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In September 2005, after going through the range of vehicles available in the R140K to R150K range, I decided to take a chance on a new vehicle on the South African market. The Proton Gen2 GLX came with a whole menagerie of options including PDC, EBD, ABS, electric windows and rear view mirrors, leather seats, 4 airbags, front loading CD player (with controls on the steering wheel) and a 3year service plan (up to 60000Km). Feature for feature the options made it better value than a VW Polo Classic or Toyota Corolla. For R10000 less the Gen2 GL doesn’t have a boot spoiler, leather seats, PDC, fog lights and 2 less airbags.
They are both powered by a 16 valve 1600 motor with a claimed 82Kw on tap. With Proton being the holding company of Lotus, they have been able to borrow a bit of development from the race proven car manufactures. The road holding is really great in the twisties. I think they got them to help out with the looks department as this is a very eye catching piece of machinery.
The performance unfortunately did not match the good looks or that of the test drive car. My 1400 Citi Golf would run away from it every time. It's thirstier than an Englishman in the dessert. The urban average is 9.7l/100km and an open road best of 7.2l/100km at 100Km/h. Nowhere near the claims.
The “feel good about my new car” feeling was short lived however. Features listed on Pronton’s web site and printed brochures weren’t supplied with the car. Things like wheel lock nuts are not fitted. The RDS MP3 player/radio is no more than a front loading CD player. For an extra R1000 I could buy the cable for an MP3 player and have the dealer fit it with labour at my cost. When I approached the dealership, Pearl Auto in Bryanston, about the these and other errors, they told me they know about it but they are not going to do anything about my problems.
One of the serious issues I have is the lack of parts available. PG auto tried to fix a stone chip but it didn’t work. The guy said he is sorry but there were no windscreens available in the county to replace it. While changing brake pads (4 days after a service because they didn’t hear the scraping) one of the wheel studs was stripped by the technician. After 4 weeks they still hadn’t received a replacement.
Another major problem I have is the huge drop in value of these vehicles. After less than a year it had lost 50%. This problem goes so far as that some of the Proton dealers could not give be a value for my insurance. Edenvale Proton eventually gave a guestimate value of “about R93000.00” for my car which only had 33000Km on it. I’ve had an offer of R40000 for trade in.
My opinion – stay away from it, it's not worth the effort of owning.
