Give a Try - Proton Persona

Test Drive: Proton Persona

When Proton introduced the Gen.2 many thought it was a mistake because Malaysia is a sedan market so when the Persona came out many had high expectations for it. However those who were waiting for the car were not looking for outright performance, instead they wanted a sensible, roomy and comfortable ride for the family.

Proton said they listened to their customers but sensible, roomy and comfortable are the ingredients for a boring car. is the Persona a boring car?

The Proton Persona is the car that should have come out before the Gen.2 as the real replacement to the Wira and judging from the popularity of the car, it seems that Proton has made the right decision introducing a sedan.

Malaysians want a car that is reasonably priced, roomy and looks good and the Persona scores highly on all three counts.

Obviously the looks are slightly dated, given that it is a five year old design but it is still a relatively modern shape.

Proton has been quite successful in injecting Lotus DNA into their cars and all their products now offer decent ride and handling, in fact I would go as far as to say that they are among the best handling cars in the price range .

The Persona continues with this tradition. However we have to keep in mind that the Persona is a car that is aimed at the mass market and because of this, Proton cannot tune the handling to be too aggressive but it is still a car that can be driven hard on your favourite winding roads.

The only complaint that I have is the wooden steering. The feedback is not as intimate as I would like but there is sufficient communication between tyre and driver to make sure that you know what the car is doing.

The grip limit on the Persona is not very high, although the spiderweb graph of ride and handling shows that the lateral grip level is comparable to the best cars in the class. Of course manufacturers can tune their cars to achieve higher lateral grip figures but this may come at the expense of predictability. Cars with very high lateral grip tend to give way suddenly and this can be handful for the average driver to catch.

More important than pure grip is predictability and this is what Proton engineers have focused on. If you chuck the car hard into a corner, it will tell you in advance if the rear is losing grip and this early warning will help drivers keep their cool and take early remedial action.

The Persona also has decent ride quality, it strikes a good balance between body control and suspension suppleness. This is easily demonstrated when the car drives over speedbumps and undulating roads without crashing on its bumpstops.

Secondary ride is also impressive as it absorbs minor road imperfections without shaking the occupants too much. Proton has also done a good job insulating suspension and road noise from the cabin, this helps to further enhance the feeling of chassis rigidity and stiffness.

These are of course relative measurements but I think that the Persona has the ride and handling characteristics of a European car from the 1990s rather than a Japanese model from the same time period .

In fact if I were to see a Honda City or Toyota Vios on a winding road, the Persona would be the perfect foil for a game of tag with them. In fact I dare say that I prefer the Persona’s sure-footedness over the other two which are softer sprung.

If the Persona were to lose to the City or Vios it will be down to the lack of power. The IAFM module may have improved the mid-range torque spread but the engine simply does not generate enough power to make it an exciting drive. You really have to play with the ratio and let fuel consumption suffer if you want to smile on your favourite back road.

The Persona is not really an exciting car but it manages to avoid being boring by a hair thanks to the Lotus-tuned suspension but don’t kid yourself into thinking that it is some kind of BMW beater or Civic chaser even. It would leave any Perodua in the handling stakes and can put all entry level Japanese sedans in their place but that is about it.

I think that is more than what the average customer expects.

Comfort is an important factor to consider when choosing a family car and a lot of it is determined by cabin dimensions such as leg, knee, head and shoulder room.

The Gen.2 came under heavy fire for the lack of rear headroom for taller passengers and this problem has been addressed by the revised roofline which free up a few extra milimetres of space.

In terms of overall cabin space, it can fit five average sized Malaysian adults without too much complaint although on really long drives, it is best if you travel four-up rather than five.

The cabin design has been thoroughly reworked although most of the effort was concentrated on the door panel design and materials. The door panels are now less dramatic with more conventional handles and cloth padding but this more mature look will help the car age better.

I used to hate the upholstery on the Gen.2 because it reminded me of cheap nylon trousers so it is great to see that the Persona has ditched it in favour of a more conventional weave.

Sadly the company could not afford to redesign and engineer a new dashboard, that would cost too many millions and the Gen.2 weak sales means that the original design has yet to pay for itself.

My pet peeve is the fiddly radio controls in the centre console, in fact I actually hate the the round display and tiny buttons. It reminds me too much of crop circles or the controls of an alien mothership in a really cheap sci-fi. Ugh…

I really hope that strong Personal sales will give them extra cash to redesign the dashboard soon.

