Paul Tan's Automotive News» Proton Exora – Proton MPV 2009 at Paul Tan’s Automotive News

New Proton Exora Basic from RM57,548!

Paul Tan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:08:13 +0000

The new Proton Exora Basic (also known as the B-Line) is Proton’s cheapest Exora variant, priced at only RM57,548.00 for the manual transmission solid white model for the Peninsular Malaysia. The following is the full price list:

Model	West Msia	East Msia
Exora Basic (Metallic)	RM57,998	RM60,598
Exora Basic (Solid)	RM57,548	RM60,148

It is available at all Edar and EON branches nationwide and the booking fee is RM500. Here’s a list of what has changed compared to the M-Line and H-Line:

Manual transmission only
Driver airbag only
Seatbelt pretensioner for driver only
Passenger airbag replaced with tissue box holder
No front seat back pockets
No grocery hook at the front passenger seat
No aircond outlet for 2nd row, but 3rd row outlets remain
Fabric flat knitting for the seats (M-Line uses fabric flat woven)
Only 2 headrests for the second row
No third row headrests
No door trim inserts
No assist grip for the third row
No inner carpet deck box
No luggage lamp
No rear power socket
Matte black finishing for gear knob, panel shift lever, door inner handle, center panel finishing, side mirror hosing finishing, exterior door handle, rear garnish
No front grille garnish
No front fog lamp
15 inch steel wheel with cover
No reverse sensors
No ABS and EBD

On another note, if you’ve ran out of ideas of a family activity this weekend, you can check out the “Proton 4 You” customer appreciation event held at all Proton Edar and EON outlets throughout Malaysia.

They’ve planned a variety of family-oriented programs at all outlets such as coloring contests, family quizzes and games wih prizes to be won. Proton will also throw in free personal assurance worth RM10,000 for all customers who book a Proton car on that weekend. There will also be Proton iCare teams at almost every outlet to perform free 20-point car inspections.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora Turbo based on the Exora Prestige

Paul Tan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:37:53 +0000

While the Proton Saga EV Green Propulsion Concept stole the lime light in University Putra Malaysia for the “Proton Exora – The Making” seminar, the national car maker also took to the opportunity to showcase the Proton Exora Prestige Turbo Prototype.

It is basically the Proton Exora Prestige Concept which was first previewed at the Exora’s official launch event, but now fitted with a prototype turbo powerplant.

The turbo engine based on the 1.6 liter CamPro powerplant was built in-house, without the input of Lotus. Which means, the engine mostly features aftermarket parts to turn it from a normally aspirated motor to a turbocharged one. It’s useful to test the durability and reliability of a Campro block when force inducted.

The production turbocharged powerplant for the Exora is being co-developed with Lotus, and sources reveal that powertrain engineers will soon leave for the UK to intensify the development.

Notice the aftermarket boost meter and various other extra monitoring gauges

The powerplant featured in the Prestige Concept shown above is said to produce up to 270 horsepower, and with a torque figure that is rated at about 350Nm. (UPDATE: Now that I think about it, this quoted figure seems a little over the top. While no doubt it is possible especially if you strengthen the engine enough, it is not practical for production use so the production car will not likely be tuned to such extents as there is a high possibility for lots of turbo lag and the 4-speed Mitsubishi automatic transmission must be struggling with the torque.)

A source revealed that the turbocharged Proton Exora MPV could most probably hit the market by between end 2010 to mid 2011. Honestly for me despite many customers eagerly waiting for a more powerful Exora, later is better as it means more time for testing, and a turbocharged production engine is something very new for Proton.

The production turbocharged variant will very likely offer less than the 270 hp and 350Nm performance figures mentioned above, but even if it ends up producing anywhere in the region of 170 horses and 240Nm of torque, that would be a big leap already as it would be equivalent to a normally aspirated 2.4 liter engine, but with peak torque coming in at a much lower RPM.

It wipe out one major issue that the current Exora has, which is a lack of go. The 1.6 liter Campro CPS that is currently being offered with the Exora produces 125 horsepower and 150Nm of torque. Proton also revealed that the Exora Prestige Concept is being sold to selected VIPs that have placed orders for the extra-luxury variant.

Look after the jump for more photos of the prototype turbocharged Exora.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora M/T (M-Line) open for booking!

Paul Tan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:45:52 +0000

The new Proton Exora with manual transmission is now on the market and it’s only available in the M-Line trim level, which means basics without fancies like DVD players and GPS units, cloth seats, alloy wheels, and some body-coloured parts instead of chrome bits. It’s priced at RM64,998 for the metallic version and RM64,548 for the solid-coloured version. No ultra-basic no frills Exora B-Line in sight yet so far, but the manual transmission version is very welcome for those who want to save abit more fuel with the Exora, and the manual’s 12% transmission losses which is less than the automatic should result in more of the Campro CPS 125 horsepower going to the front wheels, thus improving the Exora’s lethargic acceleration.

Some of us have already had a go at an Exora equipped with a manual transmission during the prototype test drive and other than the fact that there’s more power that actually reaches the wheels, the manual model with more gear ratios also provides a little more flexibility with picking the right gear depending on the load on the engine. With the automatic model you tend to be working the 2nd gear most of the time, which means alot of high revving sometimes. The good news is NVH is significantly better than models like the Satria Neo so it isn’t that bad of a racket.

Next a B-Line model could come out, but the ultimate would be towards the end of next year where the Proton Exora with the Campro 1.6 Turbo will be launched. The Exora will finally get the engine it deserves and then you’ll have a combination of a very competitive price, good interior space, air conditioning all around, and a more relaxed engine that’s easier to drive because of more low end torque.

Look after the jump for a photo gallery of the Exora M/T.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton launches Saga SE and Exora Manual – more details to come later!

Paul Tan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:28:00 +0000

Proton launched two new models at the Felda Settlers Day in Johor today – the Proton Saga SE and the Proton Exora 1.6 manual.

From the info I am getting now, the Saga SE uses a 1.3 liter Campro IAFM engine as before (the sole 1.6 liter model continues in taxi spec), but comes with aesthetic and equipment changes, while the Proton Exora 1.6 M/T like its namesake comes with a manual transmission. The Proton team is having trouble sending full specs and press release over because they are in an area without internet access now but at least we have the prices:

Proton Saga SE Manual – RM43,000
Proton Saga SE Auto – RM45,500
Proton Exora M/T Solid – RM64,548.00
Proton Exora M/T Metallic – RM64,998.00

More details and photos of the new car to come later.

UPDATE: Look after the jump for an event photo gallery of the Saga SE.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton readying Exora B-Line Manual for launch?

Paul Tan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:26:42 +0000

Proton will be attempting to stave off Perodua’s attack with a smaller but cheaper Perodua D46T MPV combined with a more desirable Toyota-associated brand because of the original model (it will be derived from the Toyota Passo Sette) this coming November.

The D46T is no secret, we’ve already seen the exterior and interior of what the Perodua version will look like, and the Toyota Passo Sette has already been around for quite sometime for all to see. In fact, one of the Passo Sette we’ve seen on Malaysian roads on road tests may in fact be likely to be owned by Proton.

The weapon of choice will be a cheaper version of the Exora. Right now the Exora is only available in M-Line and H-Line variants, with the only differences between them being creature comforts and minor styling differences.

A cheaper Exora will be further downgraded in terms of equipment, and will likely feature a manual gearbox, which actually could be more of a blessing for the Exora, as the auto while capable of taking the vehicle up to cruising speed and keeping it there, is rather sluggy to move around at city speeds.

Reader Kenneth spotted this Exora on the Penang bridge. It has light disguises on but we all know it’s an Exora. The LED tail lamps are still there but if this is a version of the production B-Line or manual model, we can see some evidence of downspeccing in the form of steel wheels with a cover instead of proper alloy wheels.

Look after the jump for the rest of the spy photos and a video.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

What do you want to know about the Exora?

Paul Tan — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:09:27 +0000

The Proton Exora has been launched and it won’t be long until the car is handed out to members of the media. An MPV is quite a different animal from a regular car.

People buy it for different reasons, and most rational people just want a big box to move people or stuff around. I don’t have a bunch of kids to lug around as of yet so perhaps it is better if you guys share with me, what would you like me to check out in a write-up of the Proton Exora? Please do share your questions in the comments section of this story and I will try my best to answer all of them in a future test drive story.

