Archive for Malaysian Makes

It’s confirmed – Karamjit will not be driving the left hand drive Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 at the Rally Indonesia 2009 and the official reason given by Proton is that he is not available. Alister McRae will be joined by navigator Bill Hayes in Indonesia, which will host the 6th round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championships (APRC).

“I have had the opportunity to test the Satria Neo S2000 in the UK recently and am very pleased with the performance of the car. I will certainly be looking forward to competing in the Proton at the Rally of Indonesia against some of the best drivers in the region.” said Alister Mcrae.

The press release did not say if this was a one time change or something more permanent, but I have a feeling Proton requires better results for the car for its own return on investment targets. They couldn’t switch the car so they switched the driver instead.

Up north in Europe, Team Proton Europe is tackling the current round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge right now (24th to 26th September). Performance of the car piloted by Guy Wilks and Phil Pugh in the previous IRC leg in Spain was described as ‘promising’, scoring as good as joint fourth place on SS15 but ended up crossing the finish line in 19th place out of a grid of 80 entries.

The rally was won by Skoda’s Jan Kopecky, who are trailing Peugeot’s Kris Meeke by one point with only two rounds remaining.

Click here to read the rest of McRae and Hayes to pilot Neo S2000 in Indonesia

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This may look like just another Hari Raya greeting from Perodua at first but for those who are follow the auto industry closely and are expecting something to be launched soon will immediately realise that this is in fact a hidden teaser for the new Perodua MPV!

The Perodua MPV will be based on the Toyota Passo Sette (also known as the Daihatsu Boon Luminas) and has been called the codename Perodua D46T for the development stage. Being engineered from an existing Toyota and Daihatsu model, the only surprise for us usually is the car’s refreshed and Perodua-ised exterior looks but even for that, we already have a rough idea of how it’ll look like thanks to teasers that Perodua have released – the exterior at SMIDEC and the interior at MSAM.

The interior teaser shown in April this year had a cream interior and this colour scheme has been repeated in this teaser image – the seats are done up in cream. There will be a small middle seat between the driver and front passenger but in this teaser image, it has been folded down to use as an armrest, and probably that’s how it should be used as most of the time as there probably won’t be any seatbelt for the front middle chair.

Second row shows all three occupants are buckled up – with the middle occupant wearing a lap belt. It doesn’t look like the third row occupants are wearing any seat belts (though there is most likely going to be seat belts equipped for the third row) and I personally don’t think the rear will be that wide – it must be some kind of optical trick.

Perodua’s head honcho Datuk Syed Hafiz has stated repeatedly to the mainstream media that the new Perodua D46T MPV is positioned mainly as a car with a large boot instead of an MPV (I believe the proper term for that is wagon). They won’t be trying to go head to head against the Exora or other MPVs, or at least that’s what they are saying now in the interviews that you see in the mainstream media every month.

This is quite different from the marketing strategy used by “cousin” UMW Toyota for their Avanza promos – the ads clearly show and promote the advantages of having 7 seats (remember the left behind print ads?). The third row is only meant to be used whenever needed – an admission to its extremely utilitarian looks as shown in the Japanese version photos. But of course marketing may say one thing but consumer purchase decision behaviour could go the other way – “it has seven seats so it must be an MPV?”

These interviews also unveiled a November 2009 launch date. Why so late and not in time for the balik kampung purchases you ask? It could be something to do with the impending NAP announcement – perhaps it is not safe to announce one set of prices and then have to change it a few months later?

If you want to find out more about the new Perodua MPV, you can refer to my past coverage on the subject, especially the coverage on the Toyota/Daihatsu cars as they show the Japanese version in detail including exterior and interior. Selamat Hari Raya!

Thanks to Iskandar Hidayat for the pointer!

Related Posts:
Toyota Passo Sette: 7-seater MPV full details
Perodua MPV D46T spotted at Restoran Jejantas Sg Buloh
Perodua MPV D46T to sell for RM56k to RM66k!
Perodua MPV unveiled fully undisguised in SMIDEC teaser (with video!)
Perodua MPV D46T interior exhibited at MSAM 2009

The Australian name for the Proton Saga has been announced – Proton’s smallest sedan will be offered down under as the Proton S16. I assume this is supposed to stand for Saga 1.6, not sure what’s wrong with the Saga name. The S16 will go on sale from the 1st of November for under AU$13,000 with a manual transmission, but Australian dealers will get test drive units in October for anyone who is interested in the car.

