Archive for Malaysian Makes

Proton has issued a response to the public outcry of alleged unfairness in the results of the Proton MPV naming competition. The dissatisfaction is mostly related to the chosen name “Proton Exora”, which its MD Datuk Syed Zainal said was based on the Ixora flower name at the launch event. According to Syed Zainal, “Exora is a flower that blooms in a bunch, so that evokes the spirit of the MPV, which is togetherness. It demonstrates the MPV as a family vehicle and that is why we decided to pick the name.”

In Proton’s statement, it thanked members of the public for highlighting the issues and concerns related to the choice of name and understands the points being made. It clarified that the name “Proton Exora” was picked through a vigorous selection process and was chosen because it was not a name for any animal and vegetation although it had similar pronunciation as the flower, Ixora. In fact, there were 139 contest entries submitting the name Proton Ixora, and 39 entries for Proton Exora. The Ixora name was eliminated from the final selection because it was the direct spelling of the name of a flower.

The 39 people who had submitted the winning name had also chosen the name for various other reasons. The winning entry by Miss Norsholihan Bt Abdul Eanich was chosen because of the tagline “Keriangan Keluarga” or family joy. Proton felt the name and tagline represented the company’s effort to offer a vehicle which could offer family togetherness.

The controversial rule in the naming competition stated that an entry “tidak diambil daripada” the name of flora or fauna, but it appears that Proton and contestants had different interpretations of this rule. A lot of contestants who are dissatisfied right now assumed it meant any name related to flora and fauna were disallowed, however Proton’s interpretation was only a direct name of a flora or fauna is disallowed.

What’s done is done and nothing can be changed, but reflecting on the situation, what Proton should have done at the very beginning is clarify what exactly “tidak diambil daripada” meant by giving examples, because in my honest opinion it is obvious to me that Exora is “taken from/diambil daripada” the word Ixora and contestants have every right to be dissatisfied because perhaps if they had known variations or puns on flora/fauna are allowed, they could have let their creativity loose even more and may have come up with an even better name and tagline than Proton Exora.

Proton has announced the name for the new Proton MPV – the Proton Exora! The Exora is based on the name of the Ixora flower, with the tagline “Keriangan Keluarga”. The name and tagline were picked by the Name The Proton MPV competition grand prize winner Norsholihan Bt Abdul Eanich, who will get to drive and own the 7-seater people mover she helped name once it is launched in April.

The company also revealed that the Proton Exora MPV will be priced at under RM 80,000 and will be available in 5 colours – Genetic Silver, Tranquility Black, Blue Haze, Pyrite Brown and Gaia Blue. In terms of safety, all variants will have at least 2 SRS airbags as standard, but this will be as far as it will go in terms of total airbag count. The Proton Exora will be built in the Shah Alam plant. Cost of development was slightly over RM 450 million.

Proton will produce between 3,000 to 3,500 units of the Proton Exora a month initially. After the local launch in April, the MPV will be swiftly exported to markets such as Thailand and Indonesia by July. We’ll see how the new Exora fares in an open market up with our friends up north against their favorite Toyota MPVs.

For more, please read some past coverage on the Proton Exora to find out more about the new MPV, expected to be powered by the Campro CPS engine. Bookings will be open at a fee of RM1,000 from this Saturday (21st Feb 2009) onwards.

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Along with the official launch of the Satria Neo CPS, members of the media were given the chance to test out the new Neo CPS at an empty parking lot. Although excited about testing the new spiritual successor to the Proton Satria GTI, I wasn’t too keen about driving the up-rated Neo within the confines of a rather small area. Proton had setup a pointless-looking mini race track within the compounds of the APAC parking lot and I managed to get a taste of both manual and automatic variants.

First up was the automatic version. Featuring similar cabin room as the standard Neo, the CPS variant also suffers from lack of head clearance. In my honest opinion, it was quite fun to drive the Neo CPS through tight spots, as the handling was rather sharp. At average speeds of up to 60 km/h, I only felt some easily correctable understeer at the limits of car. While negotiating those tight turns, I felt very minimal body roll, while the nicely-weighted steering wheel offered good feedback.