Please keep the comments here to questions only. To share your opinion or showroom experiences of the Proton Exora there is the launch story.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora Crash Testing Videos

Paul Tan — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:40:39 +0000

Proton has sent the Proton Exora for crash testing using the Applus+ IDIADA facility in Spain. The tests were required to engineer the Exora to meet Euro NCAP 4 star standards, which Proton claims the Exora will be able to achieve based on its tests conducted at IDIADA according to Euro NCAP test specifications.

In this story are tables listing the tests – note that P0 and P1 denote two different stages of prototypes, so the earlier P0 car would have failed some tests which the P1 car passed later because of revisions to the prototype specs.

Click for enlarged image

The Exora was designed to be able to achieve a 4 star Euro NCAP equivalent of crash safety but of course you can’t just rely on your engineering data for that, you have to actually crash it and see what happens, and if it doesn’t go as to what you predicted, go back to the drawing board and fix it.

Click for enlarged image

A total of 32 Proton Exora crash test vehicles were destroyed in various tests including a rollover test. The cost of these vehicles amounted well into a Ringgit figure that is 8 digits long, because at the early developmetn stages you are essentially making a few nearly one-off parts, so when things are not produced in volume they are very expensive.

These videos have already been inserted into the launch, specs and price story that I published right after the Exora launch ceremony, but here they are again after the jump for those who missed them.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora Prestige Concept

Paul Tan — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:24:33 +0000

This is the other concept Proton Exora which Proton Design whipped up in conjunction with the Exora’s launch. The Proton Exora Prestige converts the Exora into a VIP chauffeured car with a lounge behind where one can either continue to work on the move or relax on the way home after a stressful day.

There is of course a bodykit which includes a double fin front bumper grill, warp-around chrome foglamp garnish, a front lip, side skirts, rear apron with integrated quad exhausts, a rear roof spoiler, chrome glass trimming, chrome side protector moulding, a customised smoked rear brake lamp, tinted glass, and 18 inch wheels with 224/40R18 tyres.

In the interior, the first row is separated from the rest of the vehicle via a glass panel to give the boss at the back some privacy. The rear passenger can communicate with the driver via an intercom. This privacy glass panel includes a 19 inch LCD TV.

The VIP seats have electric adjustments, a massage system, and a built-in working table. Other creature comforts include a nice sound system including two 8 inch subwoofers to match the 5.1 channel DVD player, a stow-away footrest and a cooler box.

Look after the jump for a full gallery of the Exora Prestige.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

GALLERY: Proton Exora Technology Exhibition

Paul Tan — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:48:31 +0000

During the media preview and drive event for the Proton Exora MPV last week in Cyberjaya, Proton had a whole room dedicated to a tech exhibition showcasing the technologies that went into the new Proton Exora. Of course alot of these stuff isn’t exactly cutting edge but are unique at this price segment for this model, and alot of them also represent their first time of usage in a Proton. I wanted you to feel like you were there so I snapped photos of as many slides and items as possible. Look after the jump for a full gallery of the Exora tech exhibition.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora Launch: Proton Exora Prime Concept

Paul Tan — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:33:48 +0000

Proton Design showcased two modified Proton Exora MPVs at the launch of the Exora yesterday evening. Some of you may have already seen these cars during the live telecast on TV1, but here is a closer look at the two vehicles. This is the white one called the Proton Exora Prime. Here’s the stuff that Proton Design added to the Exora Prime:

Pearl White Exterior
Double Fin Front Bumper Grille
Corporate Graphic At FR Door Trim
High Gloss Black Side Mirrors
High Glass Black Roof
Wrap-around Satin Galvano Foglamp Garnish
Customised Side Skirts
Customised Rear Apron with Integrated Exhaust
Customised Satin Galvano Glass Trim
Clear Rear Brake Lamps
Tinted Glass
17 inch Wheels with 215/45R17 tyres
2-DIN DVD player with integrated GPS
Rear view mirror with integrated LCD for reverse camera
1st and 2nd row pilot seats with integrated LCD and mobile theater system
Cooler box for the floor console

Look after the jump for a full gallery of the Exora Prime concept.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora platform to spawn new models

Paul Tan — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:05:57 +0000

Proton has always had this problem. The high development cost of vehicle platforms. Vehicle platform and engine technology are some of the main reasons that they need a technical tie-up. Whether it is to share a platform with an existing manufacturer, or sell their own platform to recover some of the development cost, the world economy is just in too much of a crappy condition for Proton to have so many platforms.

Continue reading after the jump for a glimpse into Proton’s new platform strategy.

The new direction of the future in terms of vehicle platforms for Proton is a two platform strategy. One large platform, and one smaller one. We now have these two platforms, and all that needs to come next are the cars built on these platforms in order to plug the holes in the market that Proton has been leaving void.

The small platform is the Proton Saga platform. With small platforms that typically underpin cheaper cars, you can go for volume. That means less models based on the platform, but more cars sold, which helps bring up the numbers. Companies like Toyota can even do better, its small platforms can spawn so many models, and I’m not only talking about the “same chassis different bodykit” JDM models.

Click for enlarged image

Enter the large platform, the Proton Exora’s platform. It was developed by Proton and automotive consultancy LG CNS, with the specifications and directions from Proton.

It is quite a versatile platform, allowing it to be reshaped for different kinds of cars. This allows better return on investment, more variants of essentially the same or similiar underpinings with lots of parts sharing, resulting in less units sold multiplied by many types equals to the large volume needed to reduce costs and improve profit.

The easiest and quickest vehicle would be a commercial vehicle version of the Proton Exora. There is also potential for a Proton Persona or Proton Perdana replacement model (an initial concept drawing from Proton shown above).

Click for enlarged image

It has the option for both a torsion beam and multi-link rear, depending on usage. All Proton needs to do to create a CR-V type of vehicle is fit the multi-link setup at the rear and install the all-wheel drive parts. Don’t forget to raise the height too.

The next generation Persona can come with a torsion beam. A sportier version, the future equivalent of the GEN2, can use the multi-link setup. Stretch it a little and give it the multi-link as well, and you get a potential new Perdana.

Because the engine bay can take engines from as small as a 1.3 liter inline-4 all the way up to a 2.5 liter V6 or even an inline-5, and is already ready to take a turbocharged Campro engine, I am indeed looking forward to future product launches from Proton.

Click for enlarged image

Proton engineers have developed a really nice product. The Proton Exora is a true bargain at its price with the only downside being its low on torque. But I think many people who just want something to lug their family members around won’t mind it and will get used to it. You need a little more calculation when entering busy roundabouts or crossing busy crossjunctions that’s all.

I really hope Proton’s suppliers and assembly plant will buck up and build the Proton Exora to the specs of that nice MPV that Proton has developed. Not a half baked unit that’s put together wrongly. A perfectly assembled Proton Exora can be the perfect people mover for Malaysian income levels.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora: Malaysia’s first MPV from RM69,998!

Paul Tan — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:27:02 +0000

After a long long wait, Malaysians finally have a decently sized MPV at a decent price to choose from. The new Proton Exora is here and two variants will be available at launch time – a 1.6 liter automatic high-line and a 1.6 liter automatic medium-line, priced at RM75,998.00 and RM69,998.00 respectively OTR with insurance. Head on after the jump for the full scoop on the Exora.

Dimensions, Power, Weight – Technical Data

Firstly I think I have to address the actual dimensions of the car, because when you buy an MPV what you are looking for is essentially a big box to fit your family in. There has been some revision to the data that Proton provided us during the prototype test drive (particularly the weight, which is now heavier – 1422kg for M-Line and 1442kg for H-Line). Here are the final specs of the Exora in comparison to its competitors.

	Exora	Livina 1.6	Avanza 1.5	Rondo	Innova
Kerb Weight	1,422kg	1,245kg	1,120kg	1,563kg	1,575kg
Length	4,592mm	4,420mm	4,150mm	4,545mm	4,580mm
Width	1,809mm	1,690mm	1,630mm	1,800mm	1,770mm
Height	1,691mm	1,590mm	1,695mm	1,650mm	1,755mm
Wheelbase	2,730mm	2,600mm	2,655mm	2,700mm	2,750mm
Track (F)	1,542mm	1,470mm	1,415mm	1,573mm	1,510mm
Track (R)	1,530mm	1,475mm	1,425mm	1,569mm	1,510mm
Fuel Tank	55L	52L	45L	55L	55L
Power (hp)	125hp	104hp	108hp	142hp	134hp
Torque (Nm)	150Nm	150Nm	141Nm	189Nm	182Nm
kg/Nm	9.48	8.3	7.94	8.27	8.65

The power figures above are quoted in horsepower, which has been converted from most of the “PS” measurements that Japanese companies use. As you can see the weight is now heavier, which would throw off all our previous calculations on the Exora’s power to weight ratio.

