I’m not sure why, but small pickups have never gained favour in most countries. Bakkies such as the Ford Bantam, Opel Corsa and Nissan 1400 sell only in South Africa, Brazil and … well, that’s about it. I would have thought that small businesses and youngsters with outdoor lifestyles and no families would find the little pickups very appealing in America and Australia, for instance, but they’ve never taken off in those countries.
As a result, Ford, General Motors and Nissan have pretty well had the field to themselves for decades in South Africa. Then, last year, Fiat introduced its Strada pickup, and Proton’s newly launched Arena light pickup has now arrived to wee on the South African manufacturers’ batteries.
The Proton is a classy-looking vehicle, and seems to be well built. With competitive pricing, a three-year warranty, and a network of 21 dealers to be in place by the end of February, we anticipate that sales will be brisk.
Stylish
The Arena is a stylish little pickup that’s well screwed together. It boasts a 645kg payload and a load capacity of 800 litres in its 1,63m-long bin, and the cab is spacious and comfy. The easily removable tailgate can support a load of 300kg, and there’s a protective grill over the rear window to spare you the sound of breaking glass if you stomp on the brake pedal with a full load on board.
The little bakkie uses a ladder-frame chassis at the rear mated to a conventional monocoque cab, with a transverse “torque box” in between to improve side-impact safety levels for the driver and passengers. The transversely mounted 1,5-litre, four-cylinder engine provides drive to the front wheels via a five-speed manual transmission, and the importers claim the car will reach 100kph in 13,7 seconds on its way to a top speed of 155kph.
Proton bought Lotus Cars of England a few years ago, and took a lot of the staff and technology with it. I don’t know whether this is really as relevant as the factory claims, when we’re talking about a budget LDV, but the little bakkie is a good handler. Front suspension is independent, with McPherson struts and coil springs, while the rear is taken care of by a rigid axle and leaf springs. Ventilated discs up front and drums at the rear put the clamps on when necessary.
Derivatives
The Proton Arena is available in three derivatives, all powered by the same 64kW, 1,5-litre engines. All models come with load-sensing brake proportioning valves, power steering, tilt-adjustable steering wheels, remote fuel flaps and ignition-key illumination with a delay timer. There are also high-mounted stop lamps, a handy 12-volt accessory socket in the front inner corner of the bin, and a fuel-level warning light on all models.
One peg up from the R79 995 base model comes the higher-specced Proton Arena 1.5i GL, which, for an additional R20 000, adds an aluminium roll bar, central locking, a rear step and air conditioning to the mix The top-of-the-range Arena 1.5i GLX, at R112 995, seems to me the best buy of the lot, because the R13 000 premium over the price of the GL gets you everything the midrange model has plus a radio/CD player, 14″ alloy wheels, electric windows, cloth seats, side moulding kits, a tonneau cover, electrically adjustable rear-view mirrors and a snazzy plastic bin liner.
I drove the GL version for a short distance at the Johannesburg launch, not sure what to expect, and came away satisfied that the Proton Arena deserves to do well. It also has an advantage over its locally manufactured rivals in that stock is immediately available, whereas some of the opposition’s models have a six- to eight-week waiting list.
An obvious hurdle that importers Associated Motor Holdings will have to overcome is the lack of faith that potential buyers have in “unknown” brands. I believe that, as with the same group’s Kia and Hyundai imports, the cars will take a while to prove themselves and become popular, and then they’ll sell like hot cakes.
Proton, which also owns the prestigious MV Agusta, Husqvarna and Cagiva motorcycle brands, is the biggest car manufacturer in Malaysia. The Arena is its second vehicle in South Africa, after the impressive Gen2 sedan, and the Savvy small hatchback and SRM medium hatchback will both arrive later this year. The latter model, which we await with interest, will include a 141kW GTI derivative in its line-up.