Here it is, boys and girls, our first official look at the 2016 Proton Perdana. The local carmaker is previewing its upcoming D-segment sedan at the on-going Alami Proton event in Shah Alam, which is open to the public this weekend. Early signs are positive, to say the least.
Firstly, surprise – it does not look like the “Proton Perdana” that made a cameo in the movie Filem Kapsul recently. Proton has now said that the vehicle shown in the local film is an earlier “work in progress,” and not the new sedan’s final form.
Proton Chairman Tun Mahathir unveiled little snippets of the finalised car. The front and rear corners were shown for brief moments, revealing the Perdana’s front fog lamp design and the full rear LED light cluster. There appears to be a thick chrome line running across the back, combining the two rear lights.
As speculated before, the exhaust pipe is fully integrated into the rear bumper design. An intricate five triple-spoke two-tone alloy wheel can also be seen. The bright red shade shown here is said to be one of five colour options that will be offered.
A sole teaser/preview image is also shown, revealing a very distinctive headlamp design that appears to have a solid strip of LED daytime running lights, as opposed to the individual diodes used on the Iriz Premium. You can expect it to feature Proton lettering over the single projector bezel, as previously seen on the Iriz.
What’s also apparent is that the front fender panel appears to be more curvaceous compared to the original car’s simpler styling. The Perdana has bonnet strakes too, presumably leading down to the Proton logo, while the Accord had a flatter design.
Look closely enough, and you can see that the front door handle (itself completely redesigned) has a button for keyless entry – a feature that the donor Accord did not have. The tapering, teardrop-shaped glasshouse, meanwhile, suggests that the Perdana will indeed have a fastback-like profile, not unlike the Jaguar XJ.
Back to the covered car, what can be seen are the car’s basic silhouette, shark-fin antenna, prominent bootlid spoiler and sharp protrusions of the head- and taillamps. We can just about make out that there are fender vents just aft of the front wheels.
It’s clear now that the new Perdana will indeed get its own looks, a departure from the eight-generation Honda Accord on which it is based. Well, that’s what Proton has been saying all along after all. As for the interior, we’ll just have to wait and see how different it looks.
We’ve also been informed that the finished article will measure 4,999 mm end to end, which is quite a bit longer than the original Accord (4,849 mm). It’s a really big car, this one.
Market roll-out will be sometime in the first quarter of 2016, according to Proton CEO Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah. Another important piece of information is that the 2016 Perdana will be built in Proton’s Medium Volume Factory in Shah Alam, alongside the Exora MPV. The current government-use Perdana, meanwhile, is assembled in Honda Malaysia’s Melaka plant.
Engine wise, it’s set to retain Honda’s 154 hp/189 Nm R20A3 2.0 and 177 hp/222 Nm K24Z2 2.4 litre i-VTEC engines – for now, at least. Both engines will be mated to a five-speed automatic transmission. No CVT to be seen here, fortunately enough.
That’s all we have for now on the 2016 Proton Perdana. Stay tuned to paultan.org for more information, in due time. For now, do share with us your thoughts – do you like what you see so far?