The Exora’s 125 horsepower has to pull 1422kg of weight now which means 11.376kg per horsepower, which is actually one of the better performing numbers among its competitors unfortunately the amount of weight that each Newton Meter has to pull is one of the worst. It’s the amount of torque and the torque curve that matters when it comes to pulling a lot of weight.

Click for enlarged image

Design

Design is subjective but I personally feel the Proton Exora is quite pleasant to the eyes. I don’t quite like the chrome strip at the rear but it doesn’t hamper the vehicle’s functions as an MPV. The brake lights are LEDs but the signal lamps use conventional bulbs. The radio uses a bee-sting antenna mounted at the front.

The M-Line model lacks foglamps, the chrome on the rear strip and the pieces of trim on the front grille, and it also lacks the black-out stickers on the B-pillar and C-pillar. I feel the Exora looks better with the blackout pillars (though when I did my own little survey one colleague thought the opposite was better and another was neutral about it) but it should be easy for you to place your own stickers.

Both the M-Line and H-Line models use the same 15 inch wheels. These are wrapped with either Goodyear Assurance or Silverstone Kruizer tyres in 195/65R15 size, apparently they are the same for both M-Line or H-Line and which tyres you get depends on luck as different batches will be fitted with either one.

New Proton Exora Platform

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The first sketch for the Exora has been in existence for a long time, even in the 90s. The styling was finally fixed sometime in August/September 2007. After that, it took another 18 months of development after the styling fix to reach mass production, which had been ready since March 2009. Production trial 1 had actually started end last year, while production trial 2 lasted the second half of February. Production started sometime mid-March until now.

The new Proton Exora sits on a platform that was developed by Proton engineers with the help of their engineering consultancy partner LG CNS. LG CNS also assisted Proton with the development of the Savvy platform, which was later revised to become the Saga platform.

It has a MacPherson strut layout at the front and a torsion beam at the rear, with the spare tyre stored underneath the vehicle body. It’s interesting to note that this chassis also has a multi-link variant ready. You know how the Wish had both a multi-link setup and a torsion beam version offered? Well, the Exora has the potential for that too. It will be easy to add a multi-link setup at the rear to make way for all-wheel drive in case it is needed in Eastern European countries or something.

In terms of ability to fit a wide range of engines, the Proton Exora’s platform was designed to take anything from a 1.3 liter inline-4 to a 60 degree V6 in its engine bay. An engine as big as a 2.5 liter V6 would be no problem for the chassis to fit, but for now the only engine that’s going to be fitted to it in production is the 1.6 liter Campro CPS.

The Campro CPS engine produces 125 horsepower (127 PS) at 6,500rpm and 150Nm of torque at 4,500rpm. The gear ratios are the same as the Waja CPS but the final drive has been modified from 4.406 in the auto and 4.312 in the manual to 4.625 for both the auto and manual. In the auto model, the Exora cruises at 2,400rpm for 80km/h and 3,000rpm for 110km/h (approximation from looking at the meter panel). It has been rated to consume 9.2 liters per 100km on the combined cycle and 7.2 liters at 90km/h constant. The following are the Exora’s gear ratios:

	A/T	M/T
1st	2.842	3.583
2nd	1.529	1.947
3rd	1.000	1.379
4th	0.712	1.03
5th		0.767
Reverse	A/T	3.363
Final Drive	4.625	4.625

Because this is their first ever MPV and does not carry over any existing large vehicle platform, Proton has had the luck of being able to develop a monocoque MPV in this segment without having the restrictions of modifying an existing car to do it.

Proton decided that the development process had to start from the inside out. This is why the MPV manages to be spacious without growing into a large sized behemoth. The seat, hip points, interior height and etc were all determined first, only then are the other parts of the chassis and body designed around it, including the exterior design of the car. The designers had to work within these restrictions and I must commend them on doing a great job in making the MPV look pleasant to the eyes.

Based on CAE data, the Proton Exora has a torsion rigidity of 16,683 Nm/degree based on lab tests, and a bending rigidity of 18,823 Nm/mm based on lab tests. Proton claims the Exora was designed to achieve a 4-star rating in Euro NCAP crash tests and it has passed an Euro NCAP equivalent test at a private testing facility in Spain. Actual Euro NCAP testing has not been done yet but as the test specs were the same the Exora should be able to gain a 4 star result in real Euro NCAP testing as well. But for now there is no official test yet so you won’t find the Exora on the Euro NCAP website.

For the first time in a Proton, the Proton Exora uses front impact sensors as part of the airbag activation system. Previously the airbags are only activated via data from an accelerometer. Here are two crash test videos for you to see.

Proton Exora Crash Test – 35km/h Front Crash Front View

Proton Exora Crash Test – 56km/h 40% Offset Side View

Proton Exora Crash Test – Roll-over

And here are two charts with the international crash tests that the Exora complies with. P0 is an early prototype and P1 is a later prototype that is similar to the production version, so that is why you see some tests that the P0 does not pass but the P1 passes later.

Click for enlarged image

Proton and LG engineers have added a few new features that while are common practice for car manufacturers these days, are new for Proton cars. First we’ll have a look at the Front End Module. It is essentially a single module for the front end of the car that is made of a combination of composite resin/high grade plastic and metal in certain areas to reinforce it. It serves as the front end structure as well as integrates the heat and fluid system mounts, bumper mounts and lighting system mounts.

The benefits for a front end module according to Proton are weight reduction (it weighs 5kg versus 6.5kg for a regular module), higher control of quality (single supplier), lower cost, ease of assembly (from 40 process down to 2 process), and provides a better finetuning ability for the crumple zone. It only uses 5 parts instead of 12 major parts of a conventional module.

Next is the hydroformed front subframe, which essentially carries the engine. Hydroforming is a process which shapes the front subframe using water pressure. Water pressure shapes tubes by expanding them from the inside in a closed forming die. It improves strength and rigidity, reduces weight (by 12% in this case), consolidates the stamping process, and most importantly involves much less welding points (eliminates weld flanges) for a stronger overall construction. Die costs are down 60%, product costs down 20% and weight down 30%.

Proton Exora Body Control Module

We’ve already covered the Body Control Module based on our findings during the prototype test drive a few weeks ago. The Body Control Module is actually supplied by Continental AG (Siemens VDO unit).
Here is a video I managed to record of Proton’s network training manager describing some of the safety and BCM features of the new Proton Exora.

VIDEO: Proton Exora BCM Features (Partial) Demonstration

A battery saver for room lamps, luggage and key ring illumination. These turn off after 30 seconds to ensure they do not make your battery flat if for some reason they are left in a situation where they are on all the time.
Follow-me-home headlamps stay on for a certain period of time to help light up your walkway when you park and want to enter your house.
The battery level for the remote key is indicated on the car’s instrument panel briefly when you turn the ignition on. The remote key has a range of 20 meters.
The remote control will not work if your front door is not closed. The vehicle will also remind you if you activate a remote command if the rear door is not closed.
There is a door open indicator on the instrument panel that indicates exactly which door, engine bay hood or rear hatch is not closed.
There is a door opening warning when you reach a speed of 7km/h if any doors are open.
Tap feature for the signal indicator stalk. This is similiar to alot of modern cars – you just have to tap the indicator stalk (not press fully) for the signal to flash 3 times to indicate a lane change and stop automatically, no need to press fully to turn on and reach for it again to deactivate it.
Dim-in and dim-out feature for the interior room lamps – Proton says this is better for the eyes at night and it also adds a certain touch of class. The interior room lamps turn off automatically after you lock the car, or they also stay on for 30 seconds and then fade out in 2.8 seconds. When you unlock the car, the room light fade-in in 3.4 seconds.
Front and rear wiper washer drip wiping – automatically wipe to remove excess water. What happens is when you operate the front washer, it will wipe 4 times and then pause for 5 seconds and then wipe one more time, to remove all the excess water effectively. This is because some of the washer liquid from the top of the windscreen will slowly drip down after the initial wiping, so the last wipe completely removes the washer water.
Programmable front wiper interval. This can be anything from 1 seconds to 25 seconds. The default is 4 seconds. This is how you program it – you put it into INT and then back to off. Then you wait for the duration you want and turn switch it to INT again. The time duration you waited will become the new interval, up to a max of 25 seconds.
The rear wiper turns on automatically when you engage reverse gear if your front wipers are on.
If in SLOW mode, the front wiper changes mode to INT mode when you bring the MPV to a complete stop, let’s say in a traffic jam in the rain.
The remote unlocks the drivers door only if pushed once – probably push twice to unlock all doors. Apparently you are able to configure this to unlock all doors at once by default.
There is an alarm activation history kept but I am not sure how to access it, perhaps only at the service center.
The doors will lock automatically once you reach a speed of 20km/h.
The doors will unlock automatically once you remove the key from the key barrel.
All doors unlock automatically upon a crash via a signal coming from the airbag control unit.
If you perform any sudden braking at speeds of at least 96km/h, the hazard lights will flash automatically.

