Saturday, October 08, 2016

PROTON PERSONA PREMIUM CVT & PROTON PERDANA 2.4 BAG SOME AWARDS AT THE FIRST EVER CARSIFU AWARDS


Recently,  PROTON, the national car company managed to bag a couple of awards at the first ever Carsifu Editor's Choice Awards 2016. The very recently launched All-New, Persona Premium CVT (the mid-specced car)  had won Best Compact Car and the also freshly launched All-New Proton Perdana 2.4 won Best Local Design of the Year at the inaugural CarSifu Editors’ Choice Awards 2016. Congratulations to Proton cars is in order.

The Carsifu Editor's Choice Awards is actually organised by the Star publication group. Carsifu is The Star's pullout section (as well as an online portal - of course, as everything is online these days). At least there is now more recognition going out in the local car industry. This, and the forthcoming MAI Car of the Year awards would make local car companies (whether national, non-national locally produced or imported) strive harder to market and sell cars that are relevant to the Malaysian market as well as to motoring enthusiasts here. There has to be a balance of course. 


The Proton Persona's win here is a good thing as the car is quite good at what it is actually. For the price I think it does everything well enough. It has enough performance, good handling, low NVH levels (good refinement), space and a price that would not bust the bank. What's not to like? I have initially tested the car at Proton's test track and had also tried the car on a trip to Kuantan and back (to USJ, Petaling Jaya). Read the initial test here and also do wait for my write-up on how the car performs out on Malaysian roads.

As for the Proton Perdana 2.4, the car does look good and deserves the award. Bar the slightly over-styled double front spoiler lip and the unpainted rear diffuser area and faux tailpipes (it should be done ASAP). The rest of the car is so darn good for a re-engineered Honda Accord (I have heard industry rumours that there have been talk inside that company on why they did not think of such styling). It looks like a contemporary Jaguar in some ways. And a lot of road presence. Impressive. 

As for the test drive, I had managed a week in one. A whole week folks. Do expect an article on it within the next few weeks! In the meantime, here is a teaser pic or two.


It gets to meet a Perdana V6 parked under a porch ....

Oh, if you want to read about what we thought of the Perdana 2.4 whilst driving it at the Proton Test Track you can read it here.

 If you want a road trip article on the more affordable Perdana 2.0, you can click here if you're interested.

2 comments:

metallutca said...

Can't wait for your full review of the Persona

Rigval Reza said...

Thank you for visiting. Well, you have to be patient. But I can assure you it would be coming out within the next two weeks from today.

Regards