An epic Saga - the Proton Story
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- čas přidán 24. 08. 2023
- I do CZcams community polls from time to time where you get to choose the subject of an upcoming video, and in a recent poll the Aston Martin Lagonda won with 30% of the vote, but a video on Proton Cars got 29% so it would be a crying shame if I didn’t also do that one, especially as you seemed to like the video on Daewoo. I remember Proton making a splash in the UK in the late 80s with the cheap and cheerful Saga, but then it seemed to disappear. Well, there’s a lot more to Proton than just that! They bought Lotus, and surprisingly were still selling cars in the UK in 2016, although no one probably realised it and certainly no one was buying the cars. Why did Proton try exporting around the world for decades while selling almost no cars, and what are they doing now?
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Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_...
ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTON_...
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www.carlist.my/news/30-years-...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Cars
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www.economist.com/business/19...
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_...
ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perodua
www.economist.com/business/20...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Agusta
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_X70
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_X50
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geely_H...
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www.malaymail.com/news/malays...
#bigcar - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Erratum: The Jumbuck was based on the Wira platform, not the Waja.
Taking BigCar2 was a good idea Andy!!! ;-0 Glad I banked this handle. _[a jumbuck is a young sheep btw]_
So, YT just ripped my 3x significant channels down for: "We have reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations of our spam, deceptive practices and scams policy." ???! Then they left my 48x other channels alone. Wtf?
Yes, I'm appealing tomorrow, after I sleep. 12 yrs, 10m views across 3x channels...I'm more than a bit gutted.
The instant removal of purely my 3x channels with >2k subs, simultaneously, whilst leaving the other 48x channels alone, points to malice by an individual.
My third channel hasn't even been sent an email - nah, it's has just vanished. My faith in yt actually doing anything is less than my faith in [insert random crap].
As I understand it, the Waja uses the same platform of the Volvo S40 of that era, but with a Mitsubishi engine and tranny
I'll never forget the moment my brother was waiting for the driving instructor to show up for the first lesson. He said " i don't care what car it is, as long as it's not a Proton". I fell about laughing when the car pulled up outside. 😂
lmao
Yep, I learnt to drive in one of these too! Indicators were on the wrong side.
@@davec200ithere’s no wrong side, it’s just a side you least prefer. The world doesn’t build everything for you!
@@tdub5776 it's not even about personal preference, I've driven plenty of cars over the last 20+ of driving, and with the exception of one car from 1970, all have had the indicator stalk on the same side.
@@davec200ithe cars in Cyprus have them the other side they drive on the left like we do in UK but every time I go there I forget I get in the hire car at the airport signal to pull out and the wipers come on😂
When Proton arrived in the UK, they were a breath of fresh air, selling something different, but they soon became just another box on wheels.
Werent they very annoying to drive ? I know they sold well in Australia but not much in Britain
@lvl100plusluxio pretty normal to drive, sold quite well to start with.
@@hybridAbsol drove like tin cans on wheels, except for the GTi and the Coupe.
@lvl100plusluxio
They were pretty normal to drive. But the steering was more than numb and the breaks were not the best. Strangely rust wasn't THAT much of a problem ...
@@hybridAbsol I have one of the first Aeroback's to be sold in the UK and it is surprisingly impressive to drive. It was sold as a budget car here but is far better than than a Ford Escort of the same era.
The Proton Saga has been made into a Hot Wheels car that will be hitting stores real soon, this is perfect timing.
DOUBT
@@hybridAbsolIt's already on the news, no surprise since Mattel has been in Malaysia for many years.
YOOO
bolehla aku kata kat kreta bapa aku kreta besi mainan😩🤣🤣🤣🤣
As a Malaysian this Is good for Collection Malay Miniature car
I worked for Proton in South Africa in 2010 for 6 months...I made next to no money, but I did get to read quite a few books while sitting in a dead dealership for 8 hours a day...
I sold more "foreign" cars than actual Protons, if I remember correctly I only managed to sell 4 brand new Protons...some very funny stories of guys using the mountains of unsold cars kept at one of the main dealerships for under the table businesses...one guy was running a side company offering cheap hire cars to foreign tourists, he`s simply disconnect the speedo cable, drive the car out of the storage yard and return the car after it was given back, nobody was doing any form of stock checks at the time so he got away with it for well over a year...
how did the guy get found out
What ashame, i was hoping Proton would do fine on Africa
@@hybridAbsolWell, with recent imports to the country under X70 and X50, hope it will
That the year my dad start sold our old Saga sedan because it too old now
Here in Malaysia there are basically 2 camps, you are either still blindly in love with Proton and Perodua, or you absolutely despise them for being cockblockers towards foreign car manufacturers due to the ridiculous high import taxes being imposed on foreign brands to protect these 2 local brands and yet these 2 local brands are still very complacent at building their cars to higher quality standards and introducing newer powertrain technologies that are actually practical and work as advertised, the further advancement of Malaysia's car industry has pretty much stagnated because of these 2 brands own self-satisfaction and their stronghold over the market share of total car sales making it not cost effective for foreign car manufacturers to make any serious investments here.
There's 3 camps, actually. The third one being you'd go "meh" at both sides.
Don't get me wrong, I actually like the idea of lowering whatever taxes that are imposed on international car brands to protect Proton and Perodua, because it forces those 2 to stop banging rocks together and get to work.
It's cool to see a little country have their own national car brands, but it'd a lot cooler if they actually made competitive cars!
It's kind of like South Korea though, but South Korea was a successful one. Both Proton and Perodua should learn from Hyundai-Kia
@@natecollins9331or maybe do something special like Holden (australian company)
I am in the 3rd camp, no Proton no Perodua..
gomen cucks thats proton.
Hello from Malaysia!
Allow me to correct several points in the video.
