with my hosting provider and it turn out that it is pretty easy. The steps are:

1. Backup the database from the old server
2. Upload the database to the new server
3. Unlock the domain
4. Transfer the domain
5. Restore the database

That it. Very simple steps and no rocket science is involved. In fact step 3, 4 and 5 are all done by the hosting company so I only need to worry about step 1 and 2.

Unfortunately my last experience trying to do a domain transfer was an unpleasant one.

The AOC domain was hosted in Singapore and the AOC owner has agreed previously to transfer the domain to the local team and host it in Kuala Lumpur. So he pass over the access to the Cpanel so to back up the database was not an issue. He wanted to be just a member and don't want to continue to administer the forum anymore. Well fine so let the local team administer it.

The most important step in the whole transfer exercise is to unlock the domain. So I send a private email to the owner and he said he will asked his staffs to looked into it. On the day when we wanted to do the transfer, the domain was still locked. So another follow up email and this time another email address was given to me. Apparently this is the email address of his brother who is the 'real' owner of this domain. So an email was sent to his brother but he never replied. So what's the last resort?

Well I met with the brother personally and he agreed on the spot that he will unlock the domain once he get back to Singapore. However two weeks go by and still nothing was done. Well as long as the 'owner' of the domain doesn't unlock it, no one can transfer that domain out of the registrar where it is registered to. Also, it is unwise to unlock a domain and leave it unlock for a long time because anyone can take control of that domain.

Further communications via the AOC forum on this matter suddenly become abusive and it turn out to be a unpleasant experience for all. Despite all the private communications, the AOC owner still can't facilitate the transfer in the most pleasant way. Maybe the owner of AOC have no means to convince his brother to unlock the domain so this transfer is definitely not going to happen. I have not dealt with anyone from that island country before and this experience told me that I need to take their promises with a grain of salt. Almost 3 months was wasted to plan and set up for the transfer.

Anyway recently it was highlighted by one of the member that the authority is monitoring the AOC forum. This has created a lot of uneasiness in many AOC forum members so many of them stop posting. As such it would be unwise for the local team to go ahead with the transfer.

We have now found a new place to share our passion about the giant (Toyota Alphard). If anyone is interested to join us, send me an email and I'll send you an invitation.

PS. Recently I came to know that the owner finally transferred the domain to another hosting company but at quite a high cost. Is this the reason why the previous transfer didn't work out. Well.

Return visit to an almost forgotten food outlet

In one of the thread in AOC forum a member was going through his list of favourite food outlets and I saw a place he mentioned that I have not been there for almost 15 years. I was surprised that this shop is still around after all these years. That place is called Hing Ket Grill House in Kampung Jawa, Klang.

The last time I was there was with a group of friends which include my wife while I was still single! This shop is famous for their grill lamb then and we always order grill lamb whenever we visited it. Back then to get to that shop, the only access road was from Federal Highway and have to pass through a single lane bridge. You'll have to wait for the cars on their other side of the bridge to pass first before you drive through. A short distance after the bridge and you'll see the shop on your right.

For some reason, the shop just didn't come up in my mind everytime we want to go for seafood in the Klang area. The mention of this outlet by that member bring it back to my memory. I wanted to revisit this place again one of this day.

Today my wife came home and out of the blue suggested that we should have seafood. I said why not we try out Hing Ket after all these years. So off we go in our giant looking for the shop. Initially I was hesitant to take the giant out since there has been quite a lot of JPJ road block lately. However given that it is almost sunset, I guess it is safe to go out with the giant today.

I wasn't sure of the location of this shop now that we are using the Kesas Highway to go there. I look up the Net and found a map that shows it location. Unfortunately that map was not correct so I have to call the shop to get better direction. When we get to the shop, the parking lot is filled with cars. We have to wait for a while for one of the customer to leave before we get to park the giant.

The shop is used to be a shack and it still hasn't change much except that the place where they grill the food is now partitioned with cement walls. Even on a weekday, there are still quite a lot of customer but not full. We ordered a grill crab, two grill sotong and a plate of "tang hun" noodle. We wanted to go for the grill lamb too but my wife saw how they burn the meats on the grill so decided not to try it this time.

The "tang hun" came first and it is alright but nothing to shout about.
The grill sotong came about 20 minutes later and we both agree that it looks good from the outside but after a first bite it was nothing special.

The sotong was just bland without any grill taste and it was on the hard side. We will not be ordering sotong again if we go back there.

Then another 25 minutes wait before the grill crab finally came. The size of the crab is a little bit disappointing as we expected a bigger crab.


Anyway, the crab meat was just nice and tasty. If not for the crab, we would think that this place don't deserve a second visit. This is what left of the crab after the meal!


The biggest let down of the whole experience is that they are slow. It took us almost two hours just to sample 3 dishes even though the outlet is not packed. We were originally thinking of adding a grill fish as well but were glad we didn't commit to it.

Will we go back again? Maybe we will give it one more try but we will definitely stick to the safe choices - grill crab and grill lamb.

