First Impression: Proton Saga 1.3

I have resisted the temptation to write a review of the new Proton Saga for almost a month now, since driving the car at the Media preview. I wanted to let the impression percolate on the back burner of my brain and see if I could reduce it to the essence and now I think it is ready.

The Saga is an outstanding achievement for Proton. It is not a technically impressive car , the aesthetics is nothing to write home about and any honest description of the level of quality that is found in the car would not tax any superlatives.

The Saga is a decidedly middle-of-the-road car that will not give anyone palpitations or sweaty palms but it is this clear focus on the wide strip of grey middle that is most commendable.

As a car enthusiast I do not think that I could come up with a car like this and it is likely that the engineers would probably have liked it if they were given a chance to come up with something more enticing and of better quality but even they relented.

Proton designed this car based on the input of the buyers and did so while never letting their eye off the budget. They hit all the important bullseye drawn by their customers and int he process, actually built a car in an impressively short time frame and ludicrously low budget.

It is not often that a car company can muster enough courage to turn a blind eye to their own impulses and just listen to their customers and then followed their instructions as closely as possible.

The most obvious evidence of Proton listening to their customers and putting aside almost all of their own gut feeling lies in the spec sheet where you will find an airbag but not anti-lock brakes.

Their engineers know that anti lock brakes can prevent accidents while airbags only take care of you after the fact. One is a prevention , the other is a cure. The reason why the Saga has an airbag and not ABS is that YOU told them that you prefer a small explosion in your face in the event of an accident, instead of a pulsating brake pedal in the rain.

Concerns about quality still hang over Shah Alam like a black cloud and God help them if the number of unhappy customers are not kept low.

The car itself is an average performer. The engine produces sufficient power, the cabin is spacious, the ride comfort is not bad, the handling is agreeable, the quality of materials is fair while the build quality is acceptable. I told you describing it would not tax any superlatives.

This brings me to a conversation I had some years ago with a Proton executive who believed that Toyota is the world’s biggest underachiever because it produced boring cars and in the mind of this auto exec Mazda is the exemplary corporation for having produced so many iconic cars.

if you look in the dictionary under Grey, it would probably have a picture of a Corolla in that same boring shade for illustration and no one would think it odd.

The fact is, Toyota understands what the customer wants and cares very little about anything else. They know that, if it is at all possible, the customers would want a car has the image of Mercedes-Benz, the driving dynamics of a Porsche, the technology of the Space shuttle and build quality of a Toyota at the price of a Daihatsu.

They have price, spec and reliability to perfection and are now working hard on the image (Formula One racing), they are slogging day and night to give it cutting edge tech (auto parking engines that forget to tell the occupants that its on because its so smooth and silent) and are putting some effort towards driving abilities.

Good handling is desirable but it is far less important to the average driver that you might think. What most drivers want and need is safe driving characteristics and Toyota has that problem solved.

I remember the first media drive of the BMW 5-series in Malaysia and how a few local journos thought it was ‘too twitchy’ and ‘tail happy’. they were a bit nervous about the car.

The fact is, the 5-series with its active steering offers nearly neutral driving attitude but because we are so used to cars that are more pliant in their steering response and under steer when pushed, we feel less safe and confident in a neutral car.

Proton also understands this and thanks to their close collaboration with Lotus, have been able to correctly judge the way the steering should feel and behave at all times to give the driver maximum confidence.

So in their quest to please as many people as possible Proton gave the Saga a roomy cabin, believable boot and an engine that does not feel like it needs a good whipping to get its act together.

In essence the Saga is the most grey and plain car that Proton has ever produced since the original Saga and because of that I find it hard to despise and this is why it has chalked up 25,000 bookings and a six-month long waiting list. Mid-tones, my friends, are the colours of success.