1. Proton stands for Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional (National Car Industry ).
2. It was true Mitsubishi avoided head on competition in Malaysia market but it did still sold commercial vehicles (L200, L100 and Pajero/Shogun) and other body style sedan like Galant and the sporty Cordia.
3. Waja has several meanings in the Malay language. For the car it means heart of bravery. Waja only shares the platform (in fact only engine and drive train) with Mitsubishi Carisma but the rest were all designed from ground up. No body panels are the same, even wheelbase is different.
4. Proton did very well in the UK during its first launched of Saga (known as Proton, Proton MPI and Proton MPI Triple valve). The one reason was because of the lowly selling price. Proton cars were about the same price to pay for a Skoda, Lada, Yugo, Seat and FSO in the late 80s but pretty much more modern. It was a generation behind the equivalent Mitsubishi Lancer, no issues there.
Problems came when Proton introduced the Persona and Satria. Proton was thinking those cars were better looking and technically modern so decided to sell those models closer to Ford Escort and Vauxhall Astra segment.
Proton was also slow in terms of catching up with market trend in UK. Unique-fit stereo head unit, engine immobiliser, visible VIN and diesel engines. Also late to introduce curtain airbags, stability control and start-stop technology. Also lacking in euro ncap scores. Good, bur not great.
The lack of brand image and poor resale value ushered prospect buyers away.
5. Proton Perdana did very well in Malaysia, especially the facelifted V6 variant with some suspension tuning by Lotus.
Perdana means Prime.
The second generation though had a totally new body shell even though using an older Honda Accord mechanicals.
6. Proton Jumbuck (Proton Arena in Malaysia) was based on modified Proton Wira/Persona platform, not Waja.
7. The second generation Proton Saga was totally new inside out, based on stretched Proton Savvy platform. Its not just an update of the first Saga.
Saga is one of best selling cars in Malaysia at any given in the past 35 years, similar to Britain's love for the Ford Fiesta. Except that, hatchbacks were not very popular here until 10 years ago.
8. The first facelifted Exora was called Exora Bold. It received a new turbocharged Campro engine (different displacement and Variable Valve Timing) and a new automatic transmission (CVT instead of 4 speed conventional torque converter type). But along the line few updates came and that's when the term Minor Change was used. It didnt qualify as a facelift.
9. A fellow youtuber from UK (Stephanie Holloway from IDRIVEACLASSIC channel) who loves classic cars managed to find a pristine Proton Iswara (MPI Triple Valve in UK) that was kept in a barn for 10 years.
The car won NEC UK classic car category competition recently.
10. A company in the UK known as Mellors Elliot Motorsport was involved in preparing the Satria S2000 some 10-15 years ago.
So much they like Proton cars in terms of chassis rigidity and natural handling, MEM got itself several Proton Iriz direct from Malaysia and converted those to compete in British Rally Championship and 5 Nations British Rallycross as well.
It won several times including Goodwood Rally Stage (and also Grizedale) beating other cars from Ford, VW, Peugoet and Citroen.
I am a big fan of yours.
Props on the detailed post
This is the best detailed information I've seen in this comment section so far
I wish we had Protons in Algeria, they look like fun reliable little cars and we could've turned some of them into Evos/rally cars
@@ImadHadjersi hi. How car company works - normally the manufacturer is known as the principal.
They will look for local based company to be as appointed distributor. This company will handle matters involving Ministry of Transport or Road Transport Department.
The company will also set up showroom outlets (as well as service & parts) or authorise some dealerships. It will also handles tax payment to the government, if any. Marketing and advertisement, vehicle stocking, transportation, parts warehouse, warranty claims and to a certain extent - vehicle specifications.
Cars in UK are different to what we got in the home soil.
For example the first Saga we only got 2 trim levels - standard S (for Sederhana) and higher special I (for Istimewa, not injection).
UK cars got GE, GL, GLS, SE and various special editions.
We don't mind having heater (there is no winter in Malaysia and rarely temperatures go below 28°C.)
But UK cars come specified with sunroof, and fuel injected engines . We have to make do with carburettors until 1998.
For Wira/Persona, again most of cars made available to us was GL spec. UK got GLS, SR while 1.6 has 2 trim levels (XLi, EXi) and 2 airbags plus ABS. We got nothing. Bare models .
For Waja UK cars got minimum 4 airbags. The cars we received were standard specs until 2006 onwards when we finally got twin airbags in some high end varians (1.6E, 1.6 CPS).
So if you do have several million euros or perhaps a funder for the same, i am sure we can work out a deal to bring Proton cars to Algeria in left hand drive mode.
To juice it up, maybe another Malaysia brand as well. Known as Perodua, with Daihatsu mechanicals and body.
We also have moped bikes/scooters manufacturer called Modenas (quite popular in Greece). We can arrange for this as well. :)
Terbaik!
Protons are still quite common here in Norfolk. They had a good network of dealers In rural and places like Cromer. They sponsored Norwich City and made a huge deal about the Lotus ownership. I believe they offered a discount to Lotus employees.
I think for your sales figures, most Protons can be found in Norfolk.
Very likely!
@@BigCar2
You still see quite a few floating around Hull, East Yorkshire, Scunthorpe and Grimsby, due to Humberside Police using the Wira, Persona and Gen2 etc, as both marked patrol/response and unmarked CID vehicles. After their operational service came to an end many were auctioned off for civilian use. Almost the entire fleet was converted to run on LPG, so they made an ideal purchase for the more "thrifty" motorist looking for a cheap, no nonsense runner. They made for a rather interesting site when they first hit the streets lol!
I got about 10^25 protons in my body, so that's pretty common, I would say.
What a coincidence! This 31st August is Malaysia's independence day. Thanks bro.
Regards, a Fellow Malaysian.
Proton arrived in my country (South Africa) this year and they seem like really good modern cars. They fit right in with all the more established brands
Another incompetent, subordinate 3rd world country constantly ingratiating themselves to big brother Japan for profits and yet they failed. And now having to cooperate with the Chinese, should give up
😂
The Proton cars exported to South Africa are actually rebadged Geely cars.
