Despite the economic slowdown, the first national MPV Proton Exora has passess 11,000 unit mark. A great achievement given a current economic scenario.

If previousy Proton has unveiled the Proton Exora Prestige which were sold based on order to selected VIP, yesterday during “Proton Exora – The Making” seminar at Universiti Putra Malaysia, they showcase what they called Proton Exora Prestige Turbo Prototype.

Eventhough not much details were given on the spec, based on what reported by PaulTan, this prototype is powered by 1.6l turbocharged campro and pushes a 270hp and torgue at 350Nm.

The prototype was built in house and using aftermarket bolt on turbo. This prototype will remains as it is at least for many years ahead. For them to produce such a power machine with 270hp is not practical as this MPV was not built for speed.

What I heard, there are group of engineer currently seconded to Lotus, UK to develop the 1.6 campro turbocharged engine. The first car to be equipped with this engine is exora and persona. Who knows, later on we will have something like Persona R, Saga Type R or even Exora Type R.

The engine which currently under R&D is said to have power equivalent to of 2.0l engine which a horse power in the range of 150-170. The reason again, because they dont have bigger engine to be used for Segment A car. The cost of development of a new 2.0l engine will cost them a lot, and the best options is to turbo charged the existing engine.

Look at the front mount intercooler

Compact, what box is that, is it a supercharge ?

Nice, sporty and sexy..welldone Proton designer…

Source : Paultan

Popularity: 4% [?]

Proton Exora will be launched next week, 15 April and today EKC would like to share a photo of Proton Exora without any plastic covers. We believe that this photo was taken at Proton main plant in Shah Alam by one of their staff of course.

While the order now almost 2000 units, this photo of course will give the customer more confidence. For me the design is pretty nice and give the competitor a run of their money.

What do you think of this Exora ?

exora, proton mpv, spy shots

Popularity: 11% [?]

Proton first MPV is Proton Exora. Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said the name Exora, a flower that blooms in a bunch, demonstrated the MPV as a family vehicle. Exora was the winning entry of Proton’s nationwide MPV-naming contest which was held in September last year and has attracted more than 250,000 entries.

Proton Exora, a seven seater MPV is powered by the Campro 1.6 CPS engine and priced at below RM80,000, is launched in April. Proton had invested RM450mil in the development of the MPV and production would be at its Shah Alam plant which expected producing 3,000 – 3,500 units per month.

Proton believe that the MPV will fit into its aspiration to build the ‘right car for the right market at the right price’, ” Bookings for the MPV can be made from Feb 21 at all 293 Proton Edar and EON sales offices nationwide.

Proton has not released official pictures of the MPV but has described it as a “comfortable vehicle with more leg room and luggage space.”

proton exora, proton mpv

Popularity: 36% [?]

It was no secret that Proton will release their first and brand new MPV sometime in March or April next year. Since then, we have seen many so called real photo of this MPV. No one has actually confirmed the design etc. However, since last months, many blogs/websites has posted spy shot of this MPV taken during their road testing all over Malaysia. Internal people said that more than 30 units has been produced for testing purposes and as usual this unit will be on camouflage.

From the photo, many will agreed that this MPV’s design is not bad at all. Given right price, we believe that it will be another success for Proton. However, what remains mystery is of course on the powertrain. Will it be powered by 1.6 CPS campro or what ? Again, Proton is expected to use whatever engine that they have for the time being until their very first Turbo Charged Campro ready for production which is expected in 2010.

What we heard before is Proton uses Toyota Wish as a benchmarking for their MPV. What we hope that the benchmarking shall not limited to the design, size etc, but what important is on the quality, right & handling, performance and also fuel consumption. Looking at the recent launched Saga BLM, you might heard in other blogs, that its consume high fuel even though on standard factory setting without any mod. This could be the major challenge for Proton actually …

The photos of Spyshots taken from various websites ….

Anyway my wish list for this new MPV :

What do you think ?

proton mpv

Popularity: 12% [?]

Finally the all-new Proton Saga was launched last week by our Prime Minister at KLCC.   This new saga will replace the old model which was reported been sold more than million unit since its production in 1985.

The model has proved that Proton has the ability to complete one new model within 17 months from the date management approval.  Like the persona, New Saga also available in few variants namely entry, base and medium line.

With a nice design, good price no wonder, this model can capture more than 6000 bookings even before its official launch.

The price :

Entry Line (Manual): RM31,500
Base Line (Manual): RM34,998
Base Line (Automatic): RM37,998
Medium Line (Manual): RM37,498
Medium Line (Automatic): RM39,998

Popularity: 11% [?]