PS. As for the direction to this outlet. If you are coming from Kesas Highway, take the Kampung Jawa exit (3rd tolls if you are coming from Cheras), and turn right. Go straight until you reach a small roundabout, take the 12 o'clock and go straight till you pass an Esso petrol station on your left. Look out on the left after an Indian temple. The shop is at the bend on your left. If you miss it, look out for a big mosque on your right and you can u-turn back.

What's the ruling on privacy glass?

Recently several members of the AOC was given an inspection notice (Arah Periksa Kenderaan) in several road blocks set up by JPJ (our Road Transport Department) on the privacy glass in their giant (Toyota Alphard). It seems JPJ now deems that the privacy glass in our giant doesn't meet the specification for tinting.

But what is the guideline on the specification on privacy glass for imported car like the Toyota Alphard? The JPJ website doesn't has specific guideline on this and the only way to read the above ruling is listed in theis page. Unfortunately it is written in Bahasa Malaysia which translate to "all the glass at front must have vehicle light transmission (VLT) >70% while side and rear glass must have VLT > 50%". If this is the ruling apply by JPJ then I guess all Toyota Alphard imported into this country would not pass the specification. Also, without a clear guideline, they are only issuing the inspection notice rather then issuing a summon to the owner for violation.

Then the question would be if JPJ doesn't allow imported car to have privacy glass that doesn't meet the specification, why would the dealers are allow to import these vehicles into the country.

The logic goes that our Ministry of Trade International (MITI) issues permits for vehicles to be imported. Its permits specify brand, model, etc but does not go into details regarding specification for privacy glass. Then our Customs Department is only interested in whether the cars have a legal Approved Permit and determine any payable tax. With these two conditions met, the cars get into the country legally and cannot actually be stopped since they meet importation laws.

The issue starts when the cars are sent to JPJ for registration. JPJ will evaluate the cars on technical specifications which must comply with our Vehicle Construction Rules, which include permissible levels of tinting. This is where the problem starts. JPJ will find that the tinting is beyond permissible levels but because it is not a film and actually the glass itself, it cannot be changed just like that. But the importer has already sold it to the dealer and the dealer has a customer who has paid a deposit for it.

To get around this ruling, the dealers will change these dark glasses (temporarily) to clear glasses before sending the car to Puspakom for inspection. After getting the report back from Puspakom verifying that the glass has passed inspection, the dealer changed the glasses back to the original dark one before delivering to the customer. From the customer perspective, since there is an approval by Puspakom, then there shouldn't be any problem with JPJ. The recent operation by JPJ seems to indicate that they are strictly enforcing their ruling on privacy glass.

There has been many attempt by JPJ to enforce the ruling on tinting before and their efforts was stopped by the Government several times. I am wondering if this is an indication that they are going all out to target all Toyota Alphard owners.

The privacy glass on the pre-facelift model is actually darker than those on the new-facelift model. Therefore if this new "ruling" by JPJ is strictly enforced, then all pre-facelift model owners will have to change the privacy glass to clear glass. I don't know if the new-facelift model privacy glass will pass the specification but very unlikely.

Another AOC member who recently bought a 2nd generation Toyota Alphard was also "caught" in a recent operation and was also asked to change the privacy glass. I don't know how long all Alphard owners can hold out before they see the next JPJ Operation and get a notice in their hand. I am not looking forward to that day myself. In the AOC forum, many members have started a discussion on putting up community voice to the media to highlight this concern.

I heard that our Transport Minister also drive a Toyota Alphard. I wonder if he has to change his privacy glass!

Ultrasonic sensor triggered

I was doing my online application for a forum today and then suddenly I got a call from my car. Yes, thats right. As I have installed an IES GSM alarm system onto my giant (Toyota Alphard), it will "call" me whenever any of the sensor in the alarm system is triggered. I quickly rush to the balcony and have a look. Well, no one was near the car so what's trigger it? The alarm also sent me an SMS stating "Ultrasonic Sensor trigger". So something has triggered the ultrasonic sensor.

Then I suddenly remembered I did wound down the windows this morning to "air" the car. The place is very windy now so the breeze has blown into the car and triggered the ultrosonic sensor. I did experimented with this feature before during the installation of the alarm system. The installer did demo'ed it to me by blowing air from the fan through the opened window and it triggered the ultrasonic sensor. Well imagine that even breezes can trigger the ultrasonic sensor, any movement in the car will definitely trigger the ultrasonic sensor. Now I am very confident that this alarm system can provide preventive warnings to me.

I went down to the car to wind up all the windows and now it is back to normal again.

PS. The ultrosonic sensor can be a nuisance at time especially when you are at the petrol station. The moment all the doors are closed the ultrosonic sensor will be activated, any movement from your family members waiting in the car will trigger the sensor and the alarm will be activated. The only way to avoid that is to leave the driver door unlocked, which is something I would try to avoid as much as possible.