Do you mean the rebadged Geely models or the designed by Proton models?
@@funofboredom the Geelys (Proton X50 and X70)
Really enjoyed this video, can’t believe I forgot they existed beyond the 1990s in the UK!
If they go down the EV route, they’ll be missing a trick if they don’t name their car the Proton Electron…
😂
😂 proton electron neutron
@@bernu7324they'd be naming their carbon neutral cars Proton Neutron
I am Pakistani, staying in 🇲🇾 Malaysia near two decades. I like to say, Proton is not only a brand name, it's a "Romance". (Same with Petronas)
Happy Independence Day 🇲🇾🎉🇲🇾
My family owned a 1995 Proton Persona 1.5 GLI (The Wira was called Persona in Chile) for 25 years.
It was such an extremely good car for a cheap prize, it even looked better than the Lancer and the cheapest and popular Nissan Sentra V16, cause it had the Mitsubishi Colt frontal lights, and the Mitsubishi Galant brake lights.
It didn't feel miserable cheap with a generic gray plastic, it was blue, the dashboard and everything had this soft rubber/fake leather texture everywhere that feel quite decent, and it was compatible with a lot of Mitsubishi and Hyundai aftermarket car parts.
It was cheap, good looking and reliable! We did a lot of travels through Chile and Argentina and never let us down.
We ended up selling with 250.000+ km.
Greetings from Chile!
Now u need is to get the 4g63T or 4g93 motor. U can source dat from a wreck Galant VR4, Lancer EVO 1, 2, 3 or Lancer GSR(4g93t) .... the Mirage CyborgR(4g92) is 1.6 MiVEC@170hp .... Fun Fact - it's practically straight up engine swap .... u can take the stock 4g15 and turn it into a coffee table😊
I'm from Chile too, and at the time, the Persona was looked even as a luxurious option in our market (thanks to its generous specification) because of the luxury tax that affected cars at the time
I am currently in Argentina, and I had owned Proton Savvy in Thailand before. Unfortunately Proton cars are totally not available in Argentina, I'm emvious😚
Loved the fake leather/rubber interior. It used to build up a lot of static charge and as a kid I used to play with it by grazing my forearm near it and watch and feel as the static gave me goosebumps whilst my dad was driving.
🇲🇾❤️🇨🇱
The Jumbuck Ute was quite popular in Australia. It’s safety was appalling but the cost was pretty irresistible.
I just commented elsewhere that Gardeners my Mother had do her lawn were using a Jumbuck. Something like a modern L200 just wouldn't fit on many peoples drives.
@@MrDuncl small Ute are 👍 for so many tradies and heck the new Ford Maverick hybrid is my dream car
I saw one on the road just before Covid in Sydney
Someone I knew, bolted a CC Lancer front end on his. Which of course, is what it was based on.
@@Grumpy-sy7wr yes. I’ve seen Proton Wira kitted with Mitsubishi Lancer nose job. The driver would likely had totalled the front end in a collision
I remember when Proton owned Lotus and sponsored Lotus' local football club, Norwich city. The Proton badge would be on the home kit whilst Lotus would grace the away shirt.
I think some other teams have done this - I'm sure Subaru and Isuzu shared Coventry City's shirts at one point.
Having lived in Coventry I will believe this immediately without verifying your claim!
Wasn't International Motors at one point the sole importer in the UK for both Subaru and Isuzu?
Proton sold cars in Australia from 1995 to 2017 and was Protons second largest export market with 35,000 sales, behind the UK. We also received a few Protons that were never sold in the UK, like the Preve sedan, Suprima S hatch and the Exora MPV. The Jumbuck ute was one of their best selling vehicles in Australia.
There was talk of re-launching Proton in Australia in 2020/2021, but then of course the world got sick!
I think there was also Manual Transmission option for Suprima S hatchback in Australia, that were never available elsewhere , not even in Malaysia.
The Auto (CVT) model was terrible, that jerks / whines / gutless.
@@Funktastico I went looking for that information, but from what I could find is that the Suprima S hatch and the Preve sedan were only available with a 7spd CVT transmission in Australia, I couldn't find any manual transmissions, not to say that there wasn't one, but I'd have to do some more research.
Indonesia got the Exora, my dad bought one in Blue Eye color and Supreme trim, you still can see them driving around
@@iEnofadovThey only had CVTs for the 1.6L Turbo engines, the 1.6L NA engines did have manual versions. But the manual transmissions are not plug and play with the Turbocharged engine and requires an adapter/modifications to the transmission to be used with the turbo engine. A few people had manual swapped the Turbo version, but they did not explain how they did it.
The CVTs are acceptable and reliable, as long as you take care of it. With the vehicle completely stock, it is able to get up to 180km/h easily. After a remapping and removing the limiter, it is able get over 200km/h. I have witnessed a Preve police cruiser keeping up with a Nissan GTR on the Malaysian highway (I assume the GTR had a bad driver), but after some time it overheated and stopped chasing not long after.
Meanwhile Proton (together with some other car brands e.g. Chery & Geely) stopped selling cars in neighbouring Singapore in around 2013 as car taxes were hiked then & thus their cars were no longer cheap, their main selling point in that country
interesting story indeed. I'm not surprised us viewers polled Proton so high, most of us are here in the UK and we love an underdog don't we 🙂
We had 2 Saga 1500's the first was hit by a drunk driver and protected myself / family very well. The second we kept for 8 years, it served us well and was our main car.
Proton was also involved in motogp, starting in 2002 with the KR3 (essentially a rebranded Modenas KR3) and ending in 2005 with the KR5, ran under the team roberts banner
Oh yeah they did. I forgot about those three cylinder two-stroked bikes.
