Toyota rental
Kuala Lumpur

Toyota's presence in this fleet covers two completely unrelated engineering propositions, and both are worth explaining properly. The GR Supra is the enthusiast car, and its most discussed characteristic is that its engine is a BMW B58 straight-six built in Austria alongside the Z4. Purists complained loudly at launch. They were largely wrong. The B58 is one of the great modern turbocharged sixes, and Gazoo Racing's chassis work — shorter wheelbase than the Z4, stiffer body, its own damper and steering calibration — produces a car that drives nothing like the BMW it shares parts with.

What the Supra does well is the thing that matters most on Malaysian roads: mid-range torque. Peak twist arrives around 1,600 rpm and stays flat to past 4,500, which means you overtake on the Karak without downshifting and you never feel the need to hold a gear. The short wheelbase makes it agile and slightly nervous at the limit, the eight-speed automatic is quick and intelligent, and the compact dimensions mean it fits through gaps that a Huracán does not.

The other Toyotas are the Vellfire and the Alphard, and they deserve to be taken as seriously. The Alphard Executive Lounge is, without much argument, the best way to move four people around Kuala Lumpur. Individual reclining captain's chairs with powered ottomans, near-silent running, a low floor with sliding doors that solve every tight-car-park problem a saloon creates, and a ride quality tuned specifically for Asian urban surfaces. Corporate clients book them over S-Class saloons regularly and they are right to.

The common thread is Toyota's engineering conservatism, which is a compliment. These are cars specified for reliability in hot, humid, stop-start conditions by a company that understands those conditions better than any European manufacturer. In a rental context that translates to something simple: they start, they work, and the air conditioning is cold at idle in a jam.