The sprint performance with the auto tranny was just about average. As expected, the performance of the automatic transmission during my initial test was made me to look forward to the manual Neo CPS. The manual is the only way to really enjoy this car!

The first thing I did when got myself into the manual Neo was to have a feel of the gear lever hoping for it to be nicely weighted, as opposed to being “soggy” or “lose”, and I am happy to say that my hopes were realized. A little on the hard side of things, gear change was slick and precise, which is good since this car is positioned as a performance variant. For the manual Neo CPS test, there were longer straights on the temporary track, which allowed me to feel the CPS powerplant’s good performance on high revs.

Through out the quick test drive, I also noticed that the throttle response was also up to expectation. I would like to mention about its ride quality but unfortunately the test drive was rather short, so looks like we have to wait for a longer drive. But based on the short drive, things are pointing the right direction for the Neo CPS. The handling and performance seems to suit the aggressive looks on the outside. Some might say that the body kit treatment is a little over the top, but personally, I feel its alright.

I just wish that the wheels were extended by half an inch or so, but that may affect the overall handling. I also feel that the rear exhaust box should have been hidden neatly. The way it is now makes the rear diffuser look bad. So far, my thumbs are pointing upwards for the Satria New CPS. Stick around as we will bring you the test review as soon as we get a test drive unit.

Story by Harvinder Singh, because Paul Tan cannot fit properly in the car while wearing a safety helmet, thanks to the headroom.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Satria Neo CPS: parking lot test review

Proton will be unveiling the name of the new Proton MPV on the 17th of February 2009, as well as the winners of the Name The Proton MPV competition held last year. An indicative launch date will also be revealed. Stay tuned for updates next week, enjoy your Valentines weekend for now.

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The Campro CPS engine is finally in the Proton Satria Neo, something that many have been eagerly waiting for. The CPS is essentially a Campro engine with a few updates and a variable valve lift system called CPS as well as a variable intake manifold (VIM) system. These additions help push up power to 125 PS at 6,500rpm and 150Nm of torque at 4,500rpm, figures which are up from the standard Campro’s 110hp and 148Nm.

The car’s front and rear track has also been updated. While the Proton Satria Neo had a front and rear track of 1,470mm for both, the Satria Neo CPS H-Line has a narrower front track at 1,467mm and a wider rear track 1,483mm.

We didn’t managed to get hold of a Proton engineer to ask this question but we did manage to ask a member of Proton’s Race Rally Research (R3) team who said the change was made because Proton found the standard Neo suffered from slight oversteer, so this change was made to induce a slight understeer to improve handling. Anyway either way as a result of the large wheel arches, the wheels looks kind of lost inside them at certain angles.

As for aesthetics, as you can see there’s a new bodykit and more prominent flared wheel arches that are inspired from the old Satria GTI’s design. The alloy wheels are of the same 16 inch size as the M-Line but feature a different design that looks like a carbon copy of Advanti Racing’s MEDUSA design but without the two-tone design – perhaps it’s licensed or “inspired”. On the interior, the dashboard is now of a darker shade with red lighting on the various air conditioning controls and auto gear position indicators, has a different door trim design, some new trim around the gear shifter area, and leather seats in a black and red combination similiar to the GEN2 CPS.

The following are the prices for the new Proton Satria Neo CPS, available in only two colours which are unique to the CPS – solid white and tranquility black.

Proton Satria Neo CPS M/T (white) – RM 57,313.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS M/T (black) – RM 57,763.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS A/T (white) – RM 60,313.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS A/T (black) – RM 60,763.00

Click for enlarged image

Click for enlarged image

CPS is only available for the high line model, so the lite and M-line models retain the regular Campro. Unfortunately this is the old original Campro engine, without the new IAFM systems in the Saga, Persona and GEN2. The CPS system has also been tweaked with this version of the Campro engine, so the high lift cam profile activation point has been revised. However I’m not sure what is the purpose of activating it later.

VIM switches between a long intake manifold at low RPMs and a short intake manifold at higher RPMs. According to Proton, a longer intake manifold is used at low RPMs to achieve slower air flow; this promotes better mixing with fuel. The short intake manifold allows more air in faster. This is beneficial at high RPMs. The CPS system uses a switching tappet and a trilobe camshaft to switch between two different cam profiles, one with low valve lift and another with high valve lift.

