Most families looking at Deepavali car rental need the same thing: a seven-seater with room for the grandparents, the children and the boxes of murukku for the open house. Grandpride's MPVs start from RM 900 a day to drive yourself, or from RM 150 an hour with a chauffeur. Book before the bazaar weeks begin, when everyone else starts making plans too.
Customs differ from family to family and between communities, so take the timeline below as a general pattern and fit the cars around your own.
Two or three weeks before: bazaar traffic
Kuala Lumpur City Hall closes parts of the roads in Brickfields and around Jalan Masjid India for the Deepavali bazaar. In 2025 the closures covered stretches of Jalan Tun Sambanthan and Jalan Rakyat in Brickfields and Jalan Bonus 6 off Jalan Masjid India, for about three weeks, and DBKL asked people to use other routes or public transport.
A big MPV is the wrong tool for a bazaar run. If you're shopping for clothes, lamps and kolam powder with older relatives, a chauffeur who drops you at the edge of Brickfields and picks you up when you call is easier than circling for parking. Book by the hour, three hours minimum.
The days before: balik kampung
Deepavali is a public holiday in every state except Sarawak, and some states add a second day in some years, so check the year's list. PLUS publishes a Travel Time Advisory before festive holidays, with suggested times to leave by destination, in its MyPLUS-TTA app. Over the 2024 Deepavali holiday PLUS expected traffic on its expressways to rise to about 2.1 million vehicles a day. Our guide to festive season traffic covers how to time a drive around peaks like that.
Three Grandpride rules matter for a long festive drive:
- Only the named renter drives a self-drive car. Brothers and cousins can't take turns on the way to Penang, so if the driving needs sharing, look at a chauffeur instead.
- The car stays in Peninsular Malaysia, and it comes back with the same fuel level it left with.
- Every rental includes 120 km a day. KL to Ipoh and back is about 410 km before any driving around town, more than three days' allowance, so add extra or unlimited mileage when you book; it costs less per kilometre than paying for extra kilometres afterwards.
If nobody in the family wants to drive four hours in festive traffic, a chauffeur can take you one way, priced on distance. Our guide to a private driver from KL to other cities has the details.
Deepavali morning
For many Hindu families the day starts before sunrise with an oil bath and prayers at home, then a visit to the temple. Reporters at Batu Caves in 2025 found devotees arriving with fruit and flowers from about 6 am. If you're heading there, read our guide to Batu Caves by car for where the parking is.
Two things for an early start with a chauffeur: hours that begin between 11 pm and 7 am are charged at +50%, and online bookings need at least two days' notice.
Newlyweds may have a car question of their own. In the Tamil custom of Thalai Deepavali, a couple celebrates their first Deepavali at the bride's family home, usually arriving on the eve. If that's you, the Toyota Alphard with a chauffeur at RM 200 an hour carries the couple, both sets of gifts and the parents in one trip.
Open house afternoons
At an open house the family welcomes friends and neighbours of every faith, and plenty of people visit several in a day. That usually means residential streets with cars already parked along both sides.
That's where an MPV with a chauffeur earns its rate: dropped at the gate, collected at the gate, nobody in heels walking 300 m from the only space left. Grandpride's seven-seat chauffeur cars take three large suitcases each, which also means room for the gift boxes you'll be handed on the way out.
If you'd rather go in your own car, Grandpride's driver service puts a driver behind your wheel for RM 385 for an eight-hour day, with overtime at RM 40 an hour.
The drive back
Look at the PLUS advisory and the traffic again before you set off back, fill the tank to where it was at collection, and plan to arrive inside your booked return time CHECK: Grandpride's grace period and charge for a late return.
Before you book
Can I rent a car to go back to my hometown for Deepavali?
Yes, anywhere in Peninsular Malaysia. Add extra or unlimited mileage for a trip out of the Klang Valley, and remember that only the named renter can drive.
Which car fits the whole family?
A seven-seat MPV. Self-drive, the Vellfire starts from RM 900 a day and the Alphard from RM 1,000 a day. Compare them in our Alphard vs Vellfire guide.
Does Grandpride deliver during the Deepavali holiday?
Delivery is free within 10 km of the Petaling Jaya showroom and RM 100 elsewhere in the Klang Valley. CHECK: is Grandpride open and delivering on public holidays such as Deepavali, and with what notice?
Is anything charged when I reserve?
Only the RM 50 booking fee, paid online when you reserve. It comes off the total, and you pay the rest in store or in person.
The seven-seaters, self-drive, are on the MPV list, each with its own calendar.
