Proton Pahlawan Series - MPV Lekiu

Proton Tuah

Pahlawan series was launched at the Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show (KLIMS) 2010 at the Putra World Trade Centre here yesterday. At Proton’s booth, the attention grabbers were its series of the Pahlawan concept and show cars inspired by the five legendary warriors of the Malacca empire – Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Hang Lekir, Hang Lekiu and Hang Kasturi.

Unveiled for the first time, the Tuah is a large sedan concept, Jebat a high performance sedan, Lekir a sports car, Lekiu a five-door crossover and Kasturi an entry level sedan.

Meanwhile, Perodua unveiled its next generation concept vehicle called the Bezza, a compact model that comes with rear sliding doors and seats that can swivel for easy exit. It also features intelligent multimedia and mobile connectivity.

More more pictures here.

Eco Mobility Advance Solution (EMAS) by Proton

We tought that only Sarah and Hajar are in the driving seats for their EMAS program at IIUM, now even Proton has their very own EMAS program.. On the second thought, as we are looking for another small car like the antic Mini Cooper above, the Proton 'eco' should be rightly pictured at the posh greeneries.. not the oldies..
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From The Star GENEVA: Malaysia’s first global car Emas is expected to mark the birth of a golden era for Proton, the national car maker.

The concept version of the car, shown in three variants, was launched at the Geneva Inter­national Motor Show yesterday by Proton adviser Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Production by 2012.

“This is Proton’s 25th year and we want to tell the world that Proton is now ready to be a global player,” he said, adding that Proton was willing to invest in strategic partnerships to drive this new direction for the company. He said the project represented a giant techonogical leap for Proton, which previously focused on the local market.

Emas, an acronym for Eco Mobility Advance Solution, was designed in collaboration with acclaimed Italian design house Italdesign Giugiaro.

Adios Gen.2

What a nice drive-by-wire car. Back in February 2004, when the Gen.2 started to roll out from its Proton City assembly line, we waited anxiously to get hold of this car. Attracted to the sporty design, the Gen.2 resembles one of mercedes’ coupe model especially when looking from the rear side. Designed based on ‘minimalist’ concept it looks small but yet muscular and compact.

Knowing that purple Gen.2 will be a rare species, we waited for another two months and it was not until end of July we managed to drive home a brand new Gen.2 after so much hassle from the dealer. Like other proton cars sure Gen.2 has its setbacks like the door handle, power window, exhaust pipe but all these are quite normal to other proton models.

However, we had our bad time also when the fuel  pump beneath the back seat and the clock disc inside the steering wheel got kaput – really unfortunate.

Used as a second car, the farthest it has traveled was to Taiping, during Raya 2006. 5 years on, and barely 46,000 km moving here and there in the otherwise smooth and breakdown free, we decided its time to go separate ways. Monday 2 November was the last time our purple Gen.2 parked at the compound. Snapped up by one family friend on a ‘hire purchase’ agreement, now the main kids-school-fetching-car is demoted to a Wira, for now. Hope it is temporary though, and going upward again is SWIFT.