The Proton Preve with Four Years and 48,000km under its belt - How does it perform?

Photo: Wikipedia...in order to protect the innocent from pain and suffering.

A few weeks ago I managed to get my hands on a first batch Proton Preve 1.6CFE. You know, the turbocharged version of Proton's latest C segment competitor that is sold over in Australia, Chile and a few other places. Of course, this is the Malaysia specced one. It is about four years old and had already covered about 48,000 kilometers. This means that this car had covered about 12,000kilometers per year and you could say that it is a report on how the car lasts after a good four years.

Let me start with an overview on the Proton Preve. I remember trying one out when it was first launched in April 2012. I actually liked how it drove. It was well equipped, had a turbocharged engine (the CAMPro turbo was/is the first turbocharged engine offered by Proton) and looked decent enough for people to buy. I also stated that it could have been Proton's best effort yet. In fact, I still think that the Preve and the Suprima gives you that affordable turbocharged route here in Malaysia.

Anyway, it has been four years since I drove one and when I was given the opportunity to try one I jumped at it. All for the sake of science and knowledge. I wanted to see how the Preve fared after it has had four years of actual road miles on it.

The car you see here belongs to a friend of mine. It used to be a company owned pool car and has been in the hands of my friend for over a year or so. The car has travelled over 48,000 kilometers.

I shall start by tell you folks what has NOT gone wrong with this Preve. There are no complaints from the owner about passenger seat/airbag/seatbelt issues at all. There have not been any turbo hose problems after 48,000km. There have not been any uncalled for issues that the Preve supposedly has or even breakdowns. Even the front electric power windows work fine. The rear had indeed jammed up due to a total lack of use – the owner has a toddler and a baby, so opening them wasn't on his mind. And that Proton air-conditioning works quite well in our weather. Proton when it comes to cooling a cabin is unbeatable if you compare with a Perodua. And nothing has come loose or is broken inside the car. The exterior looks pretty decent too. It does not look tired at all after four years on the road.

The car however suffers from the usual Proton CVT drone. That constant droning at low engine speeds or under initial acceleration can be a tad tedious if you suddenly jump into one and drive it around for a few days. But this car also suffers from excessive vibration when accelerating from a stand still. Like at traffic lights and junctions. Every time you stop and go there is vibration and resonance from the front of the car which shakes the whole dashboard and the steering wheel which you, as the driver not only get to hear but feel. After doing errands for about half a day I actually wanted to leave the car and walk home even though I was in Seri Kembangan and I lived in Kelana Jaya. Of course, I then realised that walking is tiring and decided to drive back anyway.

This is basically due to the constant drone from the CVT as well as worn engine mounts. Somehow, at 48,000km you can feel that there is excessive vibration coming from the front of the car. It usually is the engine mountings as I do not remember such vibration when I drove the Preve (as well as the Suprima) when it was new. So you add the two causes of vibration together and the refinement goes out the window. 

The CVT quietens down at speeds above 40kmh. The engine stops rattling after around the same speed. So imagine living with this drone, vibration, resonance and whatever everyday in your daily commute. If you commute for about 45 minutes daily crawling from junction to junction, then you can either go mad or you have nerves of steel and deserve a medal for that. You could lessen the pain and suffering by getting the engine mountings changed. When the car was new this was never felt. The car was quite okay with just the 'Whoo, whoo' noise that the transmission made. But when you add another harsh bit and it gets irritating.

The point that I have to make here is that I have never known cars to require a new engine mount or four after just 48,000km. I have two cars right now with 48,000km on the clock. My wife's Perodua Myvi and my Mercedes Benz C-class both have clocked 48,000km and they both idle and accelerate quietly. The Myvi is a much cheaper car than the Preve and it does not require any engine mount change after 48,000km. Of course, the Preve engine mounts may be cheaper than the Myvi – Proton spare parts are usually much cheaper than a Perodua, but I have to state that in the first place, one should not need engine mountings to be changed at 48,000km. I suspect a design flaw here as you don't find any engine mounting issues in a 50,000km Satria Neo or a Persona. And I have many friends who still run both cars mentioned herein.

This lack of overall refinement from engine mountings has had me feeling more disappointed than the need to change turbo hoses (oil cooler hoses actually) every 40,000km as was recommended by the latest Proton CFE engine recall made by Proton recently. Why? Because I had a lot of friends who were already playing with turbocharged cars and these cars needed new hoses often. In fact, if you drove a fairly new post year 2002 Subaru Impreza turbo, it would need new radiator hoses every 50,000km or so. So much so we used to replace them with silicone based hoses. Which still needed replacements albeit longer periods of time.

