Proton Saga
Proton Saga is the first car model ever produced by Malaysian automotive giant Proton based on Mitsubishi Lancer Fiore. It was first debuted on Jult 1985. The first Proton Saga rolled off the production line was presented to Malaysian National Museum as a symbolic of the start of Malaysian automotive industry. Since then Proton Saga and its variants contribute most of Proton's sales and revenues. The Saga variants are also popular among taxi drivers who need cars with low fuel consumption and low maintenance costs.
Proton Saga in historyProton Saga was launched on July 1985 by Malaysia's Prime Minister at that time, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. Before the production of Proton Saga, a contest was held to choose the name of the first national model, and the name Saga was chosen from the winner of the contest. To mark Malaysia's continuous success, Tun Dr. Mahathir used a Proton Saga to cross Penang Bridge during the opening ceremony of the bridge. The early Proton Saga models were powered by SOHC 8-valve 4-cylinder engines sourced from Mitsubishi which were also known as Orion engines and then Magma engines. Two displacement options available were 1.3L and 1.5L, both in manual transmission while the automatic transmission model used a 3-speed gearbox and only available in 1.5L model only. At the beginning, Proton Saga was a sedan model but in 1987 a hatchback version of Proton Saga was available. In 1989, Proton started to export the Saga to United Kingdom with the slogan Japanese Technology, Malaysian Style. Since then, United Kingdom contributes most of Proton's export production. In 1990, Proton revamped the power plant of Saga and replaced the previous engine with 12-valve engines known as Magma Megavalve to increase the horsepower to 75 bhp (1.3L model) and 90 bhp (1.5L model). Proton IswaraIn 1992, Proton revamped the exterior of the Saga and renamed the revamped model as Proton Saga Iswara, or also known as Proton Iswara, named after a species of butterfly in Sarawak. The design remained unchanged for about 11 years due to popular demand among Malaysian customers. However, the export model of the Iswara especially UK-spec versions were available in fuel injected version to meet Euro III emission standards while most of Saga variants used carburetors for the fuel system. The return of the SagaIn 2003 Proton redesigned the interior of the Iswara and also made a little touch-ups to the exterior, and the model was renamed back as Proton Saga. The interior of the new Proton Saga has a digital panel consisting an odometer, a fuel gauge and a thermometer. In addition, Proton re-tuned the Magma Megavalve engine to increase the horsepower to 83 bhp, a little bit higher than some fuel-injected rivals. However, the new Saga is only available in Malaysia since cars with carburetors can no longer meet the requirements of the European latest emission standards. See alsoExternal links |