Satria Neo

I just test drive the new Satria Neo 1.3 manual. Overall, I was quite impressed by it. Though they didnt really allow me to go anywhere.... just go one round around seri petaling. Pity they dont have the 1.6 manual for test drive.

I have no problem with the exterior. It looks really good to me. Build quality looks good. I really like the headlights, look like gen2 a bit, but more refined. The rear lights are ok, albeit a bit bland. The body looks beefy, due to the higher ratio of body:glass(window). Fancy the feline look also. But the gas tank cover is ridiculous. Despite hat...... still thumbs up for Proton!!

Interior is trademark proton all the way: cheap plastic. The round air cond looks ugly and cheapskate. The three knobs in the middle look like that of gen2 and dont look any better. Steering wheel feels plastic and cheap(why cant they use waja's wheel????). Dashboard:plastic. Meter panel is ok, but i dont really like the meter 'hood'.... looks like bra hanging. Door handle: round(very ugly) and plastic. Dont like the samurai sword handbrake, dodgy. Driver's position is a bit weird, quite high, which leaves not much headspace. Seat feels fairly comfortable. Not much room for the passenger at the back, but what do u expect from a satria right? Despite all these, I can still say thumbs up to proton for improving the overall look of the interior. It looks so much better than the ridiculous interior of gen2.

I am no car expert and I cant comment much on performance and handling. I was concerned about the high revving campro engine. Proton were supposed to tune it for this new satria. I have never driven a Gen2 and dont know how bad it is. But based on my test drive, the 1.3 manual version was ok, pick up was ok.

I only took the car out for like 15 minutes, so didnt really have a good feel of it. The handling feels really good. This should be expected from proton, with all that lotus involvement.

The most imnportant thing is..... the new satria is using a new mechanism for its power windows.... can we expect a no power window malfunction for the new satria???? Only time will tell.

The pricing, in my opinion, is spot on albeit predictable. The Satria is quite a good package overall.

Then we come to the holy grail of Proton: QC. I can just pray they did something to improve their Quality Management programme(if they have any...). Cannot tell.... only time will tell. But people claim that the quality of savvy models is so much improved compared to other models.

This is a good sign from Proton. I really hope they can continue to come out with models as good as this new satria... and improve quality.