So, I nearly went a little bit mental during the commute but managed to keep my sanity as I told myself that this was only for a few days. And then when I wanted to drive the Preve very rapidly, which actually quite a good thing to do as it has a very sweet handling chassis, I was surprised by something else. Hold the steering in the sporty quarter to three driving position and when you put weight on your right hand to turn left you switch the infotainment system from Radio to Aux mode if you press hard on the wheel. If you put weight on your left had to turn the steering wheel then you may just put the audio system to 'Mute'. The buttons are placed right under the base of the thumb and putting weight on either left or right thumb will cause essentially the same thing. The audio turning off mid corner. I did not notice this ergonomic flaw when I first tried out the car in 2012 as I had a short spin in one without the radio turn on. Another thing that is an engineering flaw in the Preve.

Note the base of my thumb covering the WHOLE of the mute button...compare with the MODE button on the right side of the steering wheel.

So now I know that if I drive pretty fast I should do it in relative quietness or cut the wires from the steering controls as it is totally wrongly placed. Never have I taken a corner so hard that my thumb would cause the radio to either keep quiet or decide that I want to fit an IPod whilst turning the wheel. Honestly I did not notice this when I had taken a spin in one earlier. This means that the Preve and the Suprima actually need a new steering wheel design. I fail to understand how the original designers locked this into spec in the first place. How can you make the car handle properly but fail to make simple things work I can never understand. II somehow believe that Proton are experts in making the hard things easy but making the easy things hard. How is this even possible?

Aside from the two most glaring problems that had arisen during the drive I must report that aside from the original drone emitting from the CVT, there is not much that went wrong with the Preve. The Navigation worked properly and took me to where I wanted to go. The car took corners very well. It was planted at higher speeds. It was large and had lots of space in the boot too. It cruised at 110kmh decently well with average levels of refinement at that speed.

The irritating things were the initial vibration and drone whilst accelerating. And the stupidly placed audio controls. These two is actually enough to make a person go slightly insane. I honestly think that if you want to buy a Proton you would be better off in a Persona or if you still wanted a cheap turbocharged car to play with, be prepared to change engine mountings every 45,000km together with some turbo hoses (till Proton does a 60-70,000km hose fix) and cut the darn wires for the steering wheel buttons. 

The flaws mentioned above are quite a humongous pain for me. I mean how many of us commute to work without any stop and go traffic? If you have a trip where you need to stop your car more than thirty times per trip then the amount of vibration would actually get to you. By the end of every day you'd be experiencing unwanted harshness and be more tired than even the guy who drives around in a Proton Persona. That Proton is an older design. I think even the Proton Wira 1.6 that I have at home is more refined in the long run. Why and how the Preve has these issues is beyond me. A company that has been making cars for at least 30 years and this isn't the first time they started from scratch (or close to scratch) - they built the Waja, Gen2, Satria Neo, Persona and the Savvy prior to this. No amount of high tech equipment levels will save a car if it isn't refined for everyday commute. This is what is more important.

It is quite sad for me to mention this sort of long term issues that has happend to the Preve. I actually think the Preve CFE gives you access to affordable turbocharged performance. The torque (about 205Nm) from the 1.6 may not be as good as newer direct injected turbo engines but what it does is eliminate most of the dreaded torque dip in the CAMPro engine. The power delivery is now smooth and linear, if not refined (the CVT drone or resonance ,remember?). This turbocharged performance coupled to the Preve's chassis always shows promise although it does consume more petrol than I hoped - 13.5liters/100km is very underwhelming for a 1.6liter turbo. It is well behaved and fun to drive fast on a B-road. It is also well screwed together as even after all that vibration, nothing in the cabin dropped off or is broken after about four years of use.

The Preve is a spacious car and it also does not look ugly unlike one of its competitor in its price range - the Nissan Almera, which is ugly, handles worse than the Preve, as spacious inside, slower and handles worse (I mentioned that already..but what the heck), but is more refined. With the performance the Preve has and decent looks, it should have been a good car to own over the years. I have to say that this isn't so. It should. But it isn't if you are paying RM65,000+ for one.

Actually it is quite good if you bought it used for around RM30,000 as the car is very well equipped and relatively reliable at that price. But at RM65,000 or so asking price for a new one and with the thought that you'd need new engine mountings every 50,000km at the very most isn't promising for me. If you wanted a Proton, buy a Persona. That car is so much better sorted and much cheaper at under RM50,000 brand new.

And those steering controls. Dammit. 

2012 Proton Preve - 48,000km mileage

1.6liter turbocharged 4 cylinder

138hp /205Nm

CVT transmission with tiptronic shifting and pedal shifters

Front wheel drive

0-100kmh: 9.6secs (manufacturer's figure)

Max speed: 210kmh (manufacturer's figures)

Fuel Consumption

Combined: 13.5liters/100km

Original Pros/Cons (April 2012 review):

Pros:  Good ergonomics, decent interior quality, great handling, refinement, ride

Cons:  Flimsly lower part of dashboard, decent performance instead of great performance, price, conservative instead of stunning looks

Conclusion: A very good drive, a very refined car for its price, slightly conservative looking and its a RM72,000 Proton – there will be a wait and see attitude with most

Now add the extra terrible NVH and bad ergonomics as stated above.