ICE Your Toyota Alphard

One of the common questions posted by many new Toyota Alphard owner is “How do I ICEed my giant”? ICE stands for In Car Entertainment and what the owner is asking for is basically how to improve the sound quality of the audio/video system that come with the car.

If your giant already comes standard with 5.1 theatre sound systems, it already has a very decent sound system. However if you wanted even better sound quality then most straightforward path to improve sound quality is to swap the stock speakers with a set of component speakers. Since the 5.1 theatre sound systems comes with 8 speakers, then you have to decide which speakers you should swap out.

A component speaker is a car audio speaker matched for optimal sound quality. Each component speaker set typically comes with two mid-bass speakers, two tweeters and two crossovers. This setup allows the pair of tweeters and mid-bass drivers to be matched with the crossover to limit the frequency range of each speaker to be accurately reproduced. Also the mid bass speakers are physically separated from the tweeter, which is very directional, so that each can be placed in an optimal position. The tweeters are usually on the dash facing the listener, while the larger mid-bass speakers can be placed where there is room, often in the lower front of the car doors. The Toyota Alphard front doors can accommodate a mid-bass speaker with size up to 6.5”. The stock tweeters in the Toyota Alphard are hidden in the door pillar. Most component speaker tweeter will not fit in the pillar so many owners will choose to mount the tweeters on the dash.

In the ICE circle, some of the branded component speaker manufacturers are DLS, Dynaudio, Eclipse, Infinity, RS Audio, Alpine and Pioneer. Again the decision to go with which component speakers will depends on one budget. The lower end component speakers from some of these manufacturer can be bought for slightly less than RM1,000.00 while the higher end one will exceed RM3,000.00. If you want to have a complete swap out, then you might even want to replace the center speaker, the rear speakers and the active subwoofer (under the seat) with something better.

If your giant doesn’t come with 5.1 theatre sound system, the number of components you need to add/swap will be bigger. The sound quality of the stock head unit is rather limited. To improve the sound quality, other than swapping in a set of component speakers, you may also want to install either a CD Receiver or a DVD Receiver depending on the type of sounds you are looking for. If you are very much into pure sounds then you might want to go with a CD Receiver. If you also want to be able to support DVD playback, then you can choose a DVD Receiver that allow you to play DVD and also CD. Also, the Receiver will have built in radio tuner which gives you a better reception for local radio station frequency. Since the component speakers are matched for the mid and higher frequency range, you will need to a subwoofer to produce the proper low frequency range. Finally you will need an amplifier with the proper power handling to drive theses speakers. That’s the reason why there is this saying that once you are into ICE, there is no end to how much you need to spend in order to fine tune the sound systems. It all depends on your budget. Another important factor is the tuning skills of your ICE installer. If they have done a good job, even a less expensive sound system will sound pretty good to most people.

In the next post, I’ll blog what I have done to the sound system in my giant.

Cousin's 80 Years Grand Birthday Celebration

Last weekend I drove back to Ipoh to attend my cousin brother birthday celebration. The typical impression when one speaks about their cousin is that their age is usually close to the person talking about it. However in my clan, my brothers and sisters are born much later so in terms of age most of my cousins (in fact 10 of them) are much older than us. My family has moved to Kuala Lumpur since the 1960s but almost all my cousins remained in Ipoh. So this trip is the first time I met most of my cousin brothers and sisters in Ipoh when we attended my 5th cousin brother's 80 years grand birthday!

In Chinese tradition, whenever someone has reached the age of 80 years old, the family members will usually organized a grand birthday party (Tai Sow) for him/her. The objective is mainly to celebrate the longevity of life for reaching 80 years of age. The celebration was held in a restaurant at Pasir Pinji with 25 tables filled with family members, relatives from the clan and friends of the family.

Instead of the normal wedding decoration, the main stage was decorated with the simple wording of Longevity.

Just like the in thing in any wedding dinner where there is slideshow of the wedding photos, my cousin's family also has a slide show of the childhood and life photos of my 5th cousin brother and his family over the years. Of course most of the photos are in black and white given that he was born in the 1920s.

The foods served are also worded to add meanings to the longevity theme. A total of 8 dishes were served.
The very first dish that is a must in any grand birthday is the Sow Bao (Longevity Bun).