M-Line and H-Line Differences

The basic features of the car itself is the same between the M-Line and H-Line. They are the same even down to the safety features (dual airbags and ABS), alloy wheel design, brake types (front disc rear drum), seat configuration ability, electric wing mirrors, interior trim and even the tyres. Proton has only kept the creature comforts and minor styling differences for the H-Line.

The Proton Exora H-Line adds cruise control, the LCD screen with DVD player, leather seats, and slightly different trim on the outside – chrome for the grille and rear, as well as blacked out B and C pillars using some convincing black stickers. It’s good to know that the Bluetooth hands-free and audio streaming functionality of the 2-DIN head unit has been retained in the M-Line. If you notice, the leather seats in the H-Line version have a combination material – there is a suede-like material at the sides, which according to Proton was intentionally left there so that the leather would be allowed to expand and contract in a certain way under the hot Malaysian climate and thus reduce the chances of them cracking.

There are still no ISOFIX points and there is only a lap belt for the middle seat in the second row instead of a full 3-point seatbelt. The seat and seatbelt anchorage points are said to be 30% better than regulation minimum requirements, and the steering wheel impact energy absorption is 35% better than regulation requirements.

Another feature of the H-Line is a touch screen portable GPS device which according to them uses an Atmel chipset. This is the same one as offered in the Persona SE. Locking speed was pretty fast. You can download new maps from the internet or at Proton Edar, and updates are free, but I didn’t manage to find out how many updates have there been so far and how frequent the updates are. I would have much preferred a Garmin-based solution.

The Exora’s Interior

The interior quality was typically Proton. There were some uneven gaps between the plastic parts of the dash but hopefully these will be ironed out as the assembly plant gets better at assembling the new model, same goes for the parts suppliers. The gap between the headlining and the front windscreen was quite alarming though, and apparently this was because of the need to wire the DVD player.

The plastics are not soft touch but the designers have picked textures in order to avoid that bare cheap plastic look. The textures were picked based on observations that the designers made while visiting the past few international motorshows. A total of 3 different types of plastic texture are used throughout the car. The upper dash and lower sections (glove box and below) of the dash have a different texture (Organic pattern) than the middle dash are which uses a pattern Proton calls “Orga-Geo”.

As previously mentioned the air conditioning was superb, thanks to the use of two blowers, one for the front and the other for the rear rows. There are air conditioning vents for all 3 rows, with the vents for the 2nd and 3rd row located above the windows. All three rows are comfortable, and a person of 182cm tall like me can fit into the third row nicely with my knee only barely touching the second row. Of course the second row has to be angled slightly more upright than usual for that to happen. Another point to consider is the third row is quite wide, two big sized guys can actually fit without their shoulders touching each other.

The second row and third row have backseat angle adjustment ability, so while you cannot slide them back and forth to vary space between the rows, if a compromise must be done it can be via the backrest angle. The second row will be able to sit more upright for the back row to have more legroom. The third row also varies in angle to create more luggage space in the rear. Speaking of luggage space, here is a video that Proton produced to train its salesmen on the luggage space of the Exora. Bear in mind what you see is with the third row angled rather straight, not the maximum lean angle.

Proton Exora – Luggage Space comparison with Avanza and Grand Livina

The H-Line models DVD player is a separate unit that is not integrated with the in-car entertainment system. It allows you to stream the audio from the DVD to the head unit installed up front via FM transmission, or the kids up back can actually plug in headphones to the DVD player via the two headphone jacks provided. If you want more I suppose you will have to buy headphone splitters.

A Short Drive Around Cyberjaya

We had another short drive around Cyberjaya where the media drive was held and this time I noticed that the Exora was a little more bouncy that usual. I asked the engineers whether there were any differences between the prototype specifications and the production car that we drove and they said yes, it is possible that the suspension was softer due to a wider distance of manufacturing tolerance especially during initial production. Our car also only had 5 people in it, and there might also have been tyre pressure issues.

Still, the Exora remained a pleasant vehicle to drive. It was comfortable and the excellent air conditioning continued to perform its duties well. The minor road deformities that you can see around are handled well by the suspension, but as I mentioned earlier the suspension felt a little softer so there was a little extra bounce than normal after negotiating speed bumps.

The Exora is a big comfortable box for its dimensions and would suit most of the requirements of the Malaysian MPV buyer. If you want to read more about how the Exora drives I suggest you check out my previous test drive story. We will try to get another Exora out ASAP for a proper real life test over a few days, perhaps some of you can join me on the ride?

Anyway here is a full high resolution gallery of the Exora, both inside and outside. Be back soon with even more on the Proton Exora, stay tuned! I am just really glad that finally Malaysians are able to buy a decently sized MPV for under RM70k, even if its just RM2 under RM70K!

Proton Exora 1.6L A/T M-Line Metallic – RM69,998.00
Proton Exora 1.6L A/T M-Line Solid – RM69,548.00
Proton Exora 1.6L A/T H-Line Metallic – RM75,998.00
Proton Exora 1.6L A/T H-Line Solid – RM75,548.00

VIDEO: Proton Exora 60 second TVC – English

VIDEO: Proton Exora 60 second TVC – Bahasa Melayu

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

New Proton Exora to be launched tonight!

Paul Tan — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:42:38 +0000

Click for enlarged image

We’ve seriously come a long way and it has been a long wait for this vehicle which will be Proton and the country’s first ever affordable people mover, at under RM80k for a vehicle that can decently move 7 adults and some minor luggage. We first knew this vehicle simply by the name Proton MPV until its name – Proton Exora – was handpicked by a contest winner and unveiled a few months ago.

Stay tuned for 1030pm tonight where this site will unveil plenty more juicy details on the new Proton Exora. There was a previous report on a test drive experience of a prototype car, I hope you’ve all read that already otherwise please check them out in the linked related posts in this story. Some interesting BCM details in those stories!

Other than the specs and price of the Proton Exora I will also share with you my initial driving impressions of the actual production car, instead of the previous drive session which was with a prototype. So come back later tonight, it’s a decent product and I am as excited about writing the story as you hopefully are about reading it!

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora chassis structure teaser

Paul Tan — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:21:36 +0000

Click to enlarge

This is the latest and probably one of the most final in a series of teaser images released by Proton of the Proton Exora 7-seater MPV. If you visited the Proton Technology Week they held sometime back you would have already seen this in real life, but this version shows some of the different metals used in the structure.

The single-piece front end module is made of plastic (but reinforced by metal in some areas) and the front subframe uses a hydroformed sub-frame technology that contributes to helping the Exora lose a few KGs, which means the CamPro CPS will have less to lug around. Being a single piece, it will be easier for the assembly line workers to install the front end module.

This is how part design can affect quality – other than the actual quality of the component itself, if a component is easier to install there is a higher chance for the assembly line works to always get it right the first time around.

UPDATE: To learn more about the benefits of a hydroformed front subframe, check out this link by Subaru. Thanks to reader Fridz.

Read our previous detailed coverage on the Exora:

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora set for 15th April 2009 launch!

Paul Tan — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:49:08 +0000

Proton’s first 7-seater MPV the Proton Exora will be launched on the 15th of April 2009, if everything goes well. That is very close, less than a month from now!

Proton has pulled many unexpected but welcome and pleasant moves with the launch of this MPV. The first is of course letting a few journalists try the MPV out. Another is actually letting customers who have taken the leap of faith and placed a RM1,000 deposit for the MPV without even seeing it yet, actually see it!

