The Proton Persona has received an better than expected response so far, scoring over 8,000 bookings since the car was launched slightly more than a week ago. This includes the 2,200 bookings that were made before the Persona was launched.

“We are happy with the response received thus far. We are also touched by our consumers belief in us. Two thousand two hundred of them booked the Persona without seeing it during the pre-launch activities and now we have over 8,000 bookings. On behalf of PROTON, I would like to thank all those who have and are continuing to support us. Quality issues previously brought up by consumers have been addressed in the Persona. The PROTON i.CARE initiative was rolled out specifically with this in mind. We want our consumers to know that we are not merely paying lip-service to the You Can Count On Us promise but every PROTON employee, myself included, will strive towards delivering this promise,” said Proton managing director Syed Zainal.

Proton expects to sell about 4,000 units of the Proton Persona a month, and it looks like the public has received it well so far. I hope the Persona stands the test of time in terms of both sales as well as quality. We now wait patiently for the Proton BLM, which will replace the aging Proton Saga.

Proton has placed a few units of it’s upcoming new sedan in four venues across Malaysia, but before you excitedly head on to the venue to have a look at it, there’s just one thing – the sedan is in a giant box! What you can do is just peek through a few holes to have a look at the sedan inside. Not sure if there is a light in the box so it might be best to bring some form of torch light along! UPDATE: The interior of the box is lit!

The giant boxes with the new Proton sedan inside them are located at The Curve, Mutiara Damansara, Selangor (10am to 10pm); Proton showroom in Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Penang (8am to 8pm); Proton Showroom in Plentong, Johor (8am to 8pm) and Giant Hypermarket, Jalan Gambang, Kuantan (10am to 10pm).

“Were happy with the excitement building up for our new sedan. PROTON began to accept bookings from 22 July 2007 and all the public could see then was a visual of the silhouette of the car. That was enough for quite a number to commit and make bookings for the new sedan. However, we have been receiving many requests that we show more and that was what prompted us to come up with this peekaboo idea of showing the actual car, but just enough only,” said Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir.