New Ride Review: Proton Saga 1.3 FLX CVT Executive

Got my new ride on Valentine's day (14th February 2013). Black Proton Saga 1.3 FLX CVT Executive variant.

Why did I choose this as my 3rd wife (sorry 老婆大人!!)? Easy. Budget: RM4x k, fuel efficient, stable at high speed, and nice to drive. Initial test drive do convince me well. I really like the brake (compared with the old Iswara of my house) and the fact that it is using CVT. Have been using it for a few months now. This is what I feel. This will be my first 5 year plan: This car will be replaced at the end of 5 year, and I shall upgrade it to a better unit at that time.

Exterior

At first glance, it looks...Tall! Significantly taller than the old FL and BLM. This suggest that the suspension is tuned this way, more travelling distance for the suspension and more comfortable ride, at the cost of higher center of gravity. This do make the Saga looks a lot less sporty.

The headlamp, meanwhile, definitely looks more "focused" and aggressive compared with Saga FL and Saga BLM. Bumper and skirt, being the non-premium 1.6 version, is, well, normal. But oh well, I am not looking for something sporty, for now. My target was to get a "not-too-ugly" ride which is cheap, stable and low maintenance. The executive variant also comes with a 185/60R14 alloy rim, side mirror turn signals and a cheap looking subtle spoiler. Overall: It looks ok. Better looking than Viva definitely, slightly better than the new MyVi, and the ugly Mitsubishi Mirage, if we compared with car around RM40 - 60k. Persona do look better though.

Interior

The dashboard is normal plastic. Looks standard, and cheap, but it is this is a low cost car, so nothing to be complain about.

The seat is fabric, a change from my old Spectra which comes with leather seat. The front seat is just nice, for me anyway. Meaning that a person with BMI >30 may find the seat to be a bit too small for comfort. Another thing I like about the seat is the unique side support. Definitely feels more comfortable and steadier when travelling long distance and cornering hard (!!). The back seat, though, is nothing special.

The legroom is seriously generously big! For the backseat anyway. Good for family travelling in a small car. When the front seat is fully pushed back, there is still sufficiently comfortable legroom for the backseat passenger.

The air conditioning unit is quite powerful. At lowest speed, the fan speed is as fast as the 2.5 on my Spectra. The flow of cool air can effectively reach everywhere inside the car, a problem with the Spectra.

Boots

My philosophy for getting a car is: "Car without sizable boot space is not a car". Luckily Saga did good in this area. 413L of boot space. Not really the biggest, not even near, but it is not little either. Comes with a washable rubber mat to prevent accidental liquid spillage.

The Cockpit (Feel and Taste)

IMHO, the cockpit deserve a special subtopic as it is the area where the driver interact with the car. So, feel, comfort and practicality of each and every switch/button/stick etc is important!

The meter is illuminated in white backlight, that is if you turn on the headlight. No headlight, no backlight. But seriously, when it is illuminated, the 2 analogue meter dial (tacho and speedo) looks pretty. The fuel gauge and temperature gauge, though, is digital, divided into 6 small boxes. IMHO, I prefer these 2 in analogue form rather than digital form. And there is the standard sets of diagnostic/warning lamp and odometer/tripmeter on the meter as well. The tripmeter could use some improvement though: only 1 memory! I use the tripmeter for 2 things: 1 for the calculation of fuel efficiency and another for the trip that I use for claiming purposes. No multipurpose display for this budget car.

The steering wheel is height adjustable, though not telescopically adjustable. The seating and pedal position is designed so that you will have a hard time trying to use both foot to operate the pedal (compared with my Spectra). Automatic gearbox don't like concurrent pedals application anyway, so it may actually help preventing the CVT into going into high stress mode. Meanwhile, seating position can be adjusted to go forward/backward and up/down, but the seat height is fixed. Not really a problem for me though. Shorter or taller person may find it hard to read the meter though.

Next is the turn signal/headlamp/wiper stick. 1 word. Weird. For me anyway, since I came from the background of driving cars with wiper stick on the left and turn signal/headlamp stick on the right. Will definitely need some time to get use to though. The wiper functionality is just the basic off-int-1-2 and pull-to-wash-windscreen, no adjustable interval for the int. And NO REAR WIPER, which is normal for a sedan (but hey, my Spectra have it, so why a tiny Saga can't have it?). Boy I do miss the rear wiper function especially on a cold morning. Headlamp and turn signal is standard. The quality of the stick does leave some room for improvement, as I do feel like making the sticks stretch a bit too much every time I used them, even with low force applied on them.

The side mirrors, meanwhile, is power adjustable, but the switch is a bit hard to be accessed, especially during driving session. They are, however, need to be manually folded, a bit annoying when you park in a small and narrow parking lot. The size of the mirrors, though, is huge! A big plus for a small car!

