What could be a better strategy for a company to follow than making efforts to improve its products? Malaysia’s oldest automaker has been struggling to prove itself worth of the same attention around the world as any other competitor of its size. After officializing the first step with the all-new Prevé’s arrival and collecting impressive press approval, now it’s time to extend the new project into another body. Suprima S wants to show it can seduce with its own means, rather than being a mere complement for that sedan.
Proton was founded thirty years ago, mostly dedicated to Asian markets. The company started working basically with Mitsubishi technology under license, whether only taking platforms to develop cars of their own or simply badge-engineering complete models – Tiara was an exception from 1996 to 2000, being a rebadged Citroën AX which was sold as a cheaper option in whichever market both were offered. Such strategy enabled the automaker to offer an expressive number of models in not too much time, but ended working also as a permanent barrier to its own growth. After all, Proton’s image could never be strong working like that, making it impossible to sell in more expensive categories because these customers care much more about emotional aspects like that, instead of objective ones like cheap price. This is why the Malaysians decided to start creating their cars from scratch, which was first accomplished in the last decade with Gen-2 and Waja. However, they didn’t sell well even being projected in partnership with Lotus because of several minor failures: some complained about slow powertrain, others about lack of comfort items, and the styling wasn’t exactly attractive. Waja even received a terrible rating on EuroNCAP tests… They weren’t bad cars, but it wouldn’t be hard for Proton to do (much) better.
That was the moment when the automaker decided to go bigger, making Prevé follow higher standards. So, after seeing achievements like this sedan becoming the seventh best-selling car in Malaysia, Proton now extends this set of qualities to the hatchback, in a process which reminds very much of Chevrolet Cruze’s: the sedan’s four doors are shared with Suprima S, which implied it’ll also have a smoother version of Prevé’s semicircular roof. However, the automaker converted that into a “sportiness potential”: the different name enabled the hatchback to receive exclusive styling details, such as more aggressive bumpers and wheels and rear spoiler. The interior repeats everything debuted on Prevé, which includes Proton’s Android-based infotainment central with Internet access. The intention is to join Suprima’s stylish design with good equipment at reasonable prices, which start at RM 76,388. Offering brake assist, stability and traction controls and six airbags helped it to achieve five stars at both Australia/New Zealand, Malaysia and United Kingdom’s crash tests, which is always a nice sales argument. This hatchback will use a turbocharged CamPro 1.6L engine, whose 138 hp take it from 0 to 100 kph in 9s9 and to 190 kph of top speed, always paired to a CVT transmission.
