Earlier this month, Proton announced that the Preve had been officially launched in Chile, its debut marking the brand’s return to the South American country, where it was last present in the late 1990s.
The launch of the car also saw the official opening of its first 3S showroom in Santiago. The outlet – which is located in Irarrazaval, 15 minutes away from the city centre – is managed by Andes Motor, the brand’s exclusive distributor in Chile. Andes is a subsidiary of the Kaufmann Group, which is a leading distributor of buses, trucks and luxury cars in the country.
The opening was officiated by Mohd Khalid Yusof, Proton’s director of transformation and head of international sales, together with Jorge Greene Diaz, general manager of Andes Motor and Maximilliano Sfeir, business manager of Proton, witnessed by Datuk Dr Mohamad Rameez, the Malaysian ambassador to Chile. Proton later handed over an Exora to the Malaysian Embassy to help promote Malaysia in the country.
Aside from the showroom, the facility has three service bays located just behind the former, and the 350 sq metre area can accommodate three to four cars for service at any one time, with four dedicated parking bays for customers.
It’s not the only Proton outlet in the capital. There are five other 1S outlets located within the Oeste Plaza Mall, Ayr, Technocid, Technosur and Antivero. Apart from Santiago, other outlets are in Sucursal Pajaritos, Las Parcelas, Quilicura, San Bernado and Vespucio.
The automaker says that its Chilean network is expected to grow with the addition of left-hand drive Exora and Saga models in November, but the Preve will profide a lot of push. “We have confidence in the Preve. The media here have tested the car and given positive feedback. Marketing becomes effortless when the car can convince the market by itself,” Sfeir said.
Three variants of the left-hand drive Preve will be available in Chile – Standard, Executive and Premium. The Std and Exec are powered by a 1.6 litre Campro IAFM+ engine with 107 hp and 150 Nm, paired to a five-speed manual gearbox. The Premium gets the Campro CFE turbocharged motor with 138 hp and 205 Nm, mated to a CVT transmission with seven virtual ratios.
It was previously reported that Proton had planned its reentry to the market since a free trade agreement was signed between Malaysia and Chile in February 2012, granting the company a 6% exemption in import duty. The Malaysian carmaker shipped 50 units of the Preve to San Antonio in March, the first batch of the 1,000 units it hopes to sell in Chile this year.
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Wahliao…..there you go.
RM 1.5 Billion,some left overs,after gasak by the lapdog vendors…..nice Chile showroom with heating during winter.
Alexis Sanchez…..you wanna visit out Plotong’s showroom after Copa America?
Cantik,nya…..Syiok syiok…
P1 is moving out. Ur P2 still wanna be jaguh kampung. So u syiok sendiri?
A simple question:
There are so many left-handed driving country like Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Taiwan, Philippines, much nearer to Malaysian. Why Chile?
So you have any proof?
It should be like workshop under tree right?
RBA topkek and bantai sahaja. Proton will do well in Chile and oso North Amerika. I am sure Proton will sell at least 1 million cars in Amerika. Saya yakin dengan BN!
Sorry, not interested in “Outdated” stock.Head back London after Copa to drive my fiance in new Audi sports car
Proton is a joke. Already before, Proton failed big time in all markets globally. Even Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear and Vicky Butler Henderson from Fifth Gear as well as all UK car magazines have confirmed, Proton is the most dangerous car in the world and NOT worthy to be on any roads. This is shocking cause export Proton is 100x better quality than the Protons that are sold to Malaysians in Malaysia.
We Malaysians need to ask why is the export Proton so much higher quality than the local Proton, and yet, it is sold cheaper overseas. (Whole range of Proton is sold 50% less than in super rich Saudi Arabia than in Malaysia)
Typical Proton, just waste money setting up operations in all over the world. Like in Singapore, set up fancy showroom, pay the abang abang expat salary to chill out in the showroom and lepak BUT last year alone, Proton sold a grand total of 1 car (satu sahaja).
Spend about few hundred thousand ringgit in rental of premises and expat pay for the abang abang but make about RM20k for the single car sold.
The same with their UK showroom. So fancy but cost more than the little profit they got from a few cars sold in a year. Chile will be the same now
My advice to Proton is this…charity begins at home. Take care of your rakyat first. If your rakyat is so unhappy with you until you only got 100k sales last year, something is wrong with you.
Once you take care of your rakyat, then only go overseas and sell to the world. Rakyat sendiri pun tak jaga, mahu jaga orang lain.
Just wondering. What model was JC referring to ah?
Kunta Kinte, how many times you want to repeat the same comments? I read this comment before in other posting. Be creative dude!
So Proton is trying to tell the rakyat that the 1.5bil donation is being well invested that the company is a global car manufacturer. In reality the ‘national’ car maker is a laughing stock and a joke in its own country where the people don’t want to be associated with it. Even Honda sold more cars than Proton.
Don’t be negative.
Can’t even stand up at home ground, instead want to compete overseas. What you want the rakyat to say? Monies well wasted?
It’s year 2016 and selling junk cars unsold in Malaysia to Chile. Interior like shit and transmission so jerky like sitting inside an earthquake simulator with engine whine louder than a fruit blender. Please la Proton replace all your junk models Preve, Suprima S, Iriz, Exora seriously? You’re still selling that 6 yo junk??? I’m sure you can do better than that right?
When it goes for IIHS small overlap test.. I wonder how the result will be.. Since Proton is deemed Safe like european cars ma..
I wonder how the small overlap test will be when it is tested by IIHS.. Since proton is as safe as Volvos they claim
This 3S centre is a let down.
Even tyre shop in KL can accommodate more than 4 cars at a time and 4 dedicated parking bays for customers ?. Hahahaha!!!!
Satu lagi projek Barisan Nasional.
Bercukurlah John.
Proton shd be consolidating its operations & networks rather then to expand when it is still waiting for Idris Jala to come out with a turnaround plan.
At the rate P1 is heading, the 1.5 bil wouldn’t be enough to ride out 2016,
let alone 5 years down the road.
Well, if u wanna compare whats in the photo with tyre shop run by ahbeng gansters with peroxide hair that “reserves” parking lots meant for public use, never pay fee for reserving the lots, with drain water blacker than swamp lagoon, and take-it-or-leave-it attitude that prioritise preferential customers, daylight robbery prices, unethical hardsell for camber nuts, “special” valve caps and tyre polish (then gip u the look when u refuse it), with a “waiting room” under the hot sun?
Everybody is free to make their own choices, I guess.
Trying to push unwanted cars by Malaysians to Chile!
Let’s c how long you can last there!
Selamat berpuasa muy compadres in Chile where the days are longer and the nights are shorter.
Did I see a Preve that has Exora hubcaps on it’s steel rims with body coloured window frame? Wow! That looks… Like a Malaysian Saga. Lol.
350sqm 3s centre for 50 units of cars?…haha. Talk about business acumen.. and they are wondering why they lose money and puzzling why the Malaysians dont support them. Hahahahh…….Them proton.
Andes is providing the centre. Why bash proton?
Is it going to be much cheaper in Chile?
Should have invested those RM in research for eev technologies or hybrid tech instead of this bullshit, still not known market in chile, this is lazy approach strategy from proton on spending gov money.
I need monthly sales report for every month of this year. And next year as well as back to back sales comparison analysis.
For Proton, the Malaysia Market oredi making losses of billion ringgit, due to their lousy cars, low quality cars…..now proton is going to lose more money venturing oversea market.
This is failure to the max.