I lived briefly in kuala Lumper back in 1992 when I was a kid. These cars were absolutely everywhere. There badges glowed a green or blue colour and at night it looks like fireflies sat between headlights going down motorways and roads 😂
Here's how the steering in a Proton Saga works. You twirl the wheel as fast as possible and a whisk at the end of the steering column stirs up a box of yoghurt connected to the front axle. When the yoghurt is spinning sufficiently, centrifugal force rotates the box and the wheels turn.
Just checked Autotrader. There are currently only 14x Protons for sale on there in the UK (7x Savvy, 2x GEN-2 and 2x 'Proton', obviously none are new), with only one being an automatic. The oldest is from 1991, newest from 2013.
Proton sold virtually no cars in the UK by 2014 and effectively stopped selling any cars here. They are a very rare sight now, particularly the Impian saloon which was a poor seller from the start.
@@smhorse Sales also collapsed in Australia after Proton shifted from modified older Mitsubishi designs to their own designs, with Proton similarly leaving the Australian market.
I just did the same. To put things in context there are 27 E type Jags.. Until recently the Gardeners my Mother had do her lawn were using a Jumbuck. That is one vehicle there isn't a modern equivalent to.
"That is one vehicle there isn't a modern equivalent to." There's a few available in South Africa and Brazil, but not in the UK. 😔 VW Saveiro, Renault Oroch etc.
@@smhorseI'd hazard a guess 80% of Impian sales were to Humberside police
I remember the day I saw a Proton for the first time.
It was in 1985 if I recall correctly. A blue sedan that was beautifully porportioned.
From an Era Malaysians thought the future was bright and ours to own.
Protons fortunes is one that describes Malaysia a nation as a whole.
Wasted potential and broken dreams all the way.
Yeah, true. Malaysia had an enormous economic growth in the 80s and 90s, but it seemed to make their government a bit over-confident. They thought Malaysia would become the next Japan and become a major force in world economy. But sadly, the Malay government seemed to invest more in questionable vanity projects than in further development of the nations' economy: The Proton car company, the Petronas twin towers (then the highest building in the world), the Sepang race track, which hosted the Malaysia Formula 1 Grand Prix, the first F1 race in Asia outside Japan, etc. And what has become of all of that? Proton became a joke of a car company that is struggling even in its home market, the Formula 1 Grand Prix is long gone, and not much was heard of Malaysia in the rest of the world ever since. At the same time, other nations like South Korea and Vietnam showed how to do it right and really became economically successful and also successfully export cars now.
Now that Proton is under Geely, it seems like they're starting all over again. Back in the 80's, they were dependent on Mitsubishi, and now, they're dependant on Geely. It seems that future Proton models from now are going to be Geely rebadges. As a Malaysian, I'm not too keen on this. To me, Proton makes malaysian cars. That means cars that are developed by malaysians and designed by malaysians. But I understand that they're now in a recovery process. When Geely bought them in 2017, it really seems like they've got absolutely nothing left. I've heard some rumours regarding Proton EV models that Proton are going to develop it themselves. But to me, that is near impossible. If Proton were to make their own EV models, it'd most likely be like the Waja. The chassis would be derived from Geely, but everything else is made by Proton, and designed by Proton. For me, that's more like it. If Proton is truly committed to become a global player, the EV industry could be their future and now they've got a lot of time to carefully plan out and prepare for their "big break". Hopefully, that'll happen.
"made in malaysia" was what got proton into trouble. and it wasn't even design by malaysian, lotus in uk did alot of the design work.
@@lagrangewei well "made in (south) Korea" used to be something the western consumers frown upon... But eventually, they proved themselves with the quality of their products. If they can do it, why can't malaysians?
Satria Gti. Good bang for your buck back in the day and a popular car with rally drivers too. I was always impressed when these pocket rockets went by on a rally stage. I bet there aren't many of these tucked away. Could be a niche collectors 'car of the people' in the future, like a 205 gti etc.
I have always fancied one, they look brilliant fun but I still suffer from PTSD from owning 2 MGZR’s and the visual similarities are frightening!
Many of these pocket rocket drivers ended up 6 foot under
Wished the Satria Gti had more power to rival the likes of Honda Civic Type R or Toyota Celica SS
@@hybridAbsol They actually can rival the Civic type R and is frequently tuned in Malaysia for drag races in Sepang Circuit. Since the Satria was bassed off a Mitsubishi platform, the Evo engines (4g63) were frequently fitted to these satrias. Plus they are wayy lighter than the civic and celicas. So the bhp to tonne ratios is off the charts when you have a 900kg car.
I had an early 80s Saga in the late 90s, here in NZ. Everybody took the piss and mocked me for it, but it never missed a beat and after 2 years I did a swap with a guy for a 1986 Suzuki SJ413, ragtop, with a stuffed motor. Many hours and about $1000 parts, materials and machining, later I had the best little off-roader, freshly painted, new vinyl screens and refurbished top. Value, ~$4500-5000.
The guy who got the Proton was still happy with it a couple of years later. He’d been asking $1500 for the little jeep but nobody had bitten and he was desperate for some wheels. $1500 was $50 more than I paid for the Saga and, as I had time on my hands and access to a motor mechanic’s workshop, I decided to rebuild the engine myself. That was 24 years ago. It’s a farm hack with a neighbour, now and still not burning oil. Proud of that because I’m not a mechanic, and I did the whole thing from Haynes.
The coolest thing about this video is that it was posted 10 hours after I arrived in Kuala Lumpur for the first time ever and had to look up what a Proton Saga was because I had never seen or heard of them!
Please share what was your impression after seeing proton’s car on the road. Be honest.
@@adenur9469 Why you sounded so forceful lmao
In the early 2000s our family dealership sold Proton's however they were not a great success, funnily enough the Proton Jumbuck (Pickup) was the best seller! 😂
We used to have 2 original Proton 1.5 courtesy cars and you couldn't kill them, one came back broken down. It had no oil and no water in it and the camshaft had broken. We stuck a 2nd hand camshaft in it, filled up the water and oil and the thing was still going 2 years later as I left that business.
