It’s very good-looking, it’s extremely well specced, it feels well built for the money, with excellent ride and handling, and it’s affordable. On the downside, the Proton brand has yet to gain the confidence of the South African public, and the Savvy is let down by a lethargic 1,2-litre engine that doesn’t deliver what the sporty styling promises.
There are lots of good cars available for about R100 000, and the Proton Savvy, with its sexy hard-edged lines, is one of the best-looking of the bunch.
Coming as it does with dual air bags, ABS brakes with electronic brake-force distribution, an air-con, stylish 15 inch alloy wheels, electric windows, power steering, a height-adjustable driver’s seat, a transponder key, remote central locking, an alarm, a radio and front-loader CD player, and rear parking distance sensors to aid when reversing into parking bays, it offers by far the best specification list in its price range. Proton is recognised as a good, solid brand in the countries where the cars are sold, and with Associated Motor Holdings having established 19 dealerships already in South Africa, and aiming to virtually double that by year-end, one almost need have no reservations about the supply of spares.
On the road, the Savvy feels very solid, although the vehicle I drove out to Hartbeespoort had an irritating vibrating noise from somewhere in the dashboard at around 4 000rpm.
The car was otherwise rattle free, and other journalists I quizzed at the launch had no complaints about their vehicles, so I’ll write that off as a small quality-control problem.
I found the interior to be tidily laid out, but thought the brightly coloured speedometer and rev counter looked rather el-cheapo. No doubt hordes of youngsters will disagree with me.
The Proton importers claim the zero-to-100kph dash should be over in 12,6 seconds, with the top speed being 170kph.
Those figures strike me as being very optimistic, and even after making allowance for the 17% or so power drop owing to Gauteng altitude, I believe the Savvy will lose out to similarly priced cars like the Hyundai Getz 1,3 and the Daihatsu Sirion in any sort of straight-line shootout. The little engine feels strangled and doesn’t respond very well to letting it rev hard, so perhaps a decent performance air filter and a tuned exhaust system would get things on track and give it the get-up-and-go its looks imply.
The Savvy comes in Standard and Sport guises, with the Sport version offering a body kit, but no improvements in performance, for an additional R10 000. An A/MT transmission will be available from May — this is a clutchless five-speeder that provides sequential manual or automatic modes for R13 000 over the price of the five-speed manual versions.
Servicing takes place at 15 000km intervals, and the car comes with a three-year/ 100 000km warranty and three years of roadside assistance.
I believe the Proton Savvy is a fine little car that does provide good value for money, but is likely to disappoint sporting drivers who expect it to go as well as it looks, especially at Reef altitudes.
For those who aren’t too concerned about outright performance, it’s a bloody bargain.