My take on the new Proton Persona

Went over to Cineleisure today to check out our spanking new national car for year 2007, the Proton Persona.

This car is a very special car. It's the car that "promises to set off a snowball effect of recovery at Proton". Visit Proton Malaysia official website and it is written on it's main page: "Persona, Permata Hatiku, Our pride and joy". The Chairman of PROTON Holdings Berhad said: “We are extremely proud of this new product as it was built in accordance with PROTON’s new philosophy of producing the right car for the right market at the right price,”. They even advertised that: "Bookings exceeding 2,200 units have been received for the PROTON Persona, even before it was officially unveiled by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, with 350 cars already registered and delivered to customers nationwide upon launching.". Heck, they love their new car so much they even call the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to launch it!

So, everyone (or at least myself) expects this car to really turn heads, to be some kind of a milestone compared to all our previous models, to be so good that everyone would run out and purchase this car when they set eyes on it. Afterall, the marketing they did seems so impressive, purposely keep everyone in suspense, giving us little "teasers" on how the car look like. To sum it up, I expect it to be...competitive, new, to finally have a more foreign design and styling and quality!!


But on 15th August 2007, when they finally revealed the car, I was wrong.


I MEAN SERIOUSLY..WTH?? CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME IF THERE IS ANY OBVIOUS DIFFERENCE AT ALL COMPARED TO PROTON GEN-2??!!

Here is another look (the "live" unit)

!!


Even the back looks the same!!

Impressive? No, I'm being sarcastic. Let me tell you WHAT Proton actually did. All they did was add a chrome strip at the front intake grill, add yet another chrome strip to the back, add a boot space, change the layout to sedan style, and then RENAMED it to "Proton Persona"...and there you have it, a BRAND NEW NATIONAL CAR for year 2007, our nation's "Pride and Joy".


Fine, they add a boot in, wow!


Our nation's pride and joy? Oh my goodness! But I have to give them some credit, they have the cheek to advertised it as a brand new car. Yeah, new name more like it! Is there seriously no originality in our national car company? I wonder are there ANY Creative Designers or Engineers working in Proton, or has the directors neglect to hire quality desginers and engineers so that they can save cost, and at the end pocket more money for themselves?? Heck man, even the name itself is not even new, is actually used in the UK market to represent Proton Wira!! And I expected something more, new, nice, different..made with quality..to at least be competitive to even Kia or Hyundai!

Seriously speaking, HOW ON EARTH can this car "promises to set off a snowball effect of recovery at Proton"?? Is just an improved version of Proton Gen-2, with boot! The only customers I think it can attract is those people who are interested to buy the Gen-2, but thinking twice because of such small boot space and low roof line.

Personally I have nothing against the car itself, I think it's above average for it's given price tag of only RM44,999! It's cheaper and an improvement over the Proton Gen-2. My problem is only with the people behind this car. If they want to improve the Gen-2, then just do that and then remain it as the same name, or maybe just give it a code to show it is the newer sedan version! Or just call it "Gen-2 Sedan", what's wrong with it?? Don't go and rename the whole damn car and advertised it as though you're coming out with a whole brand spanking new car!! Absolutely misleading!


In conclusion, what Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson commented on Proton last time is true. He said that "It looks like it is made in the middle of a jungle clearing by people who doesn't care at all.". And he commented this on the original Proton Gen-2 when it first launched back in 2004!
-----

Anyway here are the remaining pictures I took of the car:


Same interior, but now with glove compartment.


Same Campro 1.6 engine


Same steering wheel. Same instrument panel. Same pillar A means same problem with blind spots. Oh, and same crap CD player, Air-Cond vent and Air-cond controls. How original.