Big Car, I really love everyone of your videos. You do a real good job. My only complaint is you are not releasing videos every day. The audacity to not be a one man power house cranking out daily content.
Sarcasm. Love your stuff.
He really is slacking, isn't he? 😂
Oh yes he is, I mean as a patron I pay 1 €/month, and for that his low output is outrageous
Pure sarcasm....
I remember the Satira GTi being kindof desirable back in the day, must have been the fake bolt-on wheel arches
Correct but lacking in power against other hot hatches like Escort XR3i then Focus RS/ST, VW Golf GTi Mk.III, Citroen ZX 16v, Renault 19 16v, Renault Clio Williams, Peugoet 206 GTi, Peugoet 306 GTi-6 and even Seat Leon GTi.
All these cars were producing anything between 170-220bhp while Satria GTi only had a lukewarm 137bhp.
@@fauzanriez9472yes but you can swap a 4g63t from an evo in a satria, along with the 4wd system
Satria was the derivative of Mitsubishi Colt 3-door hatchback for metro errands.
It's still a popular car for rallying and motorsports as early Lancer parts bolt straight on. You can do a full swap with early Lancer Evolution running gear if so inclined, apparently.🙂
@@fauzanriez9472
That's less of a problem in Australia market where the only competition in the same price bracket was grey-imported EG-Series Civic SiR, and the used 4G63 were somewhat available back then.
You can get 400hp at the front wheel after the swap, but the mechanic won't say if you will live afterward.
I liked how Proton entered the Chinese market and branded their cars as a Lotus, despite never having a sportscar model, just the regular hatchbacks. They even went rallying as a Lotus branded team, who also did stunt driving demonstrations in between events in the hatchbacks.
With so many donor manufacturers it must be a nightmare keeping a parts warehouse - with many manufacturers they will sensibly re-use all kinds of parts in different models.
My late grandfather had a proton when I was growing up. It was one of those old 1.3 GL hatchbacks. A 1994 model. Lovely shade of gold, tartan cloth interior, one spoke steering wheel and it had the name Proton stamped in the middle of the wheeltrims. I loved it. I was so gutted when he sold it. He had for 12 years and he loved it. Best car and most reliable car he ever had. Still remains as my favourite model of Proton of all time.
Chile was one of the LHD export markets for Proton. We received the Wira as the Persona (4 door) and Natura (5door). The Satria made it here in limited numbers. All came to a halt in 1998 when Proton suddenly exited the chilean market where it made a good impression: it was, basically, a cheaper, better equipped Mitsubishi Lancer.
However, it isnt the end of the story of Proton in Chile: in 2016, Proton came back with a LHD version of the Prevé, the first (and AFAIK, the only) market to receive a LHD Prevé, hoping that people remembered the good image that the brand left in the country. The adventure lasted until 2019, sales were a disaster due to high pricing and not being a novelty anymore, compared to Chinese brands. They exported a batch of 50 Prevés to start, hoping to export 1000 the following year. However, they sold in Chile 128 cars in three years, and quietly left the market, without anyone even caring
I'm from Germany, and Protons were sold here until the late 90s as well. Proton seems to have left all lhd markets at that time, that would explain why in Europe they only remained on sale in the UK after that.
I was a kid back in the 80s down in Kuala Lumpur, the proton saga was the only car with a enlightened car logo ! In my mind then it was more astonishing than seeing a rare import car. Although proton might not have been the best car out there, it surely gave that nation pride in those first years. Later on in the 90s I moved back to Europe and all of a sudden my neighbour pops up with one proton 315? Rebadged mitsubishi colt If I am not mistaken.....good old days....
I had a proton for a couple of weeks when I was a manager at Asda in the 90's, some horrendous blue colour. It was cheap inside even by the standards then but it went well and really wasn't a bad car to drive. I did a lot of miles in it and it was pretty decent on fuel.
Thank you for telling the world about the history of our first National Car ~ a Malaysian. 🇲🇾 👍😃
Do the Rover 600 next. Always been fascinated how Rover managed to turn what was essentially 100% a Honda product into something so quintessentially British looking with relatively few changes. They even won a Design Council Award for their efforts.
There was a major fuss within Honda when they saw how much better looking the 600 was than their equivalent Accord. it would have been even better if we could have done more with the interior design. Honda put lots of design limitations on Rover but the SK2/Synchro diesel version allowed more flexibility.
@@thomasfrancis5747 Yeah, Honda was stung quite badly by Europe and the UK's lukewarm reaction to the Accord's exterior design, which compared poorly to the almost rapturous response to the 600. I'm pretty certain that's why they placed even stricter limitations on the HH-R Rover 400.
I really like the styling of all but the earliest models. especially the unique rooflines!
I remember going to the British car exhibition in Birmingham in 1988 (I think might have been 1989) with my father (ex REME) and him pointing out the poor welding of the car . Another great video…
Wow! I had no idea Proton produced so many different models of cars; I always associated them with the earlier Mitsubishi Lancer based sedans. I think it was probably a good thing they never rebadged the Iriz supermini as a Lotus - remember the Aston Martin Cygnet?
Still driving a 27-year-old Wira, though only for light duty. Brings a smile to my face, more often than modern cars of its class.
We used to have a 1992 Proton GLS in green, I fucking loved that little thing, dad paid 80 quid for it in 2002 and we didnt get rid of it till 2017, lovely little car and I still have the key for it
I didn't realise Proton had been on sale for that long in the UK, but kudos for keeping this story positive. I mean, it was Proton. 🙂
Well, they officially remained on sale in the UK until about 2016, but they literally sold almost no cars anymore. The last official sales numbers in the UK could be counted on one had. At least, in the UK and Australia, they might hold the record for the car brand that managed to stay for the longest time despite selling almost no cars and never being really popular.🤣🤣 And at the same time, Hyundai, KIA and now even Chinese brands are selling cars by the millions. I will never understand how Proton never managed to realize their full potential and become as bis as their Japanese and Korean competitors.