Under the hood will be the Campro IAFM engine that powers the Persona here in Malaysia, producing 110 horsepower at 6,500rpm and 148Nm of torque. The car’s fuel consumption is rated at 6.3 liters per 100km on the ADR (Australian Design Rules) combined cycle.

This is unconfirmed but according to some Aussie news sites the Australian spec car is expected to have dual SRS airbags for the front driver and passenger, which means it’ll be one of the highest spec versions of the Saga available so far, as the top of the line Sage in Malaysia thus far has only been available with a driver airbag.

What’s even more interesting for Australian buyers is that the price tag could possibly go even lower with the introduction of a 1.3 liter Campro engine option, which will only be available from February 2010 onwards. It’s not sure if the 1.3 liter car will continue to be called the S16, or receive a more apt name like the S13.

Talks of some kind of business deal between Proton and Volkswagen have surfaced in the papers again, this time on a car assembly deal for passenger cars without taking up stake.

Volkswagen have already identified a base in Indonesia for the Touran MPV, but they have also been looking for a way to assembly their passenger cars here in Malaysia. Other than Proton, DRB-HICOM was also a potential partner name that came up in the past.

Datuk Syed Zainal confirmed sometime last week that Proton was indeed in talks with a foreign car company and hoped that something can be agreed upon before the end of the year. He did not mention which company this is, but in a Reuters report a Volkswagen spokesperson managed to be reached for comment and he confirmed that they were in talks with Proton. According to the spokesperson, the confirmed plant in Indonesia was not sufficient to serve the entire ASEAN market – it looks like they’re planning to come to this region in a big way!

These talks with Proton could be the reason why the reviewed NAP announcement has been pushed to the end of next month instead of being announced this month as previously indicated. “It’s a complicated matter. We cannot rush,” said MITI minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed. Proton is of course at the center of the Malaysian automotive industry, thus most decisions will actually surround the company.

The foreign car company was referred to by Datuk Syed Zainal as potentially Proton’s “missing link”, which means the talks could extend beyond Proton being a contract assembler for Volkswagen – Proton could be asking to license or collaborate on certain Volkswagen tech such as platforms or engines, especially diesel engines!

Proton will be launching a 1.6 liter IAFM variant of the Saga in Australia soon (November 2009 ETA) and has put up a teaser website for it at newsedan.com.au. It won’t be called the Saga in Australia though – a new name will be picked. Prices will begin at under AU$13,000, or under RM37,895 for the 1.6 liter manual, but an automatic option as well as a smaller engine (likely the 1.3) will be available from February 2010 onwards.

Proton hopes to be profitable in this 2009/2010 financial year and so far things look good with a profit before tax of RM64 million for Q1 of the current financial year. Revenue grew by 8% to RM1.85 billion compared to RM1.71 billion in the same period last year. These improved results caused Proton shares to rise about 2.45% to RM2.93 per share.

Proton says this is thanks to a better product mix (Exora, Exora, Exora!) even though Proton sales had actually dropped 2% (now at 39,327 units) compared to the same period last year (39,888 units), but this isn’t too bad considering the total industry volume itself had actually dropped by 11% during the same period. There have been a total of 18,000 orders for the Exora since order taking began up to the 15th of August 2009. The Exora managed 1,600 bookings in Indonesia since its launch recently. Proton currently holds 31% market share of the TIV sales as of June 2009.

In the exports area the company said it aimed to export about 20,925 units this year compared to 18,428 units last year. This is still a small percentage of cars compared to the numbers sold in Malaysia but Proton intends to shift to a more export-centric organisation. Proton also wants to sell more CKD export cars instead of the usual CBU cars currently sold, but CKD usually only starts to become viable when volume increases to an amount that can sustain an assembly line for the CKD packs. Proton has started out with CKD models in China and Iran. GEN2 CKD operations in Iran by Zagross Khodro began in April 2009 and CKD pack supply to Youngman in China have also commenced.

What’s coming up for Proton? Some details were revealed at the Q&A session after its latest AGM and others are revealed in their annual report for the last financial year. What should be exciting for you guys is a new car set for introduction in the second half of next year. Proton would not say which car this is but this car is widely rumoured to be a model based on the Mitsubishi Lancer. Manual transmissions will be offered to keep the entry price point low so this should be very good news for those who want to do their own shifting action in a sporty sedan. A page in the annual report also reveals that a facelift for the Persona is targeted to go into production by the end of 2009.