Campro CPS engine in the GEN2 CPS and Waja CPS

Campro CPS engine in the Satria Neo CPS

The regular Satria Neo High-Line is now phased out so if you want the higher safety features of the Highline model (dual airbags and ABS) you also must take the CPS engine and bodykit! This leaves a gaping hole in the produce positioning IMHO as some may like the looks of the Neo and want safety features but do not need the CPS power.

The price difference between the M-Line and the H-Line CPS is huge – RM9,300 so perhaps it would have been better to retain a H-Line regular Neo or upgrade the M-Line with ABS at the very least.

Look after the jump for some very high-resolution photos from Proton as well as our own photos from the launch event. Also, please read our short Satria Neo CPS Test Drive where we tell our experience with both the manual and automatic versions for a short period of time at the launch event.

Related Posts:
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Proton Satria Neo CPS Short Test Review

Click here to read the rest of New Proton Satria Neo CPS H-Line: details, specs, pricing and video!

Proton wants to trim its 290+ dealers down to 180 dealers, but they say the consolidation process will cost RM 100 million. Last I heard Proton offered RM 300,000 per dealer, but a simple calculation shows 290 to 180 dealers for RM 100 million is nearly RM 1 million in costs per dealer in a dealer Voluntary Separation Scheme program! Nothing is finalised yet as Proton Edar is still in discussions with EON on how to consolidate their dealer nework.

Why did Proton approve applications of too many dealers and cause this over-congestion in the first place? Where is this RM 100 million coming from – Proton or taxpayer money yet again like the previous RM 10 million given by the government for the first round of dealer VSS? Proton got snubbed by dealers when it first offered RM150k per dealer because the offer was said to be too low, so this increased to RM300k.

Why should dealers that don’t meet performance expectations get a safe exit? Shouldn’t they have conducted adequate studies on their own on whether there is enough demand in the area they are opening the dealership in to sustain the operations?

Source 1, Source 2

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Apparently Proton is revisiting an old “friend”. Proton was in talks with Rover to supply it with the Proton GEN2 to be rebadged as a Rover to replace the Rover 45, which was at that time a car based on a derivative of the Honda Civic EG (Honda Domani).

We first heard of this in the year 2000, but things only picked up in 2004. In return, Rover would supply Proton with the Rover 75’s platform, which would have been used to produce a Perdana Replacement Model. Towards the end of 2004, it looks like things turned sour and the collaboration was canceled without any fruitful outcome. All they said was the partnership was “not viable”, and that was the end of it.

Now it appears that Proton is once again in talks with Rover, only this time the people doing the talking are their new owners SAIC. According to a source in Proton, things are still at the discussion stage. The deal once again is for the Rover 75 platform (now the Roewe 750) to be used by Proton as a new Perdana replacement car, and in return Proton will allow SAIC to use one of their platforms to badge produce a Roewe.

This could be the GEN2 (which is also sold in China as the Europestar RCR) or even the Proton MPV, as despite there being so many shots of what everyone assumed to be a Roewe MPV out there on the internet (with rear sliding doors), but apparently this has turned out to actually be the Luxgen MPV.

The 2.5 liter KV6 engine from the Rover will also likely be bundled together with the platform. While this is considered by many to be an old engine, SAIC has made some changes to the new rechristened 188 horsepower Roewe KV6 with the help of Ricardo and updated it to Euro 4 standards. A variant of the KV6 is found in the Naza Ria.

So, a Rover Perdana and a Mitsubishi Waja it is? Can’t wait for something concrete.

Fully undisguised shots of the Proton MPV – both exterior and interior – have found their way onto the internet, and they reveal to us plenty of details on the eagerly anticipated 7-seater MPV by Proton!

