Nowadays, there are so many brands of cars sold in Malaysia. Such as Honda, Nissan, Chevrolet, KIA, BMW and Mercedes Benz. Malaysia also produce their own line of cars mainly Proton and Perodua. In this article we will be sharing about two popular Malaysian made cars namely Proton Waja and Proton Persona.
First we will talk about Proton Waja, Proton Waja is a saloon car for family, designed in-house by Malaysian automotive company, Proton, first released in August 2000. The Waja is the first Malaysian-designed car. The name Waja, which means "tough (as steel)", reflects the strength of the steel used for the Waja compared with the previous models. The name was chosen partly to counter the perception in the domestic market that Proton cars were less strong. In the United Kingdom, the Waja is known as Proton Impian, "Impian" being another derivative of the Malay language, meaning "dream".
In 2002, the 1.8 L variant was introduced, powered by the same engine used in Renault Laguna II. The 1.8 L model incorporated drive-by-wire technology and variable valve timing (VVT) technology. However, the 1.8 L model suffered from poor sales because Malaysian customers were more familiar with Japanese engines and were less confident with European engines. As a result, the 1.8 L variant was phased out in the following year. On January 2006, the Campro engine was finally used to power the Waja. Although the engine is similar to the engine used in the Proton Gen-2, Satria Neo and Persona,the DOHC Campro engine used in the Waja has higher power and torque, probably due to the remapping of the ECU and also a different air intake system. The 2008 Proton Waja is now powered with a Campro CPS engine with variable valve timing, which was not available in the previous Waja Campro models. The Waja Chancellor, which was launched in 2006, featured a longer wheelbase and was powered by a Mitsubishi 6A12 2.0 L V6 engine similar to that used in Proton Perdana V6, also sourced from Mitsubishi. The car is also available only with a 4-speed automatic transmission.
By January 2012, the Campro CPS Turbo engine will be use to power the Waja CE. Although the engine is similar to the engine used in the Proton Gen-2 CPS and Proton Waja CPS, the Campro CPS Turbo engine used in the Waja CE will have higher power and torque, because of the use of a TD04 turbo with intercooler and the use of R3 tuned ECU and MSD Ignition Coil ECU and also a new and improved chassis,suspension and brake to accommodate its increased power. This model was developed as a prototype for the Proton Exora due to its lack of power and finding a new way to increase engine power without increasing the displacement. S4PP(T) is still in its prototype state and that's why it is now using a code name S4P (Prototype Turbo) Badge. Price may range from RM70-80K on the road. Proton has developed a Waja replacement called Proton Inspira, previously codenamed New Sedan and P309A. It is actually a rebadged Mitsubishi Lancer. The Proton Waja is discontinued and the Proton Inspira will be introduced as a new model that will be competing in the B and C segment markets. The Proton Inspira is completely in a different market than the Waja. For Waja 1.6 Litre manual transmission, the maximum speed is 186 km/h. But, for the 1.6 Litre automatic transmission, the maximum speed is 181 km/h. When Proton Waja is driving on the road, the time taken for the speed to increase from 0-100km/h is 12.0 seconds (manual) and 14.7 seconds (Auto). The fuel consumption for Waja at 90km/j is 6.1 Litre/100km(manual) and 6.5 Litre/100km(auto). And for Waja 1.8Litre the maximum speed is 186km/h. It also takes about 13 seconds to go from 0-100km/h. The fuel consumption at 90km/h is 6.9Litre/100km(auto). The price for Waja is RM 59 455 (1.6L SOHC Manual), RM63 322(Auto) and RM 66 799 (1.6 L EV with airbags). For the chassis, Waja front suspension use Mac Pherson Strut and Coil Spring while the rear suspension use Multilink and Coil spring.
Next, we will be sharing about Proton Persona. A bit of introduction on the Proton Persona, the Proton Persona is a compact car introduced by Proton in 2007. Proton Persona is an in-house design by Azlan Othman. Proton Persona replaced the saloon variant of the successful Proton Wira. Proton Persona is largely similar to the Proton Gen-2 hatchback, with an added boot, slightly extended roof, line and higher profile tyres. Some interesting facts, the Proton Persona is also known as Proton Gen-2 Persona in United Kingdom and Indonesia. Proton Persona comes with two choices of colours, brilliant red and blue haze and has a leather-wrapped steering wheel. It has a separate and large boot best suited for us Malaysian as most of us prefer saloon car and most important it has less roofline slopes which gives more rear headroom. The interior is design to incorporate a glovebox at the dashboard. The Proton Persona also has a digital clock which resides on the instrumental panel. In addition, the door trims and panels are built to feature more ergonomic window switches and door handles. The suspension setting is also tune more to comfort. The Proton Persona comes with a GPS which is handy when you happen to lose your way, it also has an Auto Cruise that is convenient when travelling far as it enables the driver to cruise at a consistent speed without having to press on the pedal. Now let us go to more technical details, the Proton Persona has a 1.6 litre Campro engine. It comes in two transmission choices, manual and automatic. For the manual transmission, it can travel from 0 - 100 km/h in 12.0 seconds and have a top speed of 186 km/h. Whereas for the automatic transmission, it can travel from 0 – 100 km/h in 14.3 seconds and have a top speed of 181 km/h. It has a 50 litre fuel. The Proton Persona has a sporty look with length of 4477mm, width of 1725mm and a height of 1438mm.
Now comes the part where we will be comparing both cars head on. After having the chance of driving both cars, we notice there are some differences between these two cars. Proton Waja has a larger interior space compared to Proton Persona. Besides that, the seat of Proton Waja is more comfortable compared to Proton Persona. Proton Persona has an arm rest right in front of its gear lever and it sometimes become an obstacle to drivers while changing gears. The arm rest of the car actually makes the space in front becomes smaller. In terms of side mirrors, Proton Waja has a wider side mirror than that of a Proton Persona. During reverse, the driver might constantly face problems, as Proton Persona has small side mirror. Plus, Persona has a wide and high back body that blocks the view while reversing. We feel that Proton Waja is more exciting to be driven compared to Persona.
Before we end this article we would like to point that this article is mainly on our own driving experiences after driving both the cars. We can’t totally condemned Proton Persona because we admit that it indeed has a more sporty look but in terms of few technical differences, we have come to a conclusion that Proton Waja has an edge when compared to Proton Persona.
