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My awesome Mazda Premacy

AthmasThum
Apr 9, 2019
6 min read

Mazda Premacy 1999-2004

Mazda Premacy 2.0 is the last model of first generation Mazda Premacy launched back in 1999 Geneva motor show. When this car was launched in 1999, it was paired with a 1.8 liter DOHC carried over from Mazda 323. It produces peak power of 123 horsepower and 163 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm. Therefore if you were to look closely at Mazda 323, you will see some resemblance, it looks like Mazda 323 that was pulled and stretched into a family mover like this. Mazda Premacy was then imported from Japan by local distributor Cycle and Carriage Bintang Bhd as a fully imported CBU model in 2003. The price was initially RM132,000 and one year later the price dropped to RM121,000. Back to 16 years ago, there were no competitors of compact seven-seaters such as Nissan Grand Livina, Honda Brv and the latest Perodua Aruz that is so tempting for people to buy. This car particularly is so much more comfortable than the three cars I mentioned above, if Mazda were to advertise it as how Perodua advertise their Aruz, more would have been sold. Even easier when the car they brought in has the third row seat, whether or not the third row seat serve a significant purpose of the car, buyer will be eager to drive off a new car with a larger passenger capacity and it is always a plus point when it's capable to provide two extra seats when you want to travel with friends or family on certain occasion.

Performance

Every Mazda Premacy in Malaysia is equipped with a more powerful 2.0 DOHC 16 valve engine from Mazda 626. It produces 132 horsepower and 174 Nm of torque. If this car were to be judged by the power figures to its curb weight of 1300 kg, this is the least powerful 2.0 engine car I have ever driven. At least fuel economy is rated good to average depending on driving style. Easily up to 10km/L highway and city combined. Note that this engine is using normal multi-point injection system, none of the fuel-saving technology such as gasoline direct injection (GDI) or variable valve timing (VVT) was implemented into this engine, high compression engine Skyactiv technology from Mazda was still 10 years in the future.

In terms of coping with the highway speed, maintaining 110km/h is just nice and smooth as engine will be cruising around 2700 rpm. But when it comes to overtaking other vehicle, its engine needs to rev up to 4000 rpm sometimes even 6000 rpm to produce enough torque. Fuel economy drops terribly, the car vibrates as the engine is struggling at high rpm. Taking it to a drive up Genting with five-person on board is very much not recommended. The performance of this car slips from average to bad to worst as passenger start to bundle in. The one thing good about the drive train is the responsive four-speed automatic transmission, whenever I pedal down, it will shift immediately, the shifting is controlled by a microprocessor in the PCM (Power control module) of the car. Although I may have made it sound like a slow car, don't get me wrong, this is not a slow car at all, it can be quite fast if you were to push it more and don't mind the hole in your pocket cause by high fuel consumption because this car can handle pretty well, I can even rate it above average when it comes to handling regardless of its minivan body. It uses independent MacPherson struts front and rear. That makes a huge improvement over torsion beam suspension.

EXTERIOR AND AERODYNAMICS

Mazda uses the theme "Contrast in harmony" while designing this car, this theme was reflected in all Mazda models made between 1998 till 2010 to clearly differentiating the Mazda brand. The exterior of this car especially the front end looks just like a sedan car with a slanted windscreen angle. The signature pentagon grill inserted onto a big bumper with front skirts mount below the engine hood that has two lines bulging up clearly portray a very confident look of a car. Just not your typical MPV. Many would agree that this 14 years old car still looks cool even till today right?

Despite being called as a minivan, this wedged shape design Premacy is able to achieve the aerodynamic of a sedan, its coefficient of drag without the roof rail is 0.335.

Note that this is a standard car on factory stock skirting and a pair of roof rails.

It has a very short rear overhang due to its long wheel base design while keeping the vehicle as compact as sedan car. Basically it has the length of a sedan car while having an enormous amount of interior space.

The signature Mazda pentagon grill. Its headlamp looks like it is someone who is cool and do not talk to anybody easily.

All Premacy in Malaysia get this cool looking standard 15 inch alloy wheel with 195/55 tire.

Original tail light that never fail to shine for 14 years.

Original sunroof that can be slide open and tilt up electronically by command of switches, two male adult can fit in that big sun roof easily. It is working perfectly after 14 years without leaking or electronic malfunction. Note that the rubber seal have never been change before.

Interior

The interior of this car is very well optimized, it has spacious interior and versatility within a compact exterior to provide driver and passenger a relaxing ambiance including a 10/10 outward visibility.

The huge windscreen in this car helps a lot, anyone who has claustrophobia or simply just doesn't like to be enclosed will be comfortable here. Back seat of this car is 50 mm higher than the front seat so that the rear passenger can enjoy the view making it a perfect family tourer. The interior quality of this car feels really good even after 14 years without an indoor garage and it managed to withstand the heat without any cracks. A very minimal amount of hard plastic on everything that you can touch. So it does feels more premium than those scratchy plastic material.

It has a very basic instrument cluster to display speed, rpm, coolant temperature and fuel level.

For a family orientated car like this, simple instrument cluster like this is the best as the display is deliberately large and uncluttered easy viewing at one glance.

The steering wheel is without any tear or play on the part we hold onto. No control button on steering wheel.

The basic music player head unit paired with four speakers on the door panel produce a very acceptable amount of bass and treble. There's no automatic climate control in this car, just a regular knob to select the temperature and speed, kinda unacceptable for a car that cost Rm120,000 even back in 2004.

All four door handles are in chrome finish, automatic folding mirrors, two steps automatic driver window and normal power window for passenger all within a switch panel on the door panel.

Most of my passengers will ask me where is my gear knob and how do I switch gear, it is actually on the steering column, therefore it is called a column shifter. Column shifter is ugly but it actually serves a very good purpose, first, it allows the whole center console to be spacious and your hand can basically stay on the steering wheel all the time.

Small little feature such as guide light to the keyhole and the window switch will light up and stay working for 1 minute after the engine is shut down will be appreciated by its user.

Two adults can sit comfortably at the rear seat but when it comes to three people sitting, it isn't comfortable as the parting line of the split seat will be applying too much pressure onto the back of the middle passenger. The headroom and legroom of the rear passenger is more than enough. The seat can be reclined to increase passenger comfort during long journey too.

If there's only one good point to talk about this car, I'll definately talk about the loading capacity. It can load a dissembled double-decker from IKEA, a carting frame, 3 bicycles or anything you can think of, it can probably load. Third row seat can be easily removed and the middle seat is split folding and able to flip down to provide a flat floor to load your washing machine or refrigerator at home. It may seem similar to a boot where you can get in a Nissan Grand Livina and Perodua Aruz, if we compare them side by side it is far different, the boot floor of this car is so low with very wide boot opening to the extent that few big traveller luggage can be arranged vertically and rear view mirror visibility will still be sufficient.

Love it or hate it, the car above have become my daily driver car for more than three years. In these three years ownership, I have gone through both good and terrible experience of owning this 14 years old Mazda. At the end of the day, those experience became great memories that bonded me with this car.