A Day out with Honda FREED and Paul Tan

I haven't had an 8a.m. call times on a Saturday in a while now since shoots have ended for Modelle, but last Saturday was a different one. I was kinda nervous and also excited cause chosen Advertlets bloggers had the chance to test drive the all-new Honda FREED on a Day Out with Paul Tan from PaulTan.org.

Let me show you a summary of the roadtrip with Honda, Paul Tan and Advertlets bloggers in a video shot by Eric Yong before you start reading my long post.

The day started with an introductory talk by a representative from Honda and Harvinder Singh, Paul Tan's partner regarding the convoy, our trip and also the do's and don'ts when in a convoy. Light breakfast were served and off we went on our road trip. We were given walkie talkies just in case of emergencies, but somehow Harve used it to explain to us the route and the capabilities of the Freed at different terrains.

Rebecca and I, other than Eric and Zen were the earliest to reach there....all super blur until coffee was served haha

 While everyone was busy eating after the talk, Esty and I were busy camwhoring  -_-"

OK enough of the nonsense photos, let's talk about the car!






Errrr...no, that's NOT the Freed  -_-"   That's Thong Kai's personal vehicle without air bags summore.

Now THIS, is the Freed  ;)

back view of the Freed. I find it rather 'boxy' but most MPVs would have that shape so that it could have a larger space especially in the storage or back compartment.

My favourite part of the car would be the dual layer dashboard. I'm a sucker for space and organization so the dashboard is like a dream come true! I can put almost ANYTHING (except for Jason Ong of course) on it and still drive without feeling cramped or having my view obstructed. The dashboard has plenty of space for your phones, diaries and anything you can actually think of putting on top of it...just name it, FREED can hold it.

When it comes to choosing cars, I would firstly prioritize space and comfort and FREED has plenty of em. The driver and front passenger's side was super spacious...I like!!! and the seats were super comfortable. You know how they say wide screen tellies are much better than normal ones? that applies to cars too! The wind screen was super wide, I could feel the warm  morning sun on my skin while cruising down to our next destination. Oh, and it's much better  and safer for your viewing too!

When I mentioned that you can put almost anything on it and still doesn't feel cluttered, I was not kidding cause I actually tried it out with everyone in my team punya phones and cameras. Josh managed to snap a photo of my 'Organized Mess'

Here are some specs that you should know about the FREED:

4 Seater + Style

- Automatic Dual Sliding Doors with Remote Control for easy access

- Forward Tilting Hinge Front Door to avoid accidental knocks

- Easy Access and Low Tail Gate Opening for easy loading and easy access

- One Step Low Floor with Grip Assist for elderly and handicapped easy access

4 Seater + Technology

- High Rigidity Structure for better handling and stability on the road

- Suspension System with front McPherson Strut & rear H-Shape Torsion Beam

- Small Turning Radius of 5.2m

- Active Lock-Up System

- 5 speed AT and Drive by Wire

4 Seater + Space

- Walkthrough Cabin with a 200mm walkway for easy access

- Big Cargo Capacity

- 3rd Row Foldable Seats that folds up in 3 steps easily

- Flat Roof and Flat Floor creates more head room and cabin space

4 Seater + Observation

- Tilt Steering for different driver’s needs

- Multi Layer Meter Cluster display all necessary information

- Double DIN Stereo System with radio, MP3, CD Player + USB and AUX for iPod and other digital media players

- Foot Parking Brake

4 Seater + Safety

- JNCAP (Japan New Car Assessment Program) Rating at the highest of 6 Stars

- Dual Front SRS Airbags

- ABS: Anti-lock Braking System

- EBD: Electronic Brakeforce Distribution

- BA: Brake Assist

- Fuel Lid Auto Lock Safety System prevents the sliding door from opening fully when the fuel lid is open

- Shift Hold Control + Grade Logic Control

- G-Force Control (G-CON) Technology

4 Seater + Utilities

- Backrest Hook

- Glove Box

- Glove Box Card Holder

- Front Seat Back Pocket

- Illuminated Centre Tray

- Large Door Pockets

- Cup Holders – Total of 7!

4 Seater + Accessories (Optional Items)

- Tail Gate Spoiler

- Fog Lights

- Door Visors

- Cargo Tray

- Child Seat

- GPS Navigation

The FREED has plenty of space for you to fit anything inside for a roadtrip with family and friends.



Be creative! If you can fit a mini coffee table at the back, you might even have your own starbucks! LOL

The Freed is equipped with a 1.5L engine with 118 horsepower, same engine that is used in the Honda Jazz and City, but the engine used in the Honda Freed's engine has torque of 148 Nm, while the Honda Jazz/City had 120 Horsepower with torque of 145 Nm.

This is the side view of the mini MPV, but don't let the looks deceive you cause it is actually super spacious inside. Even Zen could walk through from the back to the front while the car is moving. The back seats can be retractable to provide more storage if needed.

Can double up as Eric's daybed too!  =P

To show you how spacious it is, we tried fitting FOUR full grown adults in the back seat!

Not easy wor!

The Honda FREED is capable of seating 7 passengers comfortably and offers tons of ideas to the occupants to suit any individual's driving needs. Currently, there are about 300 units already on the road in Malaysia.

We started out the test drive from SOULed Out in Desa Sri Hartamas all the way to Putrajaya Waterpark, which is about 80km in distance, with 4 bloggers allocated in each Honda Freed. Drivers would switch at every 20km so that everyone would have the chance to test the dynamics and fuel efficiency of the vehicle.

First driver in our car - ME!!!!

I personally found that the FREED was easy to handle and isn't as 'light' as other MPVs due to the lower centre of gravity. The electrical steering wheel also made handling easier as at a faster speed, it will feel heavier for better control of the car. 

One important thing I must highlight about this car is that it's fuel efficiency is super impressive. After going back and forth of a total 80km in distance, with us pushing the accelerator to go at 140km/h on straight highway roads, the fuel digital analog barely moved. In fact, I don't know how to measure it cause it was too narrow of a drop! I nearly dropped a single tear there cause only God knows (and other users who drives the same car as me) how much suffering it is to pay for petrol especially when the price is hiking like mad nowadays.

oh and we took POLAROIDS! Joy!

I was so semangat going around squeezing my brains out for photo ideas with the help of my team mates and I was not playing around when it comes to being competitive. To show that the car has One Step Low Floor with Grip Assist for elderly and handicapped easy access, I seriously went and lied down UNDERNEATH the sliding door!


oh, and speaking of automatic one-touch sliding door, Eric shot a video of me *shamelessly* opening up the door ala princess style  -_-"   oh and that Zen ah, always enterframe punya. Killed my modjo mannnnn!

Each Honda Freed was equipped with a polaroid camera and 2 cartridges of film, and a challenge entitled '4 Seater + Ideas' was carried out. So all of the bloggers had a challenge to snap the most creative shots with the Freed's highlighted specs mentioned earlier.


The objective of the polaroid photo contest is for the bloggers to show their creativity with the theme of '4 seater + Ideas'. 

Oh, and yes, I won an iPod Shuffle 4G for the jump shot. Congrats team (Zen, Jason Ong and Eric Yong!)

Can't wait to upload video done by our videographer, Fugz regarding the day. Saw it and it looks SUPER AWESOME!

saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayaaannngggg Fugz! =P

Thanks to Honda and Advertlets for this opportunity to try out the new Freed.