I remember Chris Goffey's 1991 review on Old Top Gear wondering if the "aquarium" under the rear seat was an optional extra.
Clarkson, on Proton's ad line "Think of it as your first Lotus" remarked "No, don't think of it as your first Lotus, think of it as your last Proton"
I owned a gen 2 since 2007. Great reliable little car
My family owned Exora since 2011
I bought a new Proton in 1987 (uk), it was good value for money.
A neighbour of mine bought a 1.3 saloon in the very late ‘80s, and said it was only marginally more expensive than buying essentially the same car secondhand in the form of a used Mitsubishi Lancer. Add to that the warranty you got from Proton, the ability to get the spec/colour you wanted, and the “new reg”, and it was, in his words, a “no brainer” to buy a Proton.
At that point I don’t think they had a model name - they were just Protons. Retrospectively they were called MPi s - especially when the Persona arrived alongside, with a model name.
we had the left hand drive proton wira back in the mid 90s in the philippines, produced by a local assembly plant.
I remember that Gen2 appeared in the Iranian market for a couple of years, if I'm not wrong, it is even assembled there for a while. It was quite successful at first mostly due to outdated cars in the market and no foreign car allowed in Iran, but then failed miserably mostly due to reliability issues and cost of maintenance. They shut down the line and even closed most of the service centers which caused more problems for those who purchased the car.
My Granddad owned a Persona from '96 or so, I remember once it had gone for a service and he had a Saga as a day courtesy car. The Persona had power steering, the Saga didn't so we almost drove into a stationary bus as he turned in expecting the power steering!
What you didn't mention was the incredible price of even most basic parts in uk. I recall a tail light lens costing merc s class money!!!
UK variants have the sunroof while Malaysian variant don't have one. I'm still remember that Haynes also relased repair guide for Proton Saga with its front page showing its UK variant of car model.
Also note that Proton was really active in rally in the 90's where they took Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III and then modified to make their own rally car dubbed "Proton PERT". Later, they did a homologation version of Proton Wira equipped with 1800cc DOHC engine with taller spoilers. Some say that the F1 champion, Michael Shumacher did once driven the homologation version of Proton Wira. Proton also once have some sort of engineering talents back then, however their engineering technology seems too advanced for Malaysian people, and people are now sought after those discontinued models.
Speaking about rally, Mellors Elliot racing team still using Proton for their racing machine despite Proton was no longer exists in UK or other parts of Europe.
My Dad worked for Sleightholmes in Trowbridge back in the mid - late 1990s, who were Proton dealers, and he bought Mum a 1st gen Persona. Wiltshire Police used Protons as their patrol cars at the time as well. My work uniform was a pale blue shirt with navy blue tie, and every time i borrowed Mum's Persona (which was rather often due to my Cortina needing work), I'd get loads of BMWs, Audis, and boy racers start to overtake in inappropriate places, then suddenly back out of the manoeuvre.
Was a good car with the 1.8 engine, although the interior trim / fit and finish left something to be desired.
Thanks for posting this! I remember Proton in the car magazines but it never reached the USA. It must be regaining a sudden resergence after Steph at "I Drive a Classic" acquired a barn find, while Hot Wheels is apparently introducing one for the 2024 line of cars. The sharp and angled styling really resonates with me because it is very 1980s looking with hints of Audi. And Mitsubishi was turning out some decent product at the time, so its technology would be a big boost for the burgeoning Malaysian car industry.
Hot Wheels is actually going to make a diecast version of this car in the future!
They did! They made a first-gen Saga, and it looks quite neat. I bought it since I always wanted a Proton for my model car collection, and this is probably the first and only model ever produced of a Proton.
The challenge started when executives at Proton decided to make cars that they thought could be cool, but not what the people wanted. My family had the Proton Tiara (AX) as a cheap second car. It was an interesting car, but the built quality and reliability were terrible, not forgetting spare parts was a huge issue even in our home market. The era since the Tiara was a period where Proton kept churning out model after model that didn't necessarily fulfill what the local market was looking for and faced stiff competition from Perodua. Built quality was a serious issue and instead of listening to the market and fixing the problems, they went and made more of the same mistakes. However, we did buy a Proton Persona when it was first launched, purely because it was affordable. The car turned out to be very reliable, not the best drive, but decent albeit a bit weak with the 1.6 Campro engine. My family kept the car till today as a spare car, and after spending MYR8k to totally overhaul it and giving it a new coat of paint, it drives like a new car now, with the same original interior upholstery, rims, and body parts. Geely is probably the best thing that could happen to the brand, but by now I've moved on to collecting modern classic Mercedes-Benz.
As an ex owner of a Persona Elegance, I can attest that the ride and handling were better than the current gen Honda CIty, Toyota Vios and even the Civic FC. The chassis was good, only to be let down by the lethargic engine and further limited by a 4-speeder auto gearbox.
Having owned a Saga Iswara myself as well as my family before me, it’s a good day as a Malaysian to see any mention of us out there. To this day, I still insist the OG Saga introduced in 1985 the best looking Proton model ever. I doubt Geely would catch on to the ever growing trend of retro-inspired designs because honestly a modern reboot of the Saga based on the original boxy Fiore look would have been sensational.
As for today’s car culture here, the Proton brand gets a lot of flak even with the Geely takeover. Just like its previous owner, the constant quality issues and expensive OEM parts put Proton behind the more affordable and refined Perodua models. In turn, it gave way to Perodua Myvi as the de-facto national car for its attractive styling, affordable price, fuel-sipping economy, and it’s appearance in many incidents and memes.
I came here expecting a detailed history of Proton, but hearing more towards its impact to Malaysia and outside pleasantly surprised me. Thanks for covering that.