What we can see is one shot of the Proton MPV in white, another in an unidentified brown-like colour (may be something else altogether because of colour balance), and 3 shots of the interior. Here are what can be observed:

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• A complete revamp of the Proton steering wheel design that is curiously reminiscent of the one Honda is currently using. There is steering wheel audio controls and also a phone button which could indicate some variants of the MPV are equipped with a Bluetooth hands-free system.
• Instrument panel features a two-meter design, with RPM on the left and an even-numbered speedometer on the right which tops out at 180km/h. The design of the meters are predominantly red with white text. They look like an evolution of the one in the GEN2 CPS facelift, but with modifications that somehow make them end up looking like the one found in the Isuzu D-Max, except the D-Max design is blue.
• A small storage and a card holder (Touch N Go?) located below the driver’s side aircond vent
• A door-open indicator in the middle of the two meters

Click for enlarged image

• A redline of 7,000rpm for the RPM meter
• Two digital displays below each meter. The left one shows a digital fuel meter and digital temp meter as well as various other multi-info readings. I’m not sure what the right one shows.

Click for enlarged image

• The gear lever is dash-mounted much like the Honda CR-V.
• Dashboard itself doesn’t seem to have any texture to it but it’s likely that this is a pre-production version, so the production version should have some texture in-line with all the recent Proton model launches.
• Center dash area design from top to bottom – clock, two aircond vents, 2-DIN CD player, various buttons including hazard light, manual air conditioning knobs, recirculation and air cond button.

• 5-spoke alloy wheels
• Bee-sting antenna at the front just after the windscreen.
• Signal indicator on side mirrors
• Reflector headlamps
• Foglamps on the front bumper
• In the photo of the white MPV you can see the rear hatch swings upwards, instead of the other method which is sideways like a fridge

The MPV looks really gorgeous from the outside especially the white one, with strong design cues from the Mitsubishi Grandis. The interior looks alright, except the air cond vents look really cheap. They’re better off reusing the ones from the Saga. There also seems to be an odd-looking spacing between the two center vents, like there was supposed to be a hazard light button there but somehow went missing.

3 more months until the launch in April!

Proton has been in the Thai market for just over 1 year now, and its market share is currently 1.4% or 2,918 cars. Total industry volume for 2008 in the Thai market was 615,270 units.

Japanese automakers currently conquer the Thai market with 92.1 percent total share. Toyota alone commands 42.6% market share. Proton currently sells the Savvy, the GEN2, the Satria Neo and the Persona CNG in Thailand. That’s one supermini, two compact sedans and one 3-door hatchback.

Proton’s distributor Phranakorn Auto Sales targets 4,000 units for the year 2009, with the Proton Savvy (priced at between 399k to 460k Thai baht) being the main driver of sales. 2009 Thai TIV is expected to drop further to 520,000 units.

In other Thai-related Proton news – Proton’s presence in Thailand will get a new Country Manager from February 2009 onwards, a Mr Philipe Cheng.

Source

UPDATED: Corrected some misinterpretation of figures.

I have specifications for the new Peugeot 308 set to be unveiled on the 29th of January 2009. The specs look promising indeed and if Nasim decides to give the 308 some very competitive pricing like it did with the 407, it should have all it needs to be a killer product, the rest depends on the public perception of the brand and the marque’s support network.

And for the top spec model:

Apparently the turbo version only has 140hp and not 150hp as previously expected, because that is how Peugeot tunes the engine for the automatic transmission. The 150hp is only available on the manual stock from the factory.

Will Proton make a debut in the World Rally Championship for the 2010 season? Apparently this is a possibility, and Proton is actually working at making this happen, according to Proton director Datuk Haji Abdul Razak Dawood. He says a successful WRC program could establish Proton’s brand and reputation in Europe the same way it helped Subaru in the 90s.

According to Datuk Haji, a Proton Satria Neo in the WRC could possibly turn it into a cult car with a following like what Subaru enjoyed with the WRX. If the proposed WRC regulation revisions to a “S2000+ spec” becomes official, it would allow Proton to compete in the WRC with a much smaller budget and compete against the big boys like Ford and Citroen. All that needs to be done is to upgrade the existing MEM Satria Neo S2000 (shown above) to whatever the S2000+ spec is.

2003 World Champion Petter Solberg is said to be in talks with Proton for a 2010 season. He will be testing the MEM Satria Neo S2000 car sometime in February, and according to him the Proton is a nice and detailed car. He says he has met with Proton but nothing about the proposed 2010 season has been finalised yet. There is also word about Solberg racing in a Citroen C4 instead, but he says that deal has not been finalised yet either.