Yes, a few customers who have placed bookings were invited to Proton’s test track sometime ago for them to sample the MPV that they will soon own. One such customer had a very amusing reason for buying the MPV, as can be read in Business Times interview with some of the buyers:

“I originally wanted to buy a Proton Satria Neo CPS for my wife, who likes driving fast. But to curb her interest for her own good, I decided to get her an Exora. She doesn’t know that I’m buying her the car. If she doesn’t like it, I may have to buy her the Neo CPS,” said T.K. How from Puchong.

Anyway you can check out the rest of the comments here.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora MPV: BCM and a few more juicy details from the prototype test drive

Paul Tan — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:07:45 +0000

Now that we’ve covered the initial driving experience with the upcoming 7-seater Proton Exora MPV, let’s get down to some technical details such as the chassis, dimensions, specifications and equipment level of the people mover.

Have a look after the jump for the juicy details.

Exora Weight and Dimensions Comparison

	Exora	Livina 1.6	Avanza 1.5	Rondo	Innova
Kerb Weight	1,380kg	1,245kg	1,120kg	1,563kg	1,575kg
Length	4,592mm	4,420mm	4,150mm	4,545mm	4,580mm
Width	1,809mm	1,690mm	1,630mm	1,800mm	1,770mm
Height	1,691mm	1,590mm	1,695mm	1,650mm	1,755mm
Wheelbase	2,730mm	2,600mm	2,655mm	2,700mm	2,750mm
Fuel Tank	55L	52L	45L	55L	55L
MPV+7 Weight	1,880kg	1,745kg	1,620kg	2,063kg	2,075kg
MPV+2+5 Weight	1,730kg	1,595kg	1,470kg	1,913kg	1,925kg
Horsepower	125hp	105hp	107hp	145hp	136hp
Torque	150Nm	150Nm	141Nm	189Nm	182Nm
MPV+7 kg per hp	15.04	16.62	15.14	14.23	15.26
MPV+7 kg per Nm	12.53	11.60	11.48	10.91	11.40

Above you can see a weight and dimensions comparison between the Exora and its similiarly-priced Rivals. The Exora is actually longer and wider than the Innova and even the Rondo but it is much lighter, instead being closer to the Grand Livina’s weight despite being a bigger vehicle. I’ve also added two gross vehicle weight calculations – one with a load of 7 adults and another with 2 adults (MPV+7) and 5 children (MPV+5+2).

What’s also interesting is the two rows at the bottom – how many kgs of metal, flesh and bone (as in the MPV and occupants, not some Terminator cyborg) the engine has to pull along. This is not a completely accurate indicator of performance as there are many other variables such as the weight of fluids, gear ratio and transmission loss, but it can be used as a rough indicator.

The MPV actually has to pull along the most kg per Newton meter of torque, though its actually by only a small margin of about slightly over 1kg compared to the Innova. Thus performance under full load could likely similiar to what I experienced in my prototype test drive. 1kg out of 12kg is slightly less than 10%, so in a way can it be said the Exora would feel approximately 10% less powerful than its competitors? Does anyone here have experience with the listed competitors under full load? Please share your experience in the comments section for benefit of all? Once again, I’d like to say this is not a completely accurate way of comparing performance as there are many other factors such as gear ratios and transmission loss.

Proton Exora Chassis

Underpinning the Proton Exora MPV is a monocoque chassis with a 2,730mm wheelbase. Using a car-like monocoque chassis gives it superior ride comfort and handling over body-on-frame rivals. It rides on MacPherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear. Development time for this chassis benefitted from many ideas and experiences gained from developing the Saga and Savvy’s platforms, which also use a similiar suspension setup.

Thus in some ways you could say the Exora chassis is a larger and stronger version of the Saga chassis because the people who were behind the development are the same, thus its only natural that some ideas and techniques are reused.

An improvement over all Proton models is the usage of a Body Control Module. It essentially controls some various basic car functions such as wipers, signal lamps, brake lamps, and etcetera. It allows Proton to program some intelligence into various car features so that in some cases they might even function automatically when deemed needed, instead of everything having to require some kind of driver input or activation to work. Alot of modern cars already have the ability to do all of these so Proton has caught up. Here are the features that the BCM allowed Proton to add to the Proton Exora:

Proton Exora Body Control Module

A battery saver for room lamps, luggage and key ring illumination. These turn off after 30 seconds to ensure they do not make your battery flat if for some reason they are left in a situation where they are on all the time.
Follow-me-home headlamps stay on for a certain period of time to help light up your walkway when you park and want to enter your house.
The battery level for the remote key is indicated on the car’s instrument panel briefly when you turn the ignition on. The remote key has a range of 20 meters.
The remote control will not work if your front door is not closed. The vehicle will also remind you if you activate a remote command if the rear door is not closed.
There is a door open indicator on the instrument panel that indicates exactly which door, engine bay hood or rear hatch is not closed.
There is a door opening warning when you reach a speed of 7km/h if any doors are open.
Tap feature for the signal indicator stalk. This is similiar to alot of modern cars – you just have to tap the indicator stalk (not press fully) for the signal to flash 3 times to indicate a lane change and stop automatically, no need to press fully to turn on and reach for it again to deactivate it.
Dim-in and dim-out feature for the interior room lamps – Proton says this is better for the eyes at night and it also adds a certain touch of class. The interior room lamps turn off automatically after you lock the car, or they also stay on for 30 seconds and then fade out in 2.8 seconds. When you unlock the car, the room light fade-in in 3.4 seconds.
Front and rear wiper washer drip wiping – automatically wipe to remove excess water. What happens is when you operate the front washer, it will wipe 4 times and then pause for 5 seconds and then wipe one more time, to remove all the excess water effectively. This is because some of the washer liquid from the top of the windscreen will slowly drip down after the initial wiping, so the last wipe completely removes the washer water.
Programmable front wiper interval. This can be anything from 1 seconds to 25 seconds. The default is 4 seconds. This is how you program it – you put it into INT and then back to off. Then you wait for the duration you want and turn switch it to INT again. The time duration you waited will become the new interval, up to a max of 25 seconds.
The rear wiper turns on automatically when you engage reverse gear if your front wipers are on.
If in SLOW mode, the front wiper changes mode to INT mode when you bring the MPV to a complete stop, let’s say in a traffic jam in the rain.
The remote unlocks the drivers door only if pushed once – probably push twice to unlock all doors. Apparently you are able to configure this to unlock all doors at once by default.
There is an alarm activation history kept but I am not sure how to access it, perhaps only at the service center.
The doors will lock automatically once you reach a speed of 20km/h.
The doors will unlock automatically once you remove the key from the key barrel.
All doors unlock automatically upon a crash via a signal coming from the airbag control unit.
If you perform any sudden braking at speeds of at least 96km/h, the hazard lights will flash automatically.

So there we go, quite an interesting and extensive list of the features that the BCM provides the Proton Exora. It will be easy to add other features such as automatic headlamps and rain sensing wipers to the Exora because of the BCM, as all you need to do is add the appropriate sensor and programming so this may be a preview of what might come during the facelifts in a few years time.

Proton Exora H-Line DVD Entertainment System

The H-Line model that we tested also came with a DVD entertainment system mounted at the roof of the 2nd row for both the 2nd and 3rd row’s enjoyment. It can accept DVDs and can also read files from an SD card. I didn’t try whether the system supports reading DIVX or AVI files from the SD card but apparently picture viewing works so it will be quite interesting for a family to view photos from a trip to Sunway Lagoon, Port Dickson or any other destination immediately on the way home.

The DVD entertainment system sends its audio signals to the head-unit at the front via a FM transmitter system. This probably cuts some assembly cost and time as you don’t need to wire the system up, but this also means audio quality is the same as FM. You can set what frequencies you want to transmit at from the DVD system, and then tune in to the corresponding frequency on the Exora’s headunit.

We were driving prototype models without the finalised speakers and sound stage setup so its pointless to talk about sound quality at this time. All I can say is at least the prototype had commendable sound proofing so you can at least watch movies without much outside noise disturbing your experience.

The H-Line model also had leather seats and an armrest for the driver, as well as a spoiler at the back while the M-Line did not. I believe there’s only 1 month left until the Exora rolls out into the showrooms as a tentative launch date of mid-April 2009 was indicated. There will be a full write-up based on the production model then, so stay tuned!

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora Prototype Test Drive Experience!