I had a Wira 1.6A with the dreaded auto transmission. As it turned out, it was not the tranny issue. It was Proton cutting corners by downsizing the ATF cooler at the bottom of the radiator
Another well presented, well researched video, bravo!
I love your videos. Up there with the best car content on CZcams and reliably watchable. We have to wait for new uploads, but it's always worthwhile. Thank you.
I had a Proton 1.5 Mpi. I bought it at three years old for a third of the new price. It was very economical and i drove it all over europe. Alesys slightly concerned about finding a garage tgat coild fix it, but it never broke down. Its not the best car i have ever owned, but it was the most "satisfactory". I had it for four or five years and got more than 50% of my money back!
We inherited a Gen-2 from my father in law, it handled brilliantly but it was let down by cheap interior and equipment.
Been waiting for this! Thank you for covering Proton!
I often use Proton as an example of what I think will happen to many of the new Chinese brands appearing on sale. I have been looking at the U.K. Newspaper archive and it is surprising how much Proton spent on advertising in the mid 1990s. Around the same time the local Nissan dealer switched to Proton. Like you said it all seemed to fizzle out and today there are only 14 Protons for sale on Autotrader U.K. At least they beat Lada who have just two cars. To put things in context there are 27 E type Jags.
We used to get Protons in Oman as well until the mid 2000s. In fact, my first road trip to Dubai in 2002 was in a beige color Proton Wira driven by my dad's friend.
I understand the UK has made some sort of trade deal with Malasia. As I remember Proton and I still see a little Savy now and again .Will we ever see the Proton x50 and x70 in the UK.I hope so as I want one.
very nice to see you finally do a video on the topic of Malaysian automakers, hoping to see another one on Perodua soon!
I'm so happy that one of my favourite youtubers made a video of my country's car brand!
Protons are good cars, my dad bought a 2012 exora bold coz his kia spectra broke and he's gonna have his 3rd child. and it served us well. We went everywhere with it and it's a very reliable car. My dad sold it in 2019 for a serena impul due to our family getting bigger. My aunt still has a 2013 saga flx that's still going strong today, same goes for my uncle's exora!
Here in malaysia(at least at my state) the first gen proton saga and proton iswara are pretty much an everyday driven tank. New spare parts still being manufactured here and there. Everything will be just fine with regular service and maintenance but in my experience the weakest spot is the radiator especially newer plastic radiators for these oldies
I'm glad I discovered you channel.
Many interesting videos packed with information.
You can see that you really put a lot of work into finding information and historical data.
Thank you and much enthusiasm for the future.
Happy New Year from the Czech Republic 🙏💪
Another wonderfully comprehensive and entertaining video.
2:00 As recent as 2017- the last time I was in Malaysia- you could still find first-generation Sagas working as taxis.
8:45 I think of Michael Palin as Cæsar in "Life of Brian" whenever I see a Waja on the road when I'm in Malaysia: "Whom would you have me welease?"
The Crodw: Welease WAJA!
9:40 you still see the odd Proton Jumbuck- a 19th century Aussie term for a sheep- on the roads here.
I'd love to see a video on Malaysia's "second car" company, Perodua, and what the competition within Malaysia was between it and Proton.
Perfect timing while I'm chilling out in Johor Bahru!
i remember my father own the 1st generation Saga. it was quite reliable other than the power window. Like many Malaysians, my father has high hopes towards Proton but ultimately led down by the quality problem.
Nice to see the potted history neatly summarised. As someone who spends a couple of weeks in Malaysia every year or two, I regularly find myself trying to work out which new models have appeared or been updated and which are based on other manufacturers' models. Not easy when they have a habit of all being very similar (the 2007 line-up in this video gives a good indication) and often seem to be minor updates or variations re-badged with new names. Especially when you add another batch from Perodua...
Thanks for making this video. The 1st car that I owned was the Putra (the coupe) which had a Mitsu 4G92 Mivec engine swap. I miss that car but had to let it go in the mid 2000s due to it breaking down constantly
4:59 I used run an ex-Humberside Police 1.8 Coupé! S456PKH. Gorgeous car, bought for £650, circa 2006. 3 years later I stuffed in the front end, sold for £125 scrap! MOTs were just pads and/or tyres. Sadly missed 😥
The hatchback and the saloon were sold by Mitsubishi in Germany as Colt and Lancer respectively. Apart from the grille the Proton vehicles looked the same. This seemed to have continued as you showed a newer Colt that was also built by Proton
Never stop.
A Rover 600 video would be great as well!
Proton's story was really a testament for a company, who despite more than 30 years but still being resilient to produce cars....
Sure the newest one is a Chinese based Geely but I hope they do make their own homegrown developed cars once again and not making the same mistakejust like in the past, all I can say is that I hope they do compete once again and export more...
They have a potential despite how hard it is to build and sell cars...
As a American who lived in Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur , I drove Saga (Third Gen), and it is despite looks cheap. It is really a good quality and reliable though ...
As a Malaysian, we should've done what the Hyundai did, and a much better CEO, same as Perodua
Proton is a flop, look at how Korea did their car programs. Proton just served to screw over the import cars.
@@SiPakRubah Then Good luck, both Proton and Perodua should have a Potential to compete 👍
Did you missed the part in the video where he mentioned that the Malaysian market is simply not big enough? Proton got into a lot of trouble when they cut ties with Mitsubishi and started designing all their own cars. The market was simply not big enough for them to sell enough units to recoup the development costs on the new platforms and engines.
This was made worse when a second "local manufacturer" (Perodua) appeared and took the majority of the market away. The problem was compounded when ASEAN rules forced the duties to be lowered somewhat. This meant now Hondas and Toyotas manufactured in Thailand and Indonesia started to compete in the same budget segment.
Proton today only have a tiny percentage of the new car market in Malaysia, compared to about 20 years ago. If they couldn't make it work back then, it's even harder now.