The gear knob is the normal P-R-N-D-L type automatic gearbox. The knob movement feels good and can be reach comfortably. The CVT version comes with an additional SAT button. A useless button if you asked me. More to that later.

And lastly, the most important, and worst aspect of the cockpit: The toy-like steering wheel! This is the worst looking steering wheel out of the so many car that I have seen and tried. Even the cheap game wheel for PC that I bought a few years ago feel better. The feel of the steering is just not there. The grip is slightly too big, and definitely does not feel as well as Spectra. The steering wheel also comes equipped with basic audio control, nothing to shout about though.

Drive

Proton, with their association with Lotus engineering, did well with the ride and handling of the car. The car goes over the bumps quite well, and for a 1065kg kerb weight car, it performs quite well for comfort. Handling is a bit on the soft side, and like most FF (front engine front wheel drive), is more on the understeer side. Turn in is not as sharp as I would like (as in Spectra). And the turn radius is actually not that great. Parking with this car is a bit of hassle due to the rather limited steering angle (or the turn radius, I don't know). I can park my Spectra (a relatively wide and long car in comparison) much easier than the Saga. This is where Proton can look at to improve.

Now comes the engine/drivetrain combo. This is the most interesting part about the car. It is a love / hate situation. The engine is not the most powerful on the block, but it is more than enough for normal city drive. For the transmission, you will need to learn "How to tame a CVT gearbox". The Saga FLX's CVT is actually attached to a wet clutch, rather than the commonly used torque converter. It does really feels like driving a manual transmission in a way. From standstill, you will need to rev the engine a bit (about 1.5k RPM) and the system automatically close the clutch ala manual  transmission. Also, you will feel the engine dragging the car down (not much gliding down the road) when you release the throttle, very significantly when the RPM reach around 1.3k, (for example taking a slow corner). It can be quite evident as the engine rarely drop to less than 2k RPM when gliding down the street, compared to the Spectra which can glide down the road at 70km/h at engine speed of 1.2k RPM. It depends on individual driving style, but for me, I prefer to glide down the road at low RPM whenever necessary to save fuel. Overtaking does take sometime to get used to, coming from a normal torque converter automatic transmission, as stepping down the gas pedal suddenly will make the engine scream to 3k - 4k RPM quickly without any significant change in speed, and then suddenly, you will feel a forward rushing feeling as the CVT changes the gear ratio and engine speed drop appropriately. It can be scary, but once you get used to it, it is quite fun. This, however, is a big pain in the ass especially changing lane in heavy traffic as the initial acceleration is slow and unpredictable. edit Further reading on autoworld forum reveal many new tips and tricks!

Maintenance

So far so good. Only at 1000km service only so far. The only problem I had encountered is the door sensor.

Newest problem: "Tak tak tak" sound when braking at low speed. Checked and found that it is a common problem with the rear drum brake that does not cause problem with braking performance. Shall get into Proton Service Center when the 5000km service interval reached.

Fuel Consumption

With 50:50 mixed city driving, I have achieved about 13.6km/L (or 7.4 L/100km, 32 MPG, 14 sen/km), not yet hitting the 5000km mark yet. And at highway, the figure reached 15.9km/L (or 6.3 L/100km, 37.4 MPG, 12 sen/km). Quite good actually.

Overall

The good:
Good looking speedo and tachometer, seat with good lateral support, relatively fuel efficient, CVT (good pick up after standing start, good for mildly aggressive driving), good NVH, comfortable soft suspension without getting too bad on cornering, ABS, EBD, good feel on the brake (especially if compared to old saga), very large side mirror
The bad:
Too tall (thus less aggressive looking), toy-like steering wheel, CVT (standing start is unusual for an automatic gearbox, aggressive overtaking is not a good idea, steep hill slide back), whining CVT, no automatic central lock when stepping on brake, bad rear drum brake design, cannot really glide down the road (like auto gear box with torque converter /manual clutch), undersized rim (15 inch would definitely look better), very limited turn radius, digital fuel/temp indicator, only single tripmeter memory.
The so so:
The dashboard is so so looking, onboard audio quality is so so, boot space also so so, dual front airbag, price is so so, audio control on steering wheel (functional but so so design)

Conclusion
Proton did well, but could do still do much better, especially the interior design. A total disgrace. The path of choosing CVT is good move by Proton, as many car manufacturer are moving that way compared to other transmission (dual clutch, 6/7/8/9 speed torque converter, etc), and I do feel that CVT is going to be the future of all automatic transmission due to its gear ratio flexibility, long maintenance interval and lighter compared with multi-speed automatic gearbox. The engine and CVT can still be improved, as I feel that there is room for improvement (as in fuel efficiency).

More pictures will come soon, if I have the time! I should have, since the place I work in is sooooooooooooo free.

:)