After the amazing evening of wonderful French cuisine and romantic love songs at Brasserie Alma (which you can read about below), the rest of the weekend was us doing our regular activities – Sunday morning at Glad Tidings Petaling Jaya, followed by lunch at the popular curry noodles restaurant in Seksyen 17, after which ice-cold cendol and ais kacang were a welcome respite from the blazing heat (fortunately, the Seal Performance comes with ventilated seats!), and ayam gepuk in TTDI.
The first thing that greets you as you enter the BYD Seal is the huge 15.6-inch touchscreen that rotates between landscape and portrait. In practice, that means you can run navigation in a tall, map-friendly layout, then flip it back to landscape for media or reversing. Behind the steering wheel is a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, so speed and driving information stay in front of the driver rather than competing for space on the main display.
Phone connectivity is wireless: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto both connect without a cable, which suits short, frequent trips where plugging in feels like a chore. There are also two USB-C and two USB-A ports split between the front and rear rows for those who prefer a cable or have passengers who need a top-up. Two wireless phone chargers sit in the cabin, handy for couples or colleagues sharing a ride.
Audio comes from a 12-speaker Dynaudio system, which was pretty good and provided us with above-average sound quality as we travelled about during the weekend. The touchscreen was most responsive, and we didn’t notice any lag. The Bluetooth connection to my Android phone was also quick and seamless, one of the fastest that I’ve ever experienced.
The car also receives over-the-air updates, which means certain software improvements can arrive without a trip to the service centre. For owners, that is a small but practical convenience, though how much changes over time will depend on what the distributor rolls out.
The driver’s seat is 8-way power-adjustable with 4-way lumbar adjustment and position memory. That memory function matters most in households where two people share the car, as each driver can return to their preferred seating position without fiddling every time. The front passenger gets a 6-way power-adjustable seat. Both front seats are ventilated and heated, and the ventilation in particular is a welcome inclusion for Malaysian weather, where a leather seat can turn unpleasant after sitting in the sun.
The seats and steering wheel are wrapped in genuine leather, and the two-tone seat design takes cues from music production equipment, according to BYD. For someone like me who is 178cm, I easily found a comfortable seating position.
The SEAL has an automatic dual-zone air-conditioning system, so the driver and front passenger can set different temperatures. Rear central air vents help cool rear passengers, and the cabin also gets a PM2.5 filter and a negative ion air purifier. For those who regularly drive through KL traffic or the occasional haze season, cleaner cabin air is a practical consideration.
A panoramic glass roof comes with an electric sunshade, so the cabin can be opened up for light or shut off from afternoon glare. The soundproof double-glazed glass on the windscreen and front doors is there to cut road and wind noise, which tends to be a relief on long highway stretches.
Entry and start-up are keyless, and there is an NFC card key for backup. New on this update is the BYD Digital Key, which lets owners use a phone via NFC or Bluetooth as the car key. That is useful for anyone who has ever left the key fob at home or needs to share access with a family member without handing over a physical key. The door mirrors fold electrically, tilt downwards when reversing and remember their positions, and the tailgate opens and closes with one touch, which helps when carrying shopping or luggage with full hands.
Safety systems are the kind of feature owners hope never to test, but they matter most when the unexpected happens. The SEAL Performance carries adaptive cruise control, which holds a set speed and gap to the car ahead, easing the load during stop-and-go highway traffic. Lane departure warning, lane departure prevention and emergency lane keeping assist work to keep the car within its lane if attention drifts.
Around the car, blind spot detection and door open warning help guard against cyclists, motorcyclists and passing traffic, a concern in busy Klang Valley streets. Front and rear cross-traffic alert, with automatic braking, assists when reversing out of car park bays or pulling out of junctions with limited visibility. A 360-degree camera helps with tight parking, supported by front parking sensors covering two zones and rear sensors covering four zones.
Other driver aids include predictive collision warning, driver attention warning, high beam assist, traffic sign recognition, intelligent speed limit information and control, and a head-up display that projects key information into the driver’s line of sight. In a crash, the car has front, side, side curtain, far-side and rear-seat airbags, along with dual-stage pretensioners on the front seatbelts and pretensioners on the rear belts.
I really enjoyed my weekend with the BYD Seal Performance. It was quick and nippy, yet nimble enough for the tighter roads in Petaling Jaya (quite amazing for a D-segment sedan). Parents should take note, though, that this car is extremely powerful and thus is not suitable for inexperienced drivers.
Photos shot by the author using the vivo X300 Pro.