Malaysians like to travel in large groups, they like to pack as many people as possible into the car and this means the bot has to be big enough to swallow all their luggage.

The Persona’s high bootline creates a big load area and it should be enough to hold four people’s weekend luggage without problems.

The Persona is not the best family sedan you can buy but that is a factor of price and what people are willing to pay for a Proton. I believe that the company already has the capability to design a car that can impress the global market but their brand strength is still very low and this prevents them from packing a lot of luxuries into their models and charging a premium.

Thankfully that has not stopped them from fitting the highline models with twin airbags and anti-lock brakes. Well if it was up to me, the car should have side airbags and a curtain bag but that may make it a bit too expensive. We Malaysians are still not willing to pay too much extra for safety features are we?

On a scale of one to ten, the Persona gets a strong six but if you factor in the price, that rating goes up one notch to seven. Give better quality interior and I may even be persuaded to give it a 7.2.

If Proton can come up with a 1.8 variant ten this car would be a great little number.

First Driving Impressions

Proton Persona - TEST DRIVE


There is always an air of excitement when testing any new model and with a Proton, it is often even greater. In part, there is curiosity about how much further down the road Malaysia’s national carmaker of 22 years has come and also whether the new model is better. For reasons most people know, Proton has been badly hit by poor quality and other issues for many years now so there is scepticism whenever talk of a new model surfaces.

So the new Persona was a model which everyone was waiting for to see if Proton would finally wake up or not. This time round, according to Proton MD Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin, the development schedule was followed and the model is on time with everything that needed to be done completed properly. So there would be no excuse of a ‘rushed job’ resulting in poorly built product reaching the showrooms.

As usual, the preview was held at the Proton test circuit behind the Shah Alam factory. However, due to upgrading of the facility, the oval could not be used but this was not missed since the inner tracks are more twisty.

The first car I went in has a manual transmission and I didn’t actually feel any real difference in the low-end acceleration, not surprising since the engine is the same as the Gen2 with its drawbacks. The top-end performance has always been impressive but unless you are blasting along the highway, that’s not something the daily driver wants. I must say, though, that the feel of the manual shifter was better than what I remember and more positive, more solid.

Proton did not provide comparisons to the Gen2 but offered factory data on straightline performance compared to the Wira 1.5 and 1.6. The Persona Manual does 12.5 seconds for 0 – 100 km/h while the Wira did 12.1 seconds and the Wira 1.6 did 10.8 seconds, so if a Wira outruns you off the line, it’s to be expected (although more than a few Wira owners have modded their engines). In consumption, Proton’s own tests show that the Wira 1.6 is 10% less thirsty than the Persona but this would depend on driving style and conditions too.

Handling was as taut as the Gen2 and I think the Persona might have an edge too because of the better weight distribution. It felt less frisky in tight turns and the stability was more apparent on fast sweepers. It would be interesting to do an A-B comparison with the Gen2 to see if this impression is entirely correct.

Jumping into a Persona Auto, I expected to feel something ‘different’ and I am happy to report that I was not disappointed. The reprogramming does change the character of the engine and though it’s a bit like ‘cheating’, there is a sense of stronger acceleration on take-off. The kick-downs were a bit abrupt but not so much that the car would lurch, something which is evident in some cars and makes driving unpleasant. From half-throttle to kick-down, the shifting is smooth and propels the Persona forward with more authority, which will certainly make a driver feel more confident when overtaking.

Ride comfort should be okay though on the flat surface of the Proton track, little could be discerned. The damping rates are well chosen and there is no jarring over bumps. But then again, ride and handling have never been a criticism of Proton’s own models since the Satria GTI when Lotus Engineering came into the picture.

The other notable improvement in the Persona over the Gen2 is the reduced noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). This is always important as it has an influence on how the occupants feel about the car. The Persona is fairly quiet at even higher speeds, with the engine noise being less annoying. Low NVH will also go a long way to giving the impression of a well-built car.

The driver’s seating position is unchanged from that of the Gen2 which would be hard to do as the ‘hard points’ (the carefully chosen measurements relating to the position of the body) cannot simply be altered. So you still get what is meant to be a ‘sporty’ seating position that, in daily use, may not be appealing to everyone.

With the past few new Proton models, we have given praises for a good new product only to find that before long, the same old issues seem to afflict the new car. The same high marks can be given to the Persona and it certainly has the feel and looks of a well-built car. Hopefully, the high quality we saw in the cars tested is what customers will get and not just the first batch but every customer.