Malaysia’s first national car, the Proton Saga, made its debut on July 9, 1985, and Proton is unveiling an Anniversary Edition this year on that date. How did the landmark car get its name, though? As revealed by Proton through its Facebook page, this was an endeavour that dated back to 1984 when the company held the nationwide ‘Name the National Car Contest’, and which received more than 100,000 entries.
The winning entry was submitted by Staff Sergeant Ismail Jaafar from Penang, who is also known as Sergeant Saga. The name that would come to grace the country’s first national car emerged from a game of Scrabble, said Ismail, where he saw the words ‘safety’, ‘achievement’, ‘greatness’ and ‘ability’. From these, the Saga name was derived from the first letters of those words.
The winning name appealed to the contest judges because ‘Saga’ could easily be pronounced by speakers of any language, and was without any negative connotation in both Malay and English languages, said Proton.
Beyond the wordplay, the name also refers to the hard red seeds of the Saga tree, or abrus precatorius, which is commonly found in Malaysia. This tree denotes stability, endurance and courage, says Proton, while in English it stands for heroic achievement, as well as a measurement associated with gold, and therefore representing a symbol of value. In China, the saga seeds have been a symbol of love, the carmaker said.
Staff Sergeant Ismail Jaafar was gifted a Proton Saga of his very own as a prize for his contest win, presented by the fourth prime minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on September 1, 1985. The car hasn’t remained in the household permanently, however, as Ismail sold the Saga in order to support the furthering of his children’s education as well as for the repayment of a home loan, Astro Awani reported.
Ismail passed away on January 12, 2018 at home, succumbing to health complications which included heart disease, kidney problems and diabetes, according to a report by The Star at the time. Before Ismail passed away, he had wished to track down the Saga which he had won from the naming contest due to its sentimental value, according to widow Sariah Abdul Rahman.
The Proton Saga seen in the gallery here is the Megavalve version introduced in 1990 with 1.3 litre and 1.5 litre 12-valve engines, larger grille openings, ‘Megavalve’ script and ‘Saga 12V’ badging, while safety kit was improved with a third brake light and rear three-point seat belts. This was followed by an all-new version in 2008, featuring a Intake Air-Fuel Module (IAFM) variable-length manifold-equipped 1.3 litre engine with either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic.
GALLERY: 1990 Proton Saga Megavalve
GALLERY: 2015 Proton Saga Plus
GALLERY: 2019 Proton Saga 1.3 Premium AT
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Who could ever forget the Saga? Up until this day, ppl still use to say “standard Gaban box Saga”.
MMC stickers were popularly plastered to the car, so to give the car extra “class”.
Nice artikel PT. Good old memories for our family car, 12megavalve and all. Watched local drama ‘Kereta Kita’ brought me happy tears~
Proton Saga is a good car. But unfortunately, Proton’s terrible management have made rakyat lost their trust towards Saga. This is why Proton became a Game Over carmaker and are forced to drain rakyat’s money just to do bailouts. But luckily today, Proton have Game-Changing Geely to survive. With Geely in charge, Proton are able to continue updating the Saga
PROTON. The SAGA continues!
We need an all new saga to compete with the all conquering bezzzzaa
for saga fl, those geely china engineers simply genius w superb build quality & that picanto 4at
Yeah, we Malaysian will never forget how the introduction of Proton affect our car market.
A few contracts on building the car (certain parts) is passed to family member of PM at that time.
https://paultan.org/2010/03/02/proton-showcases-the-emas-emas-country-and-emas3-trio-of-concepts-at-geneva-2010/
I am still waiting this Malaysian Hybrid car.
10 years i also get old already…
Boot Liter even 320-390L. not like Iriz 215L.
Proton Emas 2010 is a 1.2L PHEV 240Nm, equipped with 215R18
now, my dream is with DreamEdge….the 3rd National Car.
My mother did enter the ‘Name the National Car Contest’ and name it ‘Perdana’. But yeah Saga is the chosen one.
Still have a 1986 Orient (Orion) Engine around
In South Africa we find it difficult to find spare parts for these Proton cars. Please help or advise. Thanks!
this is the car that doomed our automotive industry.
before this, we had datsuns, toyotas, hondas, minis everywhere.
to protect this car maker, excise duties were introduced….
Then, we had Proton Knight kotak. Black colour with orange/reddish strips.
I remember the Proton Knight made public stunt that made the car driving on 2 wheels. Driven by Angmoh stunt team. Real fun and Malaysian thought they had their own Knight rider.
Alas, the Proton Knight didnt had the red light scanner thingy as standard. If not, surely laku like pisang gorreng panas.
Yup i oso rmmbr tt Angmoh lejen is Russ Swift.
And yet, UK refused to sell proton with Saga nameplate, instead went with just Proton.. And later Proton MPI.
My first car driven was a Proton Saga Megavalve. My first car during my early years working was an Iswara. And, to celebrate my son’s birth I bought a Saga FLX. So, the Saga basically runs in my blood.