Follow Up Since My Last Incident

After I have fitted the IES GSM alarms in to my giant. I am glad that my phone has not received a single SMS on further attempts. I hope it will never send me any SMS at all. To make sure that it is really working I am going to test it twice a week to ensure that it is functioning.

Also I have fixed the immobilizer light blinking issue. After the locksmith has replaced the ignition module, he couldn't reset the immobilizer light from lighting up and blinking continously whenever I drive the giant (Toyota Alphard). According to the locksmith, he had never encountered such an issue before. He said he has to do some research and get back to me on it. So I was driving the giant with this blinking light on for a few days. Two days ago, he came to my place and reset that light and now it is no longer blinking. I am really glad that this is finally fixed.

Today the Joint Management Body (JMB) of my condominium has their 2nd Annual General Meeting (AGM). I took the opportunity to say my case. During the questions and answer session, I highlighted the attempted break in to steal my car and also the needs to beef up the security in the compound. They Head of Security promised to look into it and has also directed the Management Office officer to give priority in ensuring the security guards take extra percaution near the area where the break in attempt occured. I will continue to monitor how well the security guards are doing their job. I will continue to provide feedback to the JMB to ensure that such incident will not happen again.

I spoke to another owner during the break and she mentioned that her car was stolen from the compound 1 1/2 year ago. Even though the compound is now being guarded by a new security firm, I still want to make sure that I have all the precaution to ensure that my giant is safe.

Added Enhanced Security To My Toyota Alphard

After my misforture last weekend, I improved the security of my giant by installing an IES GSM alarm system. In this post, I will briefly cover it functions but I wouldn't go into the details on how to operate it nor will I show any photos.

Since the communications is based on GSM, it provide the capability for me to interact with the car alarm system remotely.

With this alarm system, now I will be warned (via SMS) if the door is open/unlocked due to unauthorized access. I can arm and disarm the alarm remotely. If the battery is removed from the car such that power is cut off to the alarm (there is a small battery pack to backup the alarm system), I will also be warned of such intrusion. If there is a break-in and I will be warn via SMS, I can choose to use my phone to listen to any conversation or sounds in the car and I can speak to my phone and send verbal warning to the thief inside the car to bugger off.

In the event that the thief successfully stolen the car (hopefully not) I can remotely do an emergency override and stop the engine. That way the thief cannot continue to drive the car. After that I can use the Friend Finder feature to locate the current position of the car so that I can retrieve it. I know of one case where another giant owner actually use this feature to disable his giant engine and then located it 40 minutes after he discovered his car was stolen in broad day light.

In the event while I am in the car and there is an attempt by anyone to try a force break-in to hijack my car I can press a panic button that will send an SMS to my wife to warn her that I am in trouble. She can use the Friend Finder feature to locate my whereabout.

Let hope this alarm system will truly deter any future attempts.

Break In Attempt to Steal A Toyota Alphard

Sometime life is full of surprises and what I wrote here is truly a surprise to me. Yesterday when I got to my car and opened the driver door I saw this!

Apparently someone has broke into my car and try to steal it. I have a feeling that the thief have experience with this kind of attempt. They have found a way to ply open the driver door (which I won't post the photo here). They actually know how to open up the cover to the speedometer, remove the lower cover of the steering wheel and dismantled the ignition switch faceplate to gain access to the ignition module.


Then they tried to remove the ignition module but faced resistence in getting if off the steering wheel. Therefore their next attempt is to use a power drill (now I know why the cigarette lighter cover is opened) to try to drill through the ignition module from the top and remove the immobilizer module from it. Look what have they done to the ignition module!

The drilling has left metal debris all over the ignition module, the driver seat and the floor mat.


The problem I faced now is that without the ignition module and the immobilizer the car cannot be started at all.

Since it happened on a Sunday, there are no workshops available to call for help. I have to arrange for a locksmith to come over on Monday. He somehow (well this is their trade secret) managed to dislodge the ignition module and took it back to his shop. He has a way to rebuilt the ignition module with parts that he obtained from his source. He will do some programming to the immobilizer module so that the master key that I have now can be reuse to start the car. As of the writing of this post, he is still working on it. Hopefully he is able to get this done by tomorrow.

The sad thing about this whole incident is that it happen inside guarded compound where I stay. The security guards are just not doing their jobs. When confronted they gave all sort of excuses. I doubt they ever patrol that area at night. I have to made a special request to them on that night to do their patrol near my car (as it is stranded now).

On the same day of the incident, I went back to that area at 12:00 midnight and I don't see any security guards around the area. I return to the place again at 1:30am and saw one security guard coming around. Interesting that he don't even have a torchlight with him. I have to use my own torchlight to scout the surrounding area.

Well look like this car is pretty popular with the thief nowaday. I guess they can fetch a high value in the open market or sell it as spare parts.

PS. When I was making a police report, 3 students came to the same police beat and wanted to make a report that they have been molested by two foreigners from unknown country. What has gotten to our society? Is getting foreign workers is a good things for this society and this country? Well time will tell.

PPS. The locksmith managed to fix my ignition module and did all the necessary programming so now I am driving the car again.