Time to upgrade my yaris to something slightly bigger.

The Avanza is attractively priced at 699K for top of the line while the Freed cost just over 1mil.

Most of the dealers are touting the fact the Freed has power sliding doors which I can careless.

Freed also has 5 speed auto while Avanza is 4

Both come with 1500cc engine.

For some reason my 2007 yaris feels more solidly built than the Avanza. My guess is that the Avanza is built economically cheap.

I havent test drove either but the freed I would imagine to have a better ride and stability than the Avanza.

Anyone have any experience or knowledge in why I would pay 300K more for a Honda Freed?

A college I do work for transports me in an avanza. It's revving much too high at 100km/h (over 3500rpm if I recall, and this is for the auto). It doesn't seem too power but rides ok for what it is. I'm sure the freed is superior, but 300K superior, I don't know. Anyway you can get a ranger Auto for 800K or so, so I'd never entertain the thought of a freed myself. Even the pajero sport, a seven seater, isn't much more than a freed!

Avanza is a very old fashion design from Indonesia. No crash tests available, sold in "developing" countries only. Freed is a modern Japanese design.

If seating 7 legally is a must, I would look at Proton Excida? 7 seater

but would rather spend 800k on a Ranger XLT and install seats in the bed

The Avanza is a car asbsolutely to built to a price for the Indonesian market... It has the Soluna's 1.5L engine modified for longitudal & RWD, a ladder frame, and a very cheaply built body. Not only does it look odd, it drives terrible, it's loud, and gets terrible FE.

The Freed is Jazz under the skin. It's odd looks aside, it's major flaws are it's price and that rear tailgate, which requires almost 2 meters of clear space behind to open (what were they thinking?). It's a better drive than the Avanza, still bad on FE, and at least 200K Baht overpriced.

If I was trying to sit 7 people for <= 1M Baht, my attention would be going to:

Proton Exora: 659K - 819K

Pajero Sport 2.4L Gasoline: 915K

Pajero Sport 2.5L Diesel: 1.014M

Also note that Avanza has not been crash tested... and I seriously doubt it'd be a 4-star car like the Freed, Exora and Pajero Sport.

Thank you all for the great input. Now I am a bit discouraged about the Avanza.

With a little more searching I found that the Toyota Innova might fit the bill at 1mil. Its slightly bigger than what I was looking for as I live in BKK but its seems to be safer and better built. Anyone confirm?

Any thoughts about the Innova? Is the Innova or the Freed a safer car since the Avanza has no extensive safety testing?

If you're going a mil and not in a hurry, what about the new Everest on the way?

Have driven the Innova in Philippines. It's a good car IMHO. Steady and drives far better than the Chev Optegra, the other car the comoany had.

Innova is more than just slightly bigger than the Avanza (which was presented as a Revo replacement)

Me now also had 2nd thoughts about Avanza. Had been thining if I should consider it if I were to buy a car

Though Pajero and Forrester may be a better buy, I'm looking for fuel efficient car which I am assuming SUV are not.

If it was up to me I would get a pickup like vigo or ranger but wifey says no.

Just went to Honda dealer today and they said the Freed that will be coming next month is priced lower at 830K instead of the current limited edition which is about 960K

in return they are taking out the navigation/dvd and rear view camera, everything else remains.

Now I'm leaning towards Honda Freed. Hopefully its half way decent in terms of its safety record?

The Innova is another Indonesian special. It's built on the same chassis as the VIGO (IMV1), but uses a 2.0L gasoline engine. Due to it's weight, it feels underpowered and is also pretty bad on FE.

Then again, all of these MPV's running with a naturally aspirated gasoline engine are underpowered and suffer terrible FE when loaded up with people

How much all of that matters depends on how many KM's you're going to drive over it's lifetime I guess. But as a very rough comparison, you can expect something like the Freed to cost ~400,000 Baht to travel 100,000KM, vs ~285,000 Baht in the 2.5L Diesel Pajero Sport (based on today's fuel prices) - so if your planning on big KM's, spending a little more on something like the PJS (and getting much more due to much lower tax), could work out reasonably close in the end...

The Innova is another Indonesian special. It's built on the same chassis as the VIGO (IMV1), but uses a 2.0L gasoline engine. Due to it's weight, it feels underpowered and is also pretty bad on FE.

Then again, all of these MPV's running with a naturally aspirated gasoline engine are underpowered and suffer terrible FE when loaded up with people

How much all of that matters depends on how many KM's you're going to drive over it's lifetime I guess. But as a very rough comparison, you can expect something like the Freed to cost ~400,000 Baht to travel 100,000KM, vs ~285,000 Baht in the 2.5L Diesel Pajero Sport (based on today's fuel prices) - so if your planning on big KM's, spending a little more on something like the PJS (and getting much more due to much lower tax), could work out reasonably close in the end...

Note Innova is based on Gen one IMV1 and thus has the old small brakes as used in Vigo/fortuna pre 2008. The 2,0 petrol is not as underpowered as Avanza and Freed, but indeed underpowered and thus very thirsty if required to perform

Expect innova to perform better in crash test than Avanza, but far from its Vigo/fortuna sisters

above fuel budget by MRO seem about right. small petrol engines working hard are very thirsty, and they do work hard with this weight

And petrol costs a bit more than diesel