Here is the latest Proton Exora teaser ad insertion scanned from today’s The Star. There are loads of more details about the MPV, so let me just list them here for those who are kinda lazy to load the full-resolution version of the photo to read the details.
- Campro CPS Engine - Proton claims enough power to transport 7 adults with a full load of luggage while maintaining fuel efficiency. The first part of believable but I’m doubtful about the second part, you can’t have the best of both worlds, not with a regular twincam normally aspirated engine like the Campro CPS. Power output is quoted at 125hp and 150Nm of torque which is equivalent to the output in the Waja CPS, GEN2 CPS and Satria Neo CPS, but some parameters such as CPS and VIM activation points may have been changed, we’ll only find out at the launch.
- Quiet Cabin - Proton claims a quiet cabin because of sound absorption material (they use the word technology).
- Ride & Handling - As usual, the Lotus brand name and their involvement in tuning the suspension settings for Proton cars are being pushed as a selling point for the Exora MPV.
- Small Turning Radius - Proton says the Exora has a turning radius of 5.3 meters. A turning radius is essentially the radius of a small circular turn, or a U-turn that the vehicle is capable of making. The smaller the number, the less space required by a vehicle to U-turn. Note that there are two types of turning radius that can be specified - curb-to-curb or wall-to-wall which is measured either by the distance travelled by the wheels or including the whole car including body overhangs and etc, with the latter being more accurate of course. Let’s compare to some other MPVs - 5.2 meters for the Toyota Passo Sette (this could be the upcoming Perodua MPV), Toyota Wish - 5.3 meters, Nissan Grand Livina - 5.2 meters, Honda Stream - 5.4 meters, Mazda 5 - 5.3 meters, Toyota Alphard - 5.7 to 5.9 meters, Toyota Rush - 5.2 meters.
- Intelligent Electronic Body Control Programme - I’m not sure what this is. Proton calls this an integrated module which allows you to recalibrate electronic components to suit your driving needs such as wipers and signal lights. I am told that this is a central control module which communicates with various components of the car including the examples given. My source tells me this is more of something that works behind the scenes at the moment and there is not much of a user interface to control but I suspect this will allow some form of user controllability in the future such as programmable follow-me home lights and etc just by adding a user interface to it.
- LED tail lamps and brake lights - We already know this from the spyshots.
Read our past coverage of the Proton Exora while we patiently count down to its launch, expected to be in April 2009. [Refer: At Paul Tan’s Automotive News]
News bit on Proton
1 McCann Runs Pre Launch Campaign For Proton’s First MPV
TAXI Design Network
2 Proton holds pre-launch campaign for first MPV
Media
3 Malaysia: Proton welcomes proposed scrappage scheme
Automotive World
AsiaOne
5 Exora frame finds fame in UTM
Malaysia Star