The rest of the dishes include four seasons, fish, chicken, prawn, vegetable, longevity noodles and sweet desserts.

You might noticed that all the serving plates used to serve the food are huge, to go along with the theme of Tai (big)

After the meal, the "Sow Sing Kong" (as we call him in Cantonese) then goes through the cake cutting, pouring of wines and then a simple "Yam Seng" cheer with the guests.

One thing I learned from this experience is that life is a long and winding road. There are many decades for one to traverse but one should cherish every moments. When you celebrate your 80 years old grand birthday later with your family and relatives, you know you have come a long way and you can look forwards to the next decade. I still have a long way to go in this winding road and I want to enjoy every moments I can.

Drove the Giant to Ipoh

Over the weekend I took my giant out for a long distance drive for the very first time. The last trip was really a short stop and go type of driving so this trip gave me a real feels for the drive of this car on the highway.

The journey to Ipoh took about slightly more than 2 hours as I was sticking to the speed limits of the highway. Also there were plenty of cars on the highway even though it was the first day of the Hari Raya festival holiday. The drive was very smooth as there was not a single start and stop situation which is very good considering that the day before there were reports of congestions on most of the highways.

Overall the power of the 2.4L engine of my giant is adequate for the journey on most stretch of the road except when going uphill. Once the car slow down due to slower traffic in front it takes a bit more revving to push the car up the hill and to maintain the speeds so not to slow down those behind me. Since I have two elder passengers in my car I don't want to push it too fast and scare them off as this is the first time they rode in my car!

I was also very happy with the performance of the Toyo Proxes C1S tyres that I recently changed. They are really quiet and have plenty of grips.

My last trip to Ipoh was almost 10 years ago so I was kind of lost my direction trying to get to my destination once I was in Ipoh city center. I have to call my sister who is staying to Ipoh to guide me to get to my destination. Once I get my orientation I find that it was really easy to drive around Ipoh.

During my two days stay I didn't really get much chance to explore the town as I was there to attend a dinner. I was hoping to try the famous Lo Wong Ngar Choi Kai (chicken with bean sprout) on the 2nd day but it was so packed that people are waiting under the hot sun to get their seats. I guess I forgot that it was the 1st day of Hari Raya and every Ipoh-born folks are probably comes back in town to sample their famous local delicacies. Since we didn't have much times so we opted for the wan tan noodle and the salted chicken at the coffee shop opposite Lo Wong.

The return trip to KL was also very smooth. I actually checked the advisory from the Plus Highway website and took their advice to start the journey at 3:00pm. Surprisingly the whole journey coming back was very smooth even though the traffic was pretty heavy and I was able to keep to the speed limit most of the time. With only a short stop in the Tapah rest area I reached KL just slightly after 5:30pm.

Body Colour of 1st Gen Toyota Alphard

I have a question from a reader on what are the colour choices available for 1st Gen Alphard.

I went through the 1st Gen Alphard catalogues and have extracted the following colour chart.

For pre-facelift, there are 8 colours to choose from:


From top left to bottom right the colours are: White Mica, Silver Metallic, Black Mica, Bordeaux Mica (Maroon), Gold Metallic, Light Green Mica Metallic, Dark Blue Mica, Grey Pearl Toning.

For new facelift, there are 7 colour choices as shown below:


From top to bottom the colours are: White Mica, Grey Metallic, Silver Metallic, Black Mica, Maroon, Gold Metallic, Dark Blue Mica.

Do note that the popular colour choice are White, Silver and Black. The rest are pretty rare as most dealers would rather deal with the popular colour. If you are looking for a less popular choice then you might need to ask the dealer to specifically source one for you.

Hope this help you in making a decision which colour to go for.

Model Code for Pre-Facelift Toyota Alphard MZG

I have previously writes about the model code for new-facelift Toyota Alphard MZG. During my visit to two dealers this week while helping a reader of mine to search for his MZG, I also found the model code for pre-facelift MZG.

The Alphard G MZG carries the following model codes:

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

The Alphard V MZG carries the following model codes:

MNH10-PFPQK-P for 2WD model
MNH15-PFPQK-P for 4WD model

I think with these information I am ready to compile a list of all the model codes for 1st Gen Toyota Alphard as I mentioned in my previous post.

Watch this space for the table pretty soon.

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