Remark: If a foreigner or a local without a car license will not be permitted to rent a car, and their booking will be cancelled or forfeited.

If you don't know what a Toyota Vellfire is, either you've been living under a rock for the last two decades or you really don’t pay attention to the cars you see. You see, in most parts of the world it is the European marques that are associated with luxury people moving – usually in the form of large, stretched out sedans and limousines that are designed to pretty much look and feel like business class in an aeroplane.

But here in Asia – more specifically, Malaysia – there are a couple of other indicators of luxury and status beyond the usual suspects. Over here, you have vehicles like the Toyota Land Cruiser (especially for the multi-generational plantation owner), or the Toyota Harrier (for your regular family with 1.98 children according to census data). And perhaps most notable of all is the Toyota Vellfire - and its sister car the Toyota Alphard – a luxury MPV that transcends race, religion, and age.

This bread box of a car often finds a home in many an affluent household, and for a variety of good reasons – none of which having to do with the way it drives. In fact, there have been many variants and offshoots of this particular model, with Lexus even having an ultra-luxury version that is a far better approximation of that "business class" environment many European marques aim for, albeit for an eye-watering amount of money.

Generationally three have been three Vellfires since 2002, with a variety of facelifts introduced along the way as well. The latest generation was locally introduced in 2016, with an update coming in 2020 and another upgraded variant due soon seeing as we get our models fully imported from Japan. The Vellfire as it is positioned is the lower-spec version of the Alphard, hence being the cheaper price – and it is only offered in a singular variant locally.