Further down the launch schedule will be a new car that will be the fruits of a project called the Global Small Car Programme. Proton has revealed that this will be a small and trendy hatchback with a small capacity engine that meets international emission standards. When this is launched, its goodbye time for the Savvy. Proton’s next generation of powertrains (Campro replacement?) are also being developed together with Lotus as part of a program called the Phoenix Project.

In the alternative fuels department, Proton will be skipping hybrid cars and fuel cell cars and will be focusing on electric cars. There was a hybrid system installed in a GEN2 called the Lotus EVE Hybrid Concept that combined the 1.6 liter Campro engine with a 40hp electric motor. From the looks of it, this will probably remain a technology showcase by Lotus to promote its engineering decision.

Proton currently has two prototype electric vehicles – one based on the Saga and another on the Persona. You’ve seen the Saga EV featured here on this blog. It is an EV focused on economy and the 10.1 second 0-100km/h acceleration time (despite 168hp) is a testament of this, but the Persona EV prototype is a totally different animal – it has been developed as a performance EV concept. This likely means larger and higher capacity batteries but a much more powerful electric motor to match!

Look after the jump for a copy of the annual report.

Click here to read the rest of Proton posts RM64 million Q1 profit before tax

This is quite a funny but kinda long ad for the Perodua Kelisa that I found on Youtube. For some reason I don’t remember ever seeing it on TV, but then again I don’t watch TV that often. It’s directed by Barney Chua and produced by Ira Carissa Shah for Perodua, and is inspired by Ultraman and Thunderbirds, amongst others. The Kelisa special editions (with the stripes and etc) saves the world from a certain Dr Bore.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: Perodua Kelisa vs Dr Bore TVC

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The latest news from the land down under is that Proton will be phasing out the current Wira-based Proton Jumbuck (known as the Proton Arena in Malaysia) over the next few months in preparation for the launch of an all-new Jumbuck.

According to the story, the new Jumbuck/Arena will be based on an existing passenger car platform. It would make sense for Proton to base the new Jumbuck on the Exora’s platform and they’ve actually hinted at this during the Exora’s R&D showcase earlier this year. The rendering you see above was provided by Proton and shows what a new Jumbuck/Arena based on the Exora could look like.

The Exora’s platform was designed to be modular and flexible with even the option of changing the rear torsion beam into a multi-link setup for more versatility in tuning the suspension behaviour for passenger car usage.

Related Posts:
Proton Exora platform to spawn new models

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Proton officially launched its new Proton R3 Malaysia Rally Team yesterday. The team will run one of those new Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 rally cars and it will be piloted by a team that needs no introduction: Karamjit Singh and Jagdev Singh as driver and navigator respectively. The Neo recently finished 4th place at the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in Russia, driven by Guy Wilks.

“It has been quite a while but we’re now ready to return to the rally motorsports arena. With the Neo S2000 and our long time associate Karamjit, we are sure that we will put up a strong challenge in this championship. What the car has achieved thus far while still in the developmental stage has been extraordinary,” said Proton chairman Dato Mohd Nadzmi.

When asked about his thoughts on the race, Karamjit said he was concerned that his left-hand drive Proton Satria Neo S2000 has him at a disadvantage. “If the car was right-hand-drive I would be confident and able to attack. It’s a fabulous car and the tricky Stages I can handle. I just don’t feel comfortable so I’ll be taking it easy to ensure we finish,” Karamjit said after completing the reconnaissance earlier today.

Rallying has done wonders for Subaru and Mitsubishi in their brand building efforts and Proton is also using the rally scene as a platform to showcase their cars, namely the Satria Neo Super 2000. The Neo will race at the Rally of Malaysia this weekend, and will move on to Indonesia on the 3rd to 4th October and then the China Rally on the 14-15 November.

Look after the jump for some photos of the Neo S2000 on test on Malaysian soil before the official launch, and also read up my previous stories on the Neo S2000 to find out more about the rally car.

Related Posts:
Cool facts: The Proton Satria Neo S2000 Racer
MEM Satria Neo S2000 makes first rally debut
Introducing the MEM Satria Neo Super 2000
Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 enters the IRC
Satria Neo S2000 Videos

Click here to read the rest of Proton R3 Malaysia Rally Team with Neo S2000 and Karamjit/Jagdev officially launched!

Perodua launched the new Perodua ViVA Elite today, aimed at offering the market a variant with a more stylish image compared to the original ViVA. It is an aesthetic modification in the style of the Myvi SE, and at the same time they’ve revamped the model line-up a little.

Click here to read the rest of Perodua Viva Elite: a new look for the Viva