Monday March 3, 2008
Proton Gen.2 facelift launched
Proton has introduced its facelifted Gen.2 hatchback to the Malaysian market, four months after the vehicle made its debut in Thailand.
Lots of little tweaks here and there to make that difference ... The car features a number of enhancements, the most obvious being the CPS (Cam Profile Switching) engine, which finally brings the Campro moniker to actuality. The engine, which also features a Variable Intake Manifold (VIM), made its first appearance recently in the Waja 1.6 Campro Premium.
Now available in Hibiscus Tea. The car is available in two trim levels, High Line and Medium Line, with auto and manual transmissions for both. The 1.6l Campro CPS block will, however, only feature in the H-Line version; the M-Line variant will run with the improved Campro IAFM (Intake Air-Fuel Manifold) engine.
Now, with Campro, the Campro. In terms of numbers, the CPS engine gets a noticeable increase in output, 15bhp more than on the outgoing Gen.2, with 125bhp at 6,500rpm, though strangely enough there is no change in maximum speed over the old.
Cabin gets a bit of work done on it too. As for the Campro IAFM, this offers 110bhp, but like the CPS engine, does so at 6,500rpm, which is 500rpm more than on the pre-facelift version.
High Line version gets red leather inserts on door card. And mind the red stitching. As for torque, the increase is marginal - the existing Gen.2 has 148Nm, and the IAFM has the same output, while on the CPS it is 150Nm, though a little bit more pedal has to be squeezed before maximum torque is available, at 4,500rpm to the older (and IAFM-equipped Campro) block's 4,000rpm.
H-Line seats get red treatment too. Low-end torque availability has improved though, with both IAFM and CPS offering 139Nm at 3,000rpm to the older engine's 128Nm at the same engine speed. And on paper, the torque curve shows that the pronounced dip that was a "trademark" of the old has definitely been smoothened out.
Yes, plenty of red stitching. Elsewhere, both the exterior and interior feature revisions, some more subtle than others. On the outside, the car gets for its new list a front bumper and grille, front skirt, headlamp bezels finished in black, side sill mouldings, a rear skirt and a rear spoiler as well as new design alloy wheels.
Clock now integrated into the instrument panel's multi-function display. As for the interior, there's quite a bit in the way of tweakery. For the H-Line version, the seats and the steering wheel are leather-wrapped, in black, with red leather inserts on the door cards and bottom-quarter of the steering wheel, and red stitching features prominently.
The instrument display now features a multi-function digital display that integrates a digital clock, odometer, tripmeter, DTE (distance to empty) and AFC (average fuel consumption) readings as well as journey time, with the selection process cyclic via a push-button knob.
What the new alloy wheel looks like. Revised design door inner handles and knobs are also part of the new brigade, as is a redesigned dashboard. Oh, yes, there's finally a glove box in this one too.
As for on-the-road pricing, the Gen.2 H-Line 1.6 CPS auto goes for RM60,488, while the CPS manual goes for RM57,488. As for the M-Line 1.6 IAFM, the auto is priced at RM56,488 and the manual version is RM53,488.
Shame about the need for differentiation by a TLA, but finally, that which was supposed to be then is now here .... All the variants are available in four colours, Metal Grey, Iridescent White, Nanbu Black and Hibiscus Tea, the latter two being new colours to the car. The H-Line versions will be available in the showrooms from Mar 5 onwards, with the M-Line arriving a little later in the month, on Mar 25.
- Posted by Anthony Lim
List By Make
Loan Calculator
Note: Please key in all figures without commas (e.g. 50000)
RSS