Paul Tan — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:42:07 +0000

It was a day of many firsts for me, the day Proton corporate communications invited some of us to test drive a prototype of the new Proton Exora MPV. Yup, we got to drive a pair of Exoras, both the same colour but taped up in the typical black disguise that you’ve seen countless of times on the spyshots featured on this site.

We drove 2 prototype units, one with a manual transmission and one with an automatic transmission, from Proton’s plant in Shah Alam along the KESAS highway, then onto the MRR2, Karak Highway, and then the East Coast Expressway, where we made a U-turn at the Lanchang exit and on back to the Proton plant (we stopped at Karak town for awhile). The first half of my journey was in the manual model while the 2nd half was in the automatic model.

Look after the jump for my experiencing with the Proton Exora, as well as some other information gathered from our session with the engineers.

I believe one of the first questions you would like to have answered on the Proton Exora MPV is whether it is underpowered or not. The next would be whether it is spacious inside and comfortable. I will quickly answer these concerns. Bear in mind all of my testing was done with between 6 to 7 people on-board, so I don’t know how the car performs with only 2-3 people in it. I would assume it would be so much better. Comparing kerb weights, you can actually predict that an Exora with only the driver in it would probably feel like a Waja with 4 people in it?

The engine used under the hood is the Campro CPS engine and its CPS and VIM activation parameters are similiar to the unit installed in the Waja CPS and the GEN2 CPS. It is only the Satria Neo CPS which has different CPS activation timing. It produces 125 horsepower at 6,500rpm (7,000rpm redline) and 150Nm of torque at 4,500rpm. I am sure there is still some improvements that can be squeezed out here as a competitor engine can churn out 160Nm of twisting power from a normally aspirated 1.6 liter and the CPS is a long stroke engine which means it should be able to be quite torquey by nature. The gearbox has had its final drive modified to help with the power delivery, and 110km/h RPM on the auto is somewhere between 2,700 to 2,800rpm (cannot remember exactly right now for some reason).

The achilles heel of the Exora is the Campro CPS engine. With the automatic transmission, it is best described as being just enough to move the car, and you can feel the engine being worked really hard to move the MPV, which was loaded up with 7 people. With a kerb weight of 1,380kg, adding all the passengers brings it close to its gross vehicle weight of over 1,900kg. It is seriously no mean feat.

You can truly feel the torque curve of the CPS engine with your butt-o-meter, no measuring devices necessary. Every dip and peak in the curve can be felt because the pace of the MPV’s acceleration depends on every single Newton meter that the engine can churn out. Proton’s famous air conditioning compressor which works great but seems to sap plenty of engine power can already be felt in cars like the GEN2 CPS, but it is even more prominent in this car, slowing things down considerably when it kicks in.

Now the thing is, the only time where acceleration was found to be sluggy to the point of annoyance was when the Exora was starting from a standstill. Not so much in the manual version but it’s quite bad in the auto on even a slight incline. Once it gets going and the Campro engine is in its powerband, things get going sufficiently. I won’t go to the extent of describing it as swift or any similiar words, but I think perhaps 80% of the time and an majority percentage of situations, the Exora has enough power. Most Genting slopes can be taken with 2nd gear in the manual if you have enough momentum, with only the steepest requiring a shift to 1st gear. Mind you, this is according to a Proton engineer as we didn’t climb Genting in our drive.

The manual has more ratios and saps less power. The auto is a little more lethargic and there was one occasion on an incline where it felt really sluggy because I had the pedal to the metal and there was room to do a downshift but it did not! Perhaps there is still some work and finetuning to be done on the TCU? Had to manually downshift via the auto’s gate shifter.

Click to enlarge

I think you can begin to visualise how you will have to drive this. Plan your journey well and look far ahead at traffic as to plan your route through the road’s traffic – minimize braking and keep the momentum up, because once you slow down, acceleration is going to take awhile. Stay out of the fast lane because if you change lanes to overtake, it’s going to take a long time and you might annoy the hell out of cars coming up behind you. I personally drive a car that is quite underpowered as well and for slow and comfortable driving you won’t have issues with the Exora.

Just don’t try to get anywhere in a hurry. Not with your entire family on board anyway – too heavy and not good to endanger them. Also you have to be careful when trying to get across busy crossjunctions or enter busy roundabouts, I foresee that might be a problem with the auto.

On an empty road and ample space for acceleration, the Proton Exora can actually achieve some really high speeds. 140 to 160km/h are no problem given enough time and even beyond that is possible on a downhill stretch. These high speeds can be sustained easily, it is only when you slow down and try to climb back up to those speeds where it takes a long time. Typical Campro and Campro CPS, only shines at the top end, which is why I feel turbocharging with a low pressure turbo will do wonders for it.

Another thing I noticed is how smooth the engine was. It was very loud at high revs approaching the 7,000rpm redline and its boom echoed throughout the interior, but there was not much vibration, something that many current CPS-equipped car owners experience when they send their rev needles to the redline, especially in the Satria Neo. And the engine is pretty docile at regular highway cruise speeds. It’s quite quiet actually. Conversations can be carried out all the way form the front row to the third row without having to raise voices. That is a sign of some pretty impressive sound proofing and NVH optimisation. It remained calm and serene without us having to raise our voices to have a conversation even at speeds of beyond 170km/h. It’s really impressive. Like I mentioned before, the only time the cabin seemed overwhelmed with noise is when the Campro CPS is near the redline. Then you get the boom and blare.

Click to enlarge

The Exora dashboard is probably a first Proton dashboard that does not seem like it is built for midgets in a long long time. It isn’t set too low in the interior. Had no complaints about it so I guess it is at a proper proportionate height. The gear shifter is raised and is very near to the steering wheel so it’s pretty easy to reach for whenever you need to shift gears. The speedo is easy to read and done in white and red.

There is now an instant real-time digital fuel consumption readout but in our prototype vehicles this was not working. It displayed data but was incorrect, with consumption numbers (in liters per 100km) being excessively low most of the time. A Proton engineer told me the prototype car had an old version of some software update and had not been flashed to the latest version yet so the calibration for the instant fuel consumption readout was all wrong. I have a miff with the way you get the meter to display but I will cover this in a later story.

I was happy with the position of the steering wheel. It isn’t too far away. Near enough for me to have a comfortable and firm grip. The seat could be pushed back as far as I required (I am 182cm tall) and I even tried pushing it completely to the rear, but there was still a seriously large amount of legroom in the 2nd row. The driver’s seat was slightly elevated and offers a SUV-like commanding view of what’s ahead. The Proton Exora was stable and planted for as fast as I drove, which is only up to about 160km/h at one point. The fastest I went most of the time was only 140km/h, if I recall correctly. I didn’t dare speed further than that actually as there were 6 other people in the MPV with me, I didn’t want to risk anything.

The steering has a nice weight to it and is easy to keep steady through negotiating a corner. It was precise too, pointing the nose of the car exactly where you expect it to go. No complaints about the brakes and there was also minimal brake dive. The Exora can be ever slightly floaty at times depending on how undulating the terrain is but I found that I only felt this as the driver, didn’t notice it as a passenger.

Click to enlarge

I drove more like a typical MPV driver would, but as a passenger I witnessed some pretty mad cornering around the Karak curves at speeds of 120 to 140km/h without the Goodyear Assurance tyres even making much of a fuss. As usual, the Proton boys have got the car’s ride and handling close to perfect. One of the most impressive things about the MPV is the fact that the third row felt as chill as the 1st or 2nd row, just that it has less space. At this price level or even much more expensive than the RM70k to RM80k that the Exora is expected to be priced at, you usually get a third row that is quite uncomfortable when the vehicle is on the go, because of its position right over the vehicle’s rear axle. It’s usually quite bumpy and headroom is sometimes limited. The Exora trumps all its competition at this.

The third row is so comfortable compared to the bouncy stuff you get with other cheap MPVs and even when one fellow journalist was whacking the corners at high speeds, I didn’t feel thrown around or dizzy. When the Proton Exora travels over an irreguliarity in the road such as the usual place where 2 different pieces of an elevated highway joins together during a corner, the rear end of the car remained composed and calm. Other MPVs would swing and bounce around, creating discomfort for the third row. There are air cond vents for all 3 rows, and the rear rows get its own dedicated blower located in the space above the rear left wheel. The fuel filler is on the other side of course. The rear ceiling vents also have their own blower speed control mounted on the ceiling. Air conditioning for 2nd and 3rd rows is really best in class and the vent angles can be adjusted easily.

