Archive for Proton

The Edge Daily has a sources story regarding the future of Proton’s top management team. According to the report, it is possible that Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir may leave when his contract as the managing director and CEO of Proton expires by the end of this year.

Two potential new candidates for the Proton board were named – Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Omar and Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood, although the report did not say whether any of these two would become the new managing director if Syed Zainal left.

Tan Sri Abdul Rahman has many years of experience in the national automotive industry, having held the position of DRB-HICOM executive director from February 2006 until December 2007 and chairman of EON from February 2006 to July 2008. He was also the managing director of Perodua from May 1997 to April 2004, and a director of Proton and EON from 1991 to 1996 and 1989 to 1996 respectively.

As for Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood, he is said to be possibly the new head of Proton’s international operations, but wasn’t this recently filled in by ex-Audi man Claudius Meynert? Or is this a different kind of international operations?

Why is Syed Zainal leaving and will Proton be able to continue its slow but steady recovery plan without him? Did he get a better offer from somewhere where he is allowed to perform more effectively without having to struggle with vendors? I can bet you that he must have had a hard time at Proton, at one point even resorting to a quality control campaign that urged the public to contact him directly to report any issues. I am quite sad to hear this possibility that he may not be around to launch the new Proton MPV.

When Syed Zainal was appointed as managing director, Datuk Kamarulzaman Darus was appointed as director of manufacturing. Kamarulzaman has already left Proton to become Naza’s director of manufacturing.

Both Tan Sri Abdul Rahman and Syed Zainal has one thing in common – they both used to hold top positions in Perodua, with Syed Zainal previously holding the executive director post at Perodua. Will Tan Sri Abdul Rahman be the new man at the helm of Proton?

Proton filed the design of the new Proton MPV with the UK Intellectual Property Office on the 24th of October 2008 and it was approved on the 4th of November 2008. We can now see in full detail of how the new Proton MPV will look like, though it’s only the low resolution sketches that are available from the public UK IPO website. It looks pretty much similiar to the images of the model that appeared to be snapped in a Proton facility. Everything matches, including the chrome bar at the rear. The Proton MPV is scheduled to be released in early 2009.

For more spyshots and details, please visit the related links listed below.

Related Posts:
Proton MPV exclusive initial details revealed!
SPYSHOT: Proton MPV next to a Nissan Grand Livina
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

Thanks to moha774 for the tip!

These two shots were snapped on the NKVE by reader Reza, who happened to be on the same route as the MPV from the Jalan Duta toll until the ELITE exit.

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What’s interesting about the shot above is the fact that the Proton MPV is right behind a silver Nissan Grand Livina, who Reza said appeared to be travelling together with the Proton MPV. This allows us to estimate the size of the Proton MPV as compared to the Nissan Grand Livina. An estimation shows that the Proton MPV is slightly larger than the Nissan Grand Livina, but we can’t really be 100% sure about this as there could be some perspective errors.

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This second shot shows the LEDs of the Proton MPV’s rear taillamps lighting up.

The MEM-engineered Proton Satria Neo S2000 made its rally debut at the Rallye Antibes Cote d’Azur leg of the 2008 European Rally Championship in the South of France, piloted by Bryan Bouffier and co-driver Xavier Panseri. During the race, it managed to reach the highest position of sixth place before settling down at 18th place with a stage time of 00:02:45.4.

“The Satria was fantastic, really predictable and comfortable to drive and with really good engine power, I am looking forward to driving it again,” said driver Bouffier. The team encountered some teething problems with the car which is said to be normal for a first race. The car will continue to be tweaked over the next few months.

Apparently the Satria Neo S2000 in full rally trim has the smallest front and the lowest roof height of any homologated S2000 car. Its driver and co-driver seats are fixed at the rear-most possible mounting positions to achieve the best weight distribution.

The 2.0 liter engine complies to S2000 specs and is derived from the 1.8 liter engine from the Waja 1.8X. It produces 278 horsepower at 7,600rpm, with a usable powerband of between 5,500 to a screaming 8,500rpm. This engine is mated to an Xtrac 4WD six-speed sequential transmission.

For more information about the car visit the related links below:

Related Stories:
More MEM Proton Satria Neo S2000 videos
MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000
Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 Touring Car
VIDEO: MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000

Source

The Proton MPV has been spotted yet again – this time not just one but two of them traveling at the same time on the PLUS Highway. This video was shot by reader crash and as it was shot from the passenger side, he was able to turn the camera around abit more as the car he was in passed by the two Proton MPVs so that we can see a little more of how the front looks like. Still not as clear as we’d all hope to try to make out details but we are able to judge better the general shape of the front of the car from the angle in this video. Look after the jump to watch the video.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO SPYSHOT: Not one, but TWO Proton MPVs on the PLUS Highway!