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Click here to read the rest of Proton in talks with Petter Solberg for 2010 WRC debut with Proton Satria Neo

Need or want a 7-seater? Are you a government servant or an employee of a GLC? Can’t afford the monthly installments even if you stretch your payment period to the very long 9 year term? If you think 9 years was pushing it, wait until you see this. I do not recommend taking such insanely long loans for a rapidly depreciating item such as a car but there is such an option now anyway, if you want to put yourself in such a situation.

Naza Kia Sdn Bhd has teamed up with the Koperasi Pendidikan Usahawan Berhad and AmBank Berhad to offer a 12 year low interest rate loan for the Naza Citra RS and GS. Monthly installments can go as low as RM647. There is also a promotion now where you will get free 2 months installment, a free 2 year or 50,000km service maintenance package, and an extended 5 year or 125,000km warranty.

Call 1-800-888-542 to find out more. Those who want something newer can check out the Naza Citra II Rondo.

Reader Nazril snapped these two videos of the Proton MPV stuck in a jam along Jalan Hang Tuah in Kuala Lumpur. That place has been continuously jammed for a long time now, making trips to Low Yat to get a dose of gadgety goodness frustrating to say the least. Anyway a prototype vehicle stuck in a jam is a golden opportunity to get snapshots of the interior, and I’m sure many motorcyclists who rode past the MPV have already seen the interior, but as our friend here was driving a car himself, it wasn’t quite possible to grab an image of the interior.

But anyhow, these are nearly as good as watching the MPV inch along in traffic in front of your very own eyes as the camera phone lense is pointed right at the MPV for quite some time – we’ve got over 2 minutes of video. We also get to see the size of the front brake disc which is larger than usual (it fills up nearly all the space right to the edge of the wheel) for a Proton, naturally because of the higher amount of weight it has to stop in comparison to other Proton cars.

The latest news is that the Proton MPV’s launch has been postposed to April 2009, so it’s another 3+ more months worth of waiting and we’ll be able to check this baby out in the showrooms! Thanks to Nazril for these shots!

Click here to read the rest of Proton MPV video snapped in a traffic jam along Jalan Hang Tuah in KL

Thai business daily The Nation has picked the Proton Savvy as one of Thailand’s top 10 cars in 2008 as it has a cheap price, good acceleraton, and almost go-kart-like handling. That is some decent feedback. Other cars on the list include the Jaguar XF, the BMW 320d, the Volvo S80 3.2, the MINI Cooper S Clubman, the Honda City, the Honda Jazz, the Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi, the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and the Subaru Impreza STI.

The editors seem to love the WRX alot as it also appeared on their 2007 list, which consisted of the WRX STi, the Lexus LS460, the Mercedes-Benz CLS500, the Alfa Romeo 159, the MTM RS4 (tuner car), the Honda Accord, the Lamborghini Superleggera, the Toyota Prius, the Nissan Navara and the Chevrolet Captive diesel.

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Proton increases 2008 Thai sales target

Source

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The launch of the eagerly awaited Proton MPV has been postponed a month from its original March target launch date to April 2009, announced Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir without elaborating on the reasons why the launch was delayed. He also added that the first Proton MPVs for the export market will be shipped off in July 2009, three months after the Malaysian launch.

As far as the other projects are concerned, they’re still on track so far. There are CKD partnerships in China (Youngman) and Iran, while talks on CKD partnerships are underway in India, Egypt and Jordan. It’s still a mystery at this point who Proton’s Indian partner will be, though there was a rumour a few months ago about this partner being Argentum Motors.

Apparently there is also a project to develop a new fuel efficient engine (to replace the Campro?) that will bear fruit in 2 years. Let’s hope this is a small displacement low pressure turbo engine with strong low end torque for a relaxed city drive. Other things to look forward to include a facelift for the Proton Satria Neo, which has already been spotted on road tests.

Related Posts:
Proton MPV exclusive initial details revealed!
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SPYSHOT: Proton MPV on the road
VIDEO: Not one, but TWO Proton MPVs on the PLUS highway
VIDEO: 2009 Proton MPV on the MRR2
Undisguised Proton MPV spyshots

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