Now that we have the Proton Exora’s engine, handling and comfort nailed down let’s talk about space and later proceed to usability/ease of use. As previously mentioned, there is plenty of second row space. Both the 2nd and 3rd row have the ability to have their seat recline adjusted. The third row backrest and seat angle moves together when you adjust its reclining position to maintain a comfortable hip point. For me to fit in the third row requires the 2nd row to be a little more straight up than the optimum comfortable position. That way I can fit comfortably with only the cloth of my pants barely touching the 2nd row seat back.

Third row legroom – I am 182cm tall

I didn’t really feel like I was sitting on the floor of the Proton Exora though my knee was higher than usual and it was impossible to do any form of leg stretching, but get into the third row of an Exora from a competitor and you’ll feel relieved. There is also plenty of headroom for all 3 rows. Headroom is seriously aplenty here. It makes it easy to get into the third row as you do not have to bend down too much. The third row is going to be seriously comfortable for kids. With the third row fully reclined, the seatbacks are pretty much very close to the rear glass. Luggage space is limited to the triangular-shaped area between the seatback and the floor, which fits 1 golf bag and a few other small items. If you make the third row seatback a little more straight up, you create more luggage space, but it’s not going to be very comfortable for adults at all. The M-Line also lacks any headrests for the third row so it could touch the rear glass sometimes.

Third row headroom – I am 182cm tall

The second row of the Proton Exora has no sliding ability. But what it can do is tumble-fold completely forwards, creating an empty space in the area where the 2nd row is. This makes it quite easy to get into the third row. The 2nd row seats split 60:40 and the tumbling mechanism can be done independently of each other. The tumbling mechanism works via pulling a strap – from what I understand you pull it a little and it folds down once, pull it completely and it tumbles completely forward against the first row seatback. As I previously mentioned, there is quite alot of space in the 2nd row. Perhaps some of that space should have been allocated in improving some of the third row space. When I suggested this, a part of the Proton team gave an answer that makes sense somehow. Proton wanted the MPV to feel big, spacious and comfortable. It is the number one selling point for an MPV and an MPV has to do that well for it to be considered a good MPV. Not handle well or outrun a sports car. So what they did was make sure at least 5 out of 7 people in the MPV enjoy a great experience. Not 7 people enjoying a mediocre experience.

A convenient teh tarik hook is located in the lower area of the dash near the front passenger footwell, and the front seats have some hooks at the back of them for 2nd row usage as well. There are plenty of cupholders and bottleholders, even for the third row.

One main pet peeve I have is that NONE of the Exora variants destined for Malaysia have ISOFIX points, not even a single one in the Exora. When I asked the engineers about this, the reason given was cost and the lack of regulations requiring ISOFIX points in Malaysia. Personally I feel as a national car company which gets plenty of incentives from the government and is government-owned, safety for the rakyat and future leaders of the nation should be at least given priority! Not just airbags, etc. You harp on the necessity to have seatbelts and force people to wear belts in all seats, so why deny children the safety of a properly fixed child seat? I know this isn’t up to the engineers and decide and from what I know they have no problems implementing this, so it is more of a product planning decision.

AA surveys show that child seats that are fitted with the adult seatbelts are typically 70% to 80% misfitted with around 30% being seriously misfitted. So what happens during an accident or harsh braking? Your child might just fly together with the misfixed seat! When even the Satria Neo has ISOFIX points, why not in the Exora? if you say lack of regulation requirements – then why are they in the Neo? Cost, how much can ISOFIX points cost! RM50 to RM100 per point? A maximum of RM500 per car, with overly inflated costs for 2 ISOFIX-equipped seats in the 2nd row? Couldn’t scrapping some of your Corporate Social Responsibility programs cover the cost of proper ISOFIX points in your Exora? Spend the money on your real customers instead of others!

Why wait for the government to enforce something? Proton should be proactive in taking this step. Malaysians are not educated on such safety features. Do your part in educating them. Perhaps in your focus group studies for the Exora, none of the potential customers asked for ISOFIX points because they don’t even know what ISOFIX is. That is no reason for you to omit them. Put them in and educate them. Don’t be penny-wise pound-foolish. The good PR from this will be valuable, more than the cost of the points themselves. Really good child seats with ISOFIX support can be expensive. Package them together with your hire purchase loans for families to be able to afford them.

Do it, and do it soon. Showing that you are concerned about your customers will do wonders for your image. Then move on later to more than just 2 front airbags, and perhaps some form of stability and traction control. Dual SRS airbags should really be made standard. I hope there are people in the Proton management/product team reading this.

The Proton Exora MPV is a very impressive product on the overall, and even more so when you take into account its expected price level. It’s got best in class interior room and can be compared to vehicles that are on class above. It can move a whole family along in comfort, just that it is slow in getting moving. I know it sounds like I’m making excuses for Proton but from my own personal driving experience there were only certain times when I felt it was underpowered. Given that most of our drive was on the highway, most of the situation we only had to get up to cruising speed once and the Exora maintained its speed well. It’s just too bad that Proton has no powerful engine to put in it at this point and has to compromise with the Campro CPS as the sole option. It’s fine as a very baseline engine but it really cannot be the only option. Hope that’s fixed with the Campro Turbo.

The lack of certain features such as ISOFIX points in the Malaysian version in no way cripples the ability of the Exora to be a fine MPV of course but it reflects the still on-going shortchanging that Malaysian consumers always seem to get, because from what I was told, ISOFIX will be in the export cars. In fact these are only the very few things that I have to complain about, the MPV does its MPV duties really well and I am impressed at how Proton engineers really got it right the first time.

Anyway forgive me for the lack of photos from the actual test drive session. We weren’t allowed to use any photos actually and had to get photos approved on a case by case and photo by photo basis with justification. Whatever photos I justified using are already in this story. I must thank Proton especially their corp comm team and engineers for organising a well-planned and extremely informative test drive session. More to come – some juicy details on some various new features and specs of the Proton Exora including the BCM module.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora in Pyrite Brown spotted in Tg Malim

Paul Tan — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:26:45 +0000

Click to view enlarged image

These shots are courtesy of reader H+Z who spotted these two Proton Exora MPVs in the new Pyrite Brown colour at the Medan Selera Tanjung Malim near the Padang MDTM parking lot, thanks man! The Exora will be built at Proton’s plant in Shah Alam but I suppose these test units went up for Tanjung Malim for some purpose or another.

There are a few shots after the jump with one that is particularly interesting – while it was hard to snap photos of the interior because of the window’s reflections, there is one clear shot of the automatic transmission gear shifter area. Looks like there’s a gate-shift but no manual override function, which isn’t really important as it’s mostly a novelty on such a car. There are actually 2 Exoras there, and according to H+Z the one with the B461A has a manual transmission while the B462A was automatic.

Look after the jump for more of H+Z’s shots!

Click to view enlarged image

Click to view enlarged image

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora CPS MPV features list teaser scan

Paul Tan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:02:28 +0000

Click for high resolution image

Here is the latest Proton Exora teaser ad insertion scanned from today’s The Star. There are loads of more details about the MPV, so let me just list them here for those who are kinda lazy to load the full-resolution version of the photo to read the details.

Campro CPS Engine – Proton claims enough power to transport 7 adults with a full load of luggage while maintaining fuel efficiency. The first part of believable but I’m doubtful about the second part, you can’t have the best of both worlds, not with a regular twincam normally aspirated engine like the Campro CPS. Power output is quoted at 125hp and 150Nm of torque which is equivalent to the output in the Waja CPS, GEN2 CPS and Satria Neo CPS, but some parameters such as CPS and VIM activation points may have been changed, we’ll only find out at the launch.
Quiet Cabin – Proton claims a quiet cabin because of sound absorption material (they use the word technology).
Ride & Handling – As usual, the Lotus brand name and their involvement in tuning the suspension settings for Proton cars are being pushed as a selling point for the Exora MPV.
Small Turning Radius – Proton says the Exora has a turning radius of 5.3 meters. A turning radius is essentially the radius of a small circular turn, or a U-turn that the vehicle is capable of making. The smaller the number, the less space required by a vehicle to U-turn. Note that there are two types of turning radius that can be specified – curb-to-curb or wall-to-wall which is measured either by the distance travelled by the wheels or including the whole car including body overhangs and etc, with the latter being more accurate of course. Let’s compare to some other MPVs – 5.2 meters for the Toyota Passo Sette (this could be the upcoming Perodua MPV), Toyota Wish – 5.3 meters, Nissan Grand Livina – 5.2 meters, Honda Stream – 5.4 meters, Mazda 5 – 5.3 meters, Toyota Alphard – 5.7 to 5.9 meters, Toyota Rush – 5.2 meters.
Intelligent Electronic Body Control Programme – I’m not sure what this is. Proton calls this an integrated module which allows you to recalibrate electronic components to suit your driving needs such as wipers and signal lights. I am told that this is a central control module which communicates with various components of the car including the examples given. My source tells me this is more of something that works behind the scenes at the moment and there is not much of a user interface to control but I suspect this will allow some form of user controllability in the future such as programmable follow-me home lights and etc just by adding a user interface to it.
LED tail lamps and brake lights – We already know this from the spyshots.

