This Bufori is chic and plush – opposite of my Civic’s big rush.
Bufori.. a brand as prestigious as it wasn’t on my to-see list on a rough mountain road.
Bufori Motor Car Company is a Australian-Malaysian firm established in 1987 in Australia, the company moving to Malaysia in 1994 and fully operating locally by 1998. They mainly comprise of building vehicles inspired by 1930s American coupes.
Their historic models comprise of 1920s inspired coupes, made throughout the late 1980s to the early 2000s, ultimately settling on the La Joya nameplate where the model ran from 2004 to 2024, superseded by the current generation La Joya model, still continuing the old-school design of the cars before it.
Unlike more common Malaysian brands like Perodua and Proton and others like Naza, Bufori is marketed as a bespoke automaker focused on handmade cars that can be tailor-made to customers; something like Bentley with a local nameplate.
Despite the luxury focus for its known luxury model Geneva, Bufori has seen motorsport action, partaking in rally, endurance races and even the Cannonball Run in Australia. That participation in motorsports is reflected in its coupes and roadsters.
The company has three active models available for the 2026 model year. The Geneva is a four-door saloon with suicide doors, the La Joya is a coachbuild-inspired coupe, and the CS8 is a modern high-performance coupe launched last year.
Bufori is a bit niche as their cars have not deeply penetrated export markets (and media circles) outside of its home-market in Malaysia. For us, it took the past few years to know more about Bufori, culminating to seeing one now in the flesh.
This here then, is a Bufori Geneva, and surprisingly is the official car presented in some events. Frankly I wasn’t expecting to see one parked along the Teluk Bahang mountain road in Penang – let alone it being an official unit that represents the company.
I was.. uhh.. having my fun on the roads and had to stop for a photo. I did a few passes up and down the stretch, where I may have spooked the folks photographing the car a few times (apologies if I did!) and eventually got a thumbs up.
The Geneva’s body panels are constructed with carbon-kevlar, a material pioneered by Bufori in the late 1980s.
The door handles are in fact hinting at suicide doors, where once opened reveals an blue-themed interior – blue seats, blue doorcards, blue headliner and more. There are videos online of the car that can be found on Bufori’s Instagram page by other influencers that I recommend – its a very well-done design.
This exact car is powered by a 3.6-litre Chrysler Pentastar DOHC 24-valve V6 with added supercharger, although a 6.4-litre naturally-aspirated Chrysler HEMI V8 is offered on the Geneva. No transmission type is written, but it is safe to say the Geneva is offered only with an automatic transmission.
Power isn’t widely available for the V6, but the V8 produces 470 horsepower and 630Nm, good for a 0-100km/h sprint in 5.4 seconds. That power is sent to the rear wheels, so handling isn’t compromised with equal opportunity for some playful slides (if traction control allows it).
The Geneva is pretty long at a length of 5,540mm. Combined with the the V8, the curb weight of 2,450 kilograms makes it a heavy affair, but this V6 was moving along nicely my tired 1.6-litre was struggling to keep up.
It in the flesh is quite a image maker. There are no common cars that have a distinct look as the Geneva, and the color certainly made it pop much more in the surrounding forested environment. Really, really nice I must say.
And I must apologize for how I was nosing about; these roads are hard to waste.
¬Efini
Read more: MY Archives: Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3
