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By EWAN
KENNEDY
7 December 2009
Australia's cheapest car, the Proton S16 sedan has just gone on
sale. With a price tag of just $11,990 it is creating a huge
amount of interest amongst buyers, as evidenced by a big rise in
the number of hits on our website (www.mister-cars.com), over the
last few days.
Value for money is obviously the biggest appeal in this Malaysian
car, but there have been quite a few comments on the neat lines of
its body, with people saying the shape is out of the ordinary
without being overly different.
Proton S16 GX is the only sedan on the Australian market that
retails for less $16,000, the other low-cost cars all have two
passenger doors, which can be a real hassle to those looking for a
budget-priced family car.
Proton gambled on not having an official press launch of the S16,
knowing it didn’t have a large number of cars in the initial
shipment, and that money saved on the launch could be used to hold
the starting price down. So we had to borrow an S16 from our local
Proton dealer. The result was one of the shortest road tests we've
ever undertaken. But it was enough to get the feel of the car in
the urban environment, which is where the majority of S16s will
work.
We will carry out a full road test over our standard course when
we get hold of an S16 for a week, hopefully early in the new year.
The Proton S16 four-door sedan has a good sized boot, but the
price has been kept down by only having a single airbag (for the
driver), and being without ESP (an Electronic Stability Program)).
All come with a five-speed manual transmission. A Proton S16 GX
automatic goes on sale in February 2010.
On the positive side the Proton S16 GX manual is adequately
equipped in most areas and well fitted out in others. It has air
conditioning, power steering, central locking, remote keyless
entry, alarm/immobiliser, CD AM/FM audio system, power front
windows, remote filler release, intermittent front wipers and
height adjustable steering wheel.
The interior is cheap and cheerful and the build quality and fit
is okay. The driver ergonomics are good. The back seat is
comfortable, it's set up for three, but leg room and shoulder room
are at a premium and two would be a lot more comfortable. The
doors have drink holders.
The instrument binnacle houses a tachometer and speedometer in two
large circular cylinders. Inside the tacho display there's a bar
graph display for fuel and water temperature. The radio controls
are small, which is one of our pet hates. Just under the audio
system are the A/C controls which are large and user-friendly.
The S16 scores well with storage spaces with a `bin' moulded into
the dash on the passenger side above the glove box. There’s also
a handy coin, mobile telephone bin just in front of the manual
gear shift and another storage area between the gear shifter and
the hand brake. Each of the doors has plenty of room for
documents, a street directory or the like.
The five-speed gearbox is a little notchy, but not so that it's
annoying. The 1.6 Campro engine is willing through the gears and
indeed revs out to 6500 rpm if you need that little extra.
The handling on what few corners we took seemed fine: as it
should, being Lotus tuned.
July 2010 will see the introduction of the new S16 GX with
increased specifications and also a GXR variant both in automatic
and manual form, which will include additional features such as
dual SRS airbags and ABS as standard on all variants. The high
spec GXR will also have alloy wheels, reverse sensors and fog
lamps as standard.
Value for money in this new Malaysian car is amazingly good and
many will like to have a brand new car with a three-year unlimited
distance warranty sitting in their driveway for less than the
price of most used cars under about two years old.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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