Read our past coverage of the Proton Exora while we patiently count down to its launch, expected to be in April 2009.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora MPV meter panel and dashboard textures in high-resolution!

Paul Tan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:00:04 +0000

Click for an enlarged hi-res image

I have managed to source a very high resolution version of the first Proton Exora dashboard instrument panel and steering wheel teaser that Proton put up in the daily papers for you guys, thanks to a source that wishes to remain anonymous. This is probably the original image file for the ad sent to the newspapers and it reveals the full high resolution glory of the textures that Proton have put on the Proton Exora’s dashboard.

The instrumentation panel hood and upper dash seems to have a different texture from the rest of the dashboard and the center dash area where the 2-DIN head unit and air condition controls are also seem to have a sort of brushed look to it. The meter panel can also be seen in full high resolution glory, so check it out!

For other details please read our previous coverage of the Proton Exora MPV, the national carmaker’s first 7-seater 3-row MPV set for an April 2009 launch.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora MPV teaser scans: flat folding seats

Paul Tan — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:42:03 +0000

Click image above to view very detailed high-resolution version!

Here’s another teaser of the Proton Exora MPV, a scan courtesy of reader waja2000. We can see a full frontal view of the Proton Exora’s dashboard here which also reveals a gate-type shifter for the automatic transmission.

It also shows the 3 rows of seats which are 60:40 split for the 2nd row and 50:50 split for the third row. It also appears that the seats fold completely flat, which is good. The third row has some form of storage and cupholders integrated into the wheel arch intrusions, and we’re lucky Proton has completely abandoned any attempts to have stylo sporty door panels – they look completely normal even for the rear doors. The third row also has full 3-point seat belts too.

The photo cuts off just before the roof of the MPV so we cannot see the roof-mounted air conditioning vents but these were features that could be seen in the peek-a-boo box of the MPV interior at the Proton Technology Week.

UPDATE: Higher resolution photo added.

Read our past coverage of the Proton Exora below for more juicy details on the first 7-seater 3-row MPV from Proton.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton teases the Proton Exora MPV dashboard

Paul Tan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:59:28 +0000

Click for enlarged image

Proton has been running a series of teaser print ads in the papers of the new Proton Exora, Proton’s first 7-seater MPV. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before but for the rest of the Malaysian population it offers a rather unobstructed glimpse of the Proton MPV’s dashboard and instrument panel. While the leaked images we saw previously was of a Proton Exora equipped a manual transmission, this particular teaser image was clearly snapped from an Exora with an automatic transmission.

We get to see where the automatic gear position indicator is on the instrumentation panel – the LCD display integrated into the right-side gauge. Whether a manual Proton Exora will be offered or not is still questionable – while we saw a manual version previously, Proton’s teaser pricing only shows 2 automatic variants – an M-Line and a H-Line. With the automatic M-Line having a preliminary price of RM72k, it may be possible that a manual M-Line could dip under RM70k.

More updates on the Proton Exora soon to come – stay tuned! In the meanwhile please read our detailed past coverage on the Proton Exora MPV.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora 7-seater MPV interior details revealed!

Paul Tan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:30:10 +0000

Click for enlarged image

Proton Edar’s Proton Exora teaser page reveals how the Exora’s seats and seating configuration looks like. The seats are in the typical three-row MPV 2-3-2 order for 7 seats, and Proton claims them to be suitable for full adult seating.

From the looks of it every seat (wrapped with leather) has its own headrest, and Proton says there are also individual air conditioning blowers for each row. From the details revealed at the Proton Technology Week, it is revealed that the dedicated air conditioning vents for the 2nd and 3rd rows will be located at the ceiling of the Proton Exora MPV. The 2nd and 3rd row of the Proton Exora can also be folded in 6 flexible configurations, and it looks like the 2nd row’s middle seat can be folded down as an armrest. There will be a total of 10 cupholders in the MPV, which is more than 1 for each seat, so there should be more than enough space to keep one’s drinks on a road trip.

As previously revealed, the steering wheel will feature audio controls but there is no mention yet on what the phone button is for. The Proton Exora will have an overhead LCD player that can read VCDs and DVDs along with a variety of other storage devices such as devices using USB input, and a memory card slot that supports SD and MMC. This will likely be available only in the high spec model.

Speaking of specification levels, Proton has also revealed tentative prices for the Proton Exora on its booking page. The tentative pricing are RM 72,000 for the M-Line model with an automatic transmission, and RM 76,000 for the H-Line model with an automatic transmission. This is well under the RM 80,000 maximum figure previously quoted. So far only prices for automatic transmission models have been revealed but if the automatic M-Line is 72K, a manual transmission M-Line could go under RM70k if Proton decides to make such a model available. But I feel manual is a must for the Proton buyer segment, and I am pretty sure their product team knows this too.

Bookings for the Proton Exora just opened yesterday and Proton Edar reported over 350 bookings. Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal hopes to achieve between 4,000 to 5,000 bookings before the April launch date, which gives them roughly over a month to go.

There have also been other details on the Exora revealed over the past few months, please read our previous coverage on the Proton Exora to find out more exclusive details!

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton Exora: the MPV Proton will launch!

Paul Tan — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:18:01 +0000

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.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton MPV name to be unveiled next week!

Paul Tan — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:42:41 +0000

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.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

HOT: Proton MPV 100% fully uncovered!

Paul Tan — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:49:14 +0000

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!

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton MPV video snapped in a traffic jam along Jalan Hang Tuah in KL

Paul Tan — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:42:56 +0000

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!

Video: Proton MPV stuck on Jalan Hang Tuah #1

Video: Proton MPV stuck on Jalan Hang Tuah #2

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton MPV launch delayed to April 2009

Paul Tan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:36:17 +0000

Click for more images

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.

Source

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Spyshot: 2009 Proton MPV sheds some disguise

Paul Tan — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:56:22 +0000

Click for larger image

It looks like the new Proton MPV has shed some of that heavy masking and is now on the road with a little more details revealed now, though I think some of you probably don’t really need to see any more spyshots as there was a leak of a fully undisguised photo last week which Proton worked hard to remove from the internet wherever they can.

My friend Rkaru sent in these shots of this masked white Proton MPV. I believe the photos are clear enough for you to see some of the details on the MPV. The front headlamps are less masked now (or it could be just that these photos are of a decent resolution) so we can see that it uses a reflector lense instead of the more expensive projector type.

You also get to peek into some bits of the interior, not the dashboard, but I think not we can safely assume that Proton has decided to stay with a grey interior for the MPV.

During the Proton Technology Week the national car company exhibited the Proton MPV’s interior in a peek-a-boo box and it had a beige colour scheme. When asked about this, one of the designers said they had not decided on a colour scheme at that time yet, and I guess now they have!

Look after the jump for more of this set of Proton MPV spyshots.

Click for larger image of the Proton MPV baru

Click for larger image

Undisguised Proton MPV spyshots

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.

Proton MPV spotted in Putra Heights!

Paul Tan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:00:10 +0000

An artist’s impression by maru

Reader deanfiero_returns sent in another video of the Proton MPV that he spotted at Putra Heights last week, and it seems that the MPV has been sighted in the area quite frequently for 3 consecutive days. He also claims the MPV was quite fast to accelerate way from his Proton Waja 1.6, despite having about 3-4 occupants in it. The video is quite shaky at first but later there is a close-up, including a shot of the Proton MPV travelling next to what appears to be a red Perodua Kelisa towards the end. Useful for a size guesstimation. Watch the video after the jump.

VIDEO: Proton MPV in Putra Heights

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 22 Nov 09 10:32:03 +0800.