My new ride

Happy new year 2013! My this new year bring more health and wealth to all!

Here are some updates on my new ride...

I finally got my car on 31st Dec 2012, the last day with the last running number.

It was a thrilling wait because I promised to bring my family out for dinner after picking up my new car. If the car number failed to register on the same day, I will definitely felt despaired because I suppose to get it on last Friday, and I went through an excruciating wait...

The wait is over when I was finally called at about 6pm on 31st Dec and was excited to hear my car plate number & registration card was finally out, and I am the last registrant!

I quickly pack myself up and went to the showroom in no time. While I was at the showroom I saw my car already parked outside, fully tinted and waiting for me. I whispered: "Gosh, this is prettiest car in the world! ^^".

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I was briefed about the cars basic operations by the SA, plus the ICE, roof-mount DVD player, alarm, immobilizer and some cool BCM (body control module) features. It suppose to be quick process but I "accidentally" asked too many questions which delayed the whole pickup process.

I drove home with my new ride around 8pm. Nothing special about the feature explained except roof-mount DVD, BCM, Remote honk, and some car safety feature such as immobilizer and ABS/EBD, which I will explain in my following posts. For now, more concern is on how the outlook, NVH, rides and handling and fuel consumption right?

The Cosmetic

The immediate feeling I notice when I sat on the driver seat was how huge the cabin is. Its headroom and laproom (between my laps and steering) is so much that even I toe my foot and yet still not touching the steering (My height is around 165cm). Headroom is airy too as I can feel the air gliding through my hair.

A grasp on the steering offers me a solid, non-slip feel, nice enough to hold and touch although it is made of plastic, it is definitely a higher quality soft-touch plastic.

Plastics goes all-round throughout the cabin. For somebody this might be a bad contrast to luxury, but for me it intimately fine.

Seats are well padded to the firm side yet very supportive and it's wrapped with fabric. I like fabric more than leather because it will not easily get hot under the sun.

Outlook wise, the car has a same BOLD look like CFE except 3 points:

1. Without spoiler
2. Without fog lamps
3. 15" rims only (Not 16" in BOLD premium)

The Start-up

Cranking the engine give sparking sound followed by a roar of the CPS engine (this isn't normal roar found in my wife's Vios, but is way louder!). Have to mention here the CFE has a different sound (but I couldn't remember its sound). However these sounds didn't intrude much as the door shuts up. As a result, a serene cabin plus some new car smells :).

Switching on the ICE sound system offers a clear sound, better than Alza as I remember, matching my wife's Vios default ICE. The ICE is a higher end version, which comes with AUX and Bluetooth.

There's also a roof-mounted DVD player on the second row's roof-top. It has a SD card slot & audio output jack. To get the sound into the car's ICE system you need to match the preset frequency as explained in the manual.

The Power

As I step on the gas pedal, the car pull strongly, definitely no Drive-by-wire lagging as found on my Vios. It is surprisingly responsive, especially when it climbs up to 2,500RPM. The powerful booster feeling suddenly felt, when revving up to 2,500RPM, same feeling goes to every gear. The car suddenly got all its power to accelerate. Bare in mind this is Proton Exora Bold Execute Manual sitting on 1.6 campro CPS heart, with 125 horsepower and 150nm of tourque but with a heavy 1.4 tonne weight. So this is the beauty of the manual, where you can drag those gears up to the desired power band before up-shifting. Don't expect it to beat those nasty small cars on the road though such as Myvi and Viva, because they are built for maneuverability and pickup. But trailing them, or even "potong" them is no problem when given slightly more gas.

During the dinner outing, we have 6 adults on board with 1 baby. I start driving from Sg. Chua to Boston at Bandar Putra Permai for dinner. The road conditions consists somewhat 50% of town-drive (Seri Kembangan town) and 50% highway (SILK highway on the way back). If anyone of you has been to Seri Kembangan / Serdang you know how bad the road conditions is. Proudly, my Exora swallows them without breaking a sweat, while maintaining the firmness of the car and everyone's smiling faces.

On highway, its power shines once again when the RPM reaches its power band. It accelerate like a turbo (may be VTEC) car so if you want to overtake cars then this is the RPM ranges you are looking at (2,500 ~ 3,000 RPMs) at any gear. So for those who doubt about Exora's performance, seriously look the the manual version or the CFE-CVT version. Way better that the ordinary auto.

PROTON (or LOTUS) ride & handling

The steering feel is also one of its best. I appreciate PROTON for keeping his hydraulic steering because it steers so precisely, especially when I tackled one Lebuh silicon and SILK (heading Kajang) corner, the body-role is minimal (compared to my sister-in-law's Alza and my own 9 years Iswara 1.3 LMSS).

The ride all the way is also smooth operator. On uneven Seri Kembangan roads, potholes and bumps can be cleared with flying colors even driving fast. The R&H is better than all my rides & cars that I test drove before including my Iswara 1.3 manual (This is also Lotus-tuned), my wife's Vios J 2010 1.5 auto, my sister-in-law's Alza 2011 1.5 auto, test drives models such as Myvi lagi best, Viva, Nissan Almera, Livina and Livina x-Gear while matching Kia Forte, Honda Civic 2012, Nissan Teana and Toyota Camry 2012 in terms of ride (not handling, because Lotus handling is still the best).

Noise, vibration and hardness is well contained. The only complain is its engine (roar sound, like after adding CAI) and radiator fan sound (WOOooo sound, like an aeroplane engine LOL!).

Fuel consumption

This is sometime hard to catch at the moment. I was given a full tank of gas by my SA so I will update you guys again when the tank depletes.

Quality & after service

Yes, this is the Malaysian's most worried part - PROTON's quality. This area is left blank for further input. So stay tuned to my blog.

For service center wise I have consulted the SA. She recommended World Car Care Service at Pusat Industrial area Bukit Serdang because according to her this SC has long operated and it more equipped. World Car Care also have a loyalty program (member card). Let me find out more and update you guys again.

So here you go my quick update on the second day of ownership. I didn't drive my new car to work coz sayang the car. I still use my workhorse Iswara which still serves well. My Exora will be a weekend car as of now.