Perodua has been more successful than Proton by far. They save a lot of money by simply rebadging everything from Daihatsu with minor changes for the Malaysian market. And after Toyota bought Daihatsu, rebadging Toyotas as well. You'll never guess how I found out the Perodua Aruz is just a rebadged Toyota Rush. The salesman at a Toyota showroom told me! At that point, I hadn't decided on what model to go for. So after giving me a brief overview over most of the cars in the showroom, I pointed to one he had skipped. _Oh, that's the Rush. The Aruz from Perodua is basically the same car. They don't have our 360 camera, but theirs is RM20k cheaper. You don't want to pay 20% more for that._
Great video, as always! Still hope you do one on the Lagonda!
I knew proton existed, but never heared of of their in-house models. Thanks for the video.
What's crazy to me is that Protons were sold in the UK. Did they went through all the efforts to make the cars meet ECE homologation or did Proton use some low-volume manufacturer loophole?
The Lotus purchase sound reasonable to me. Lotur, just like Porsche was an engineering consulting company. When Proton wanted to get away from manufacturing Mitsubishi clones and make their own platforms and engines they probably didn't had the R&D capabilities to do so. Buying struggeling Lotus and having Lotus engineers help in the process was probably a cost and time effective solution.
The only issue was, whilst Lotus was an engineering consulting company, the engine part was never its forte. They did not even have their in-house engine for their own lines!
thanks for covering Proton!
tho it must be said that it started out as a very promising venture with a dedicated workforce...
(like other Malaysian govt-linked companies like Malaysia Airlines)
...mismanagement, poor/brash financial & leadership decisions, cronyism in their spare parts supply chain, & an over-reliance on govt protection stagnated their growth/innovation.
a good reference point would be pre-Top Gear Hammond's old Men&Motors videos on the Satria Gti & Waja (which highlights the very optimistic outlook of Proton's UK exports)
...fast forward a few years later & the same Hammond, (with Clarkson & May on TG) absolutely roasts the hell out of that years' Proton export offerings🤣
hopefully the Geely takeover provides an inroad to EV tech & infrastructure, but i think on Geely's part the main goal was just to secure Lotus itself & Proton's huuuge (underutilised) Tanjung Malim factory complex hahah
I'm not sure when Proton sale started to drop but I think 1 of them was when DS Anwar (before jailed) open it mouth about 1 of GOV Secret tax collected on Proton. 100% of Proton sales tax out of factory costs. It stirs shock that most people have payed nearly 180% of price for the car from a factory out-taxed plus interest on bank loans, while they use very cheap, low quality material with exemption tax import components. From that day on, Proton as National Pride Car maker, started to shift. Most of it felt cheated.
During the 1990s I drove a lot of Wiras and Satrias as rental cars whilst travelling in Singapore and Malaysia. When new they were okay, but did not wear well and it was clear that they were just Mitsubishis under the skin, without the Japanese build quality.
Thanks for a great video. It certainly allowed me to reminisce a little. I actually owned 4 Protons (UK) over a number of years. Two of them were the Wira models of which one was written off in an accident. The airbags went off and my drivers one certainly protected me from more serious injury. I had the sporty Coupe (from new) which had excellent Ricaro seats, I owned that for about three years and it was a decent little car, but it had poor petrol consumption, I think it was around 23 to the gallon around town--very poor by todays standards. They were all reliable cars but those early models do look incredibly antiquated now, but of course they were of the time. Great to see they're still going strong over in Asia. The latest models look half decent!
One of my mates won a Proton on The Price Is Right in the mid 00’s. He barely if ever used it, selling it on cos he already had a decent car.
My parents had one of the first Proton Aeroback cars in the UK, early in May 1989. It was surprisingly good - never gave them any trouble at all and ran perfectly, until it failed it's MOT at 6 years old on rust. Proton advertised it as fully galvanised - what they forgot to say was that was just the body panels, the suspension mounts underneath were bare steel roughly painted. Welded up and sold on, I was surprised to see it lasted until early 2003, so the welding must have been good solid work.
In Australia, you saw Protons but not many. Funnily enough you see more Jumbucks now than other Protons!
Ute is quite popular in Australia, but unfortunately Jumbuck (it's called Arena in Malaysia) is very rare in its home turf.
Super good info, as usual!
One tiny correction : the 1st Saga was launch with BOTH 1.3 & 1.5 engine in 1985 (orion series). In 1987, the engine updates were for both 1.3 & 1.5 (magma 8-valve).
I recalled the commercial on TV for the 1st Gen Saga. The old man said in Chinese that these are good cars. He claims that he ate more salt than rice to the naysayer
Amazing video, slight curiosity turned to me wanting to learn more about other car companies! I never know Proton had such large partnerships with Japanese car makers
The problem with Proton in the late 90's and early 2000's was they were forced to use overpriced lower quality parts from politically connected suppliers. Dealerships were also only given to the politically connected, who were free to exploit customers because of the virtual monopoly status Proton cars enjoyed due to import tariffs
Best car channel on CZcams, another great video 👍
Yooo thx for making a Proton video nearing our Independence celebration in Msia!
Somehow the Juara-microvan & Jumback-pickup truck have been sought after by many quite recently due to Japanese Kei-car popularity and also rather a convenient pickup truck. Not to mention their durability
Great video. I never understood Proton until you explained the full story.
I thought you were talking about specifically about the Proton Saga this is amazing
I still saw a few original sagas in Singapore. Either with Singapore Plates or with Malaysian Plates. The original one is almost extinct the last time travelled to Malaysia in June
Malaysia boleh indeed
From the Philippines
Thanks for the Independence Day Gift bro!!!
The platform used for the Proton Saga was also the same Mitsubishi Lancer/Colt/Mirage generation that Hyundai used for the Excel.
Yeah. These Saga had the design language of older Hyundai i10