Hands up, anybody who has ever seen a Proton on the road. The Malaysian cars have been on sale in South Africa for two years now, and I don’t think I’ve seen half a dozen of them roaming free in KwaZulu-Natal, where I live.
After driving a few Protons, I reckon that’s a shame, because they feel solidly built, they are well equipped and they are very competitively priced. My one reservation so far is that none of them delivers really sparkling engine performance.
Enter the 2007 Proton Satria Neo — another Proton, another well-built but less-than-scintillating performer. That was my impression after driving the three-door hatch for about 500m. It looks sporty enough, but its 1 159kg bulk and tall gearing overwhelm the 82kW/148Nm, 1,6-litre engine, and the car feels a little lethargic off the mark.
But hang on a minute — things get better. As we moved out of the city traffic into the KwaZulu-Natal backwoods, I discovered that the Satria Neo becomes much more interesting when you apply the riding crop to its shapely flanks. Give this thing a damned good flogging and it becomes FUN, with capital letters.
Peak power is delivered at 6 000rpm and maximum torque at 4 000rpm, and the tallish gearing is what makes the car feel somewhat mediocre at low speed. Proton claims a 0-100km/h time of 11,5 seconds, which felt about right, and a top speed of 190km/h, which proved to be close to the mark.
The launch route took us along some winding and sparsely populated roads through the sugar-cane fields north of Durban, and there it was that I realised that Proton’s ownership of the British company Lotus has been put to good use. This is quite simply one of the best handling hatches available.
A week before the launch I’d driven the Ford Focus ST and the Opel Astra GTC 1.9 TDI around Wesbank raceway during the Car of the Year judging, and I’d rate the Proton as at least a match for the Opel and better than the Ford. The Malaysian car is obviously way behind these two in terms of power and straight-line performance, but once you’ve got it wound up, it gallops along briskly and you can throw it into bends that would daunt just about everything else on the road with abandon.
For the asking price of R134 995 you’re not going to find a car that is more fun to drive on a winding road.
But let’s get back to the mundane — luxury and safety features. Here, too, the Proton punches way above its class. The car comes with driver and passenger airbags, ABS brakes with EBD, automatic climate control, a tilt-adjustable steering wheel, electric windows and mirrors, central locking, steering-wheel controls for the Blaupunkt sound system (which comes with MP3 and Bluetooth connectivity) and, unusually at this price, rear parking-distance sensors. Leather seats add R5 000 to the price.
If I were in the market for a new car in this price range, the Proton Satria Neo would be on my shortlist because it’s simply the most fun to drive for the money — the Ford Fiesta ST is also a favourite, but costs more than R35 000 more.
The Proton brand is well-established internationally, and build quality is not a problem. Two years ago there were just eight dealers in South Africa, but by the end of last year this number had grown to 25. Would I take a chance? You bet I would. I’d do it a lot sooner, though, if they brought out a version with 20% more grunt!