Proton has started delivering the first batch of its new Proton Saga taxi, powered by a 1.6 liter version of the Campro engine instead of the 1.3 liter version that consumers can purchase. While the initial batch will run on petrol only, the Saga taxi will be updated in December 2008 with a factory-installed and warrantied NGV kit.

This first delivery of the Saga taxi will fulfill new orders from Public Cab Sdn Bhd, KCM Fleet Sdn Bhd, Avenue Drive (M) Sdn Bhd and Perniagaan Lima Sejati Sdn Bhd. According to Public Cab, the company currently has 1,500 units of the Proton Iswara taxi on the road and intends to replace all of them with the new Proton Saga taxi in stages.

If you notice, all the Mercedes-Benz Malaysia dealers here have their own dealer website such as www.ccb.mercedes-benz.com.my or www.hapseng.mercedes-benz.com.my, and Proton UK is set to follow a similiar path. They’ve tied up with a web agency and a marketing agency to develop over 80 individual websites for Proton UK dealers.

Each and every website will run on the same engine and will retain a common corporate look and feel while still being tailored to individual dealers. Proton also hopes individual local dealer sites will be able to appear in search engine listings for local searches.

The system will be tested for a few dealers at first, and a UK nationwide rollout will happen later. As for Proton Edar here in Malaysia, what’s with the slow loading and counter-intuitive excessive use of Flash on your website?

The same group of lightly taped up Satria Neos and a heavily camouflaged Proton MPV were spotted on the MRR2 near Batu Caves heading towards Kuala Selangor by Andrew Wong, who quickly whipped out his camera phone to record a video of the MPV passing by his car. The frames captured from the video manages to reveal in low resolution detail how the front end of the MPV looks like, and we get to see bits of the headlamps sticking out of the camouflage too.

According to Andrew, the way the Proton MPV was going through the traffic was pretty swift, which hopefully indicates it has a decent power to weight ratio. However the video shows that the MPV didn’t have many people loaded – the second row seemed empty and there was no one in the front passenger seat either.

The video also shows the MPV travelling behind a Proton Wira so you will be able to somewhat judge the size of the thing.

You can watch the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO SPYSHOT: 2009 Proton MPV on the MRR2!

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This rear three quarter view of the minimally taped up Proton Satria Neo was snapped by reader Keith Tay and they reveal the new design of the Satria Neo’s wheels.

The bling turbine wheels are gone now and are replaced by these new wheels which made their debut earlier on the Lotus EVE Hybrid Concept driven by the Prime Minister at the Proton Technology Week. The wheels are an alternating combination of silver V-spokes and grey Y-spokes. It seems that this same wheel design has also made its appearance on a certain model of the Satria Neo in Proton’s Thai offering.

UPDATE: Apparently those wheels are actually not a unique or new Proton design, but are in fact Advanti Racing MEDUSA wheels.

This clearer photo also seems to show that the wheel arches of the car are much more prominent than on the current Satria Neo, and they seem to have little “holes” integrated in the design much like the old M24 Satria GTi. A similiar bodykit with the large wheel arches was found on this car: Possible Satria Neo GTi?

Look after the jump for a clearer photo of the wheels snapped earlier this year at the Proton Technology Week.

Click here to read the rest of SPYSHOT: the new Satria Neo’s new wheels?

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This could possibly be the first spyshots of the new Proton MPV and it’s all thanks to reader the_king, who snapped them on the highway near the Prai Industrial Estate. We previously saw the car’s drivetrain being tested in a test mule based on the Toyota Wish.

I believe that judging from the proportions in these photos you can already judge that the MPV will be quite tall, which should mean good headroom which is especially needed when you are trying to get into the third row from the second row doors.

As with the Satria Neo spyshots, there is no front view as the photographer was alone in the car. We can see a little bit of the vertical rear lamps exposed and as expected they have a similiar layout to the one in the teaser video, with the brake light positioned at the bottom and the signal lamps at the top.

Those wheels look like they’re 15 inches in size but because this is a prototype test vehicle, the wheels could be different or perhaps the right size but of a different design than the one that will go onto the production vehicle. But even so, we can’t see that detail in these photos because the Proton MPV was moving.

Look after the jump for 2 more shots, or have a look at my previous posts linked below with exclusive details on the new Proton MPV.

Related Posts:
VIDEO SPYSHOT: 2009 Proton MPV sighted on the MRR2!
VIDEO SPYSHOT: Not one, but TWO Proton MPVs on the PLUS highway!
Proton MPV: exclusive initial details revealed!
Proton MPV first test batch to roll out mid-September 2008
Proton MPV sketches preview production model!

Click here to read the rest of Proton MPV spyshots, and its not a Toyota Wish-based test mule this time!