While Proton sales on the rise, aiming to take back no 1 crown from Perodua with the sales of new saga BLM alone was at 23,000 units last week, Perodua at the same time does not want to lose the sweet spot aiming to sell 170,000 units of cars in 2008. No latest offering from Perodua except facelifted MyVi expected to due in third quarter this year. Perodua target MyVi (shown above with airmaster body kit) and ViVa to be largest contributors to overall sales volume.

Facts from the news:

1. Perodua targets to sell 170,000 units of cars in 2008
2. MyVi and ViVa expected to be the major contributors to the figures
3. In 2007, Perodua solds 162,400 units of vehicles
4. MyVi biggest fan is women
5. Last month alone, ViVa received 11,000 units of booking
6. The booking received from Klang Valley area only

Who says ViVa doesn’t sell, but not sure how many from those booking translated into real sale. Only time will tell. Good luck to both P1 and P2.

Full news from Utusan Malaysia after the jump.

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The Edge described the new Proton Saga (BLM) as the car that will disrupt automotive industry in Malaysia. A car that likely to change the equilibrium in the local entry-level car segment, which is currently dominated by second national car manufacturer Perodua, the ever famous Perodua MyVi. The model’s disruptive force comes from its price factor and product offering. This was the news a week before it’s launching and that time, only received around 6000 units pre booking.

Barely a week after official launching, Proton received a whopping 23,000 units booking of Proton Saga. This figure easily beat previous “fastest selling model” by Proton, the Persona. The Persona received 14,000 bookings after about a month of its launching (news date on Aug 15). Until today, I haven’t see any BLM on the road, even here at Proton City. But I’m pretty sure it will fill our road soon. Proton promise to deliver the booking as fast as possible by working double shift targeting to produce 5,500 units BLM a month. DSZ asked the customer to be patient and promised that they will deliver a quality car (thus they need time). Well, lets hope Proton keeps their promise. If not, I afraid it will disrupt people perception of Proton, which is on the rise right now.

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Now that the new Proton Saga launched, and thankfully fulfill the expectation most of us. I went to the showroom hour after the official launched, I was in the meeting from 2:30pm until about 6.00pm. Luckily, I’ve my PDA with me, and guess what I’m doing at 5:30pm in the meeting? I was reading Paultan extensive review about the car hehe. After the meeting, we went to the closest Proton Edar which is walking distance from our office. There were already a lot of people there, and most of them, satisfy with the car. The salesman and woman, keep on telling about the improved campro and the quality of new Proton. The waiting time somehow a bit confusing, some salesman said 8months, some said can promised 2 months. Anyway, am not going to write any review about it. Most of us already read it and have seen it. Just wanted to test drive the car soon and maybe write about it. Hopefully to see it on the road soon, and hopefully to see a very nice turnout from aftermarket product and modification for BLM. Above is my failed attempt to lowered the car and painted it in yellow hehe.

Now the most exciting car in 2008 had launced, what car to expect next? According to Frost & Sullivan, below are the cars that going to be launched in Malaysia this year. Some of them already spotted on the road and some already have teaser website ready. The timeline are tentative only. What are the most exciting model to you? Perodua MyVi 2008 face lift?

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Three versions so far, Angkasawan Malaysia, Dr Sheikh Muzaffar, David Arumugam of the Alleycats and Dr Kenny. From all three, for some reason, I feel the angkasawan version “cheap”. I don’t know why. Two more videos after the jump.

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Proton will launch their new Proton Saga very soon, and most of us can just eagerly wait for the official launching of the car to actually be able to touch the car, feel it and look it at it with our own eyes. Recently proton held a media preview, one of fellow blogger, headsteadi stayed at the same hotel where the preview was held manage to take few shots. Unfortunately his battery run flat, bummer. Jump over to his blog for more pictures.

Some of fellow blogger, the prominent one actually, paultan was invited (i assumed) but not sure whether at the same location or not manage to test drive the car and ready his extensive review about the new BLM, hands on. Like Paultan said, other site/blog is kinda outdated already like this one because we are not lucky enough to be like him, the privilege few. So lets wait for Paultan extensive review, especially on the performance of the new generation campro with IAFM and ride and handling.

How many of us has booked the new saga? cdason did. He suggested the name of the new saga to be proton saga 2. It’s very unlikely now I think as the “official” product brochures print as saga only. Whatever the name is, the most important one is the quality of the car, hopefully proton will deliver their promise this time. The photo below taken at Proton factory at Tanjung Malim.

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Thanks to MOKH997, we are now officially don’t have to wait for the stage-by-stage teaser by Proton to see the complete Proton BLM as now we have the official brochures of the Proton SAGA. The name is only SAGA, the BLM is the codename, It’s not like SAGA LMST (What’s LMST?), its just saga, the new SAGA. In previous post, we can see the clearer picture of the exterior and interior of the BLM, in this entry we can see more details about the BLM, its offering, features highlight and technical specifications minus the price.

The front side of the brochure is as above, featuring the good looking mountain blue saga. Good angle and everything but very bad photoshop by the printing/ad/graphic designer. Why can’t they make window transparent to make it more realistic. I’m talking about the passenger side window, it should display the back of the blm instead of the gray color. The message is very clear thought, A new saga begins.

From the back of the brochure, divided into three area, we can see the features highlight, the technical specifications and the BLM colors offering. More details after the jump.

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The community bring you yet another pictures of the soon to be launched replacement model of Proton Saga. I received an email last night from one kind reader about the much waited spyshot of the saga (thanks freeman), the interior picture of the BLM. Too bad there’s only one picture available, but to amend our disappointment, there’s another clearer pictures on the exterior of the BLM including its full side profile. For older info on BLM, you can view the first clear spy shot of blm - clay model, the actual proton blm pictures and the teaser video.

Now on the interior, first thing that catch my eye is the unpleasant looking round shape aircond vent, especially the on the center (compare with original savvy interior), but then again beauty is subjective and this is only one angle of view. It might look the other way around from another angle. There’s a place for passanger airbag but currently Proton only offer one airbag in the M line model. All in all, the interior is okay considering the price of the car. We can see that the power window control is on the armrest with fabric trim on the door. We cannot expect leather coated interior, wood trim, dual zone air cond and et cetera for RM30++ car aren’t we.

If people tell you don’t trust 100% what you hear on the net, now you can disagree. From emails and forum post on the net, we read about the new proton logo color scheme and now its confirmed. It’s all silver on black now. The tail lamp sort of nice, the head lamp too actually.

More pictures after the jump

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Since official video is in Quicktime format and not everyone have it, i converted it to flv and upload it to youtube. Enjoy the video dude, and please prepare to be amazed.

And most of us will be happy with Proton decision the keep the SAGA name, hence a new saga begins. Enjoy the screen grabbed from the video, the back and front outlook of the BLM is so nice and sporty. This will definitely sell like hot cakes. Will this kill viva or myvi?

More pictures after the jump.

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Took this picture early October this year. A proof that proton is readying their stock for CPS powered engine vehicles, which includes the Gen2. So expect the launching this January will not only the hot, highly anticipated Proton Iswara Replacement the BLM, it may includes the face lifted Gen2 with CPS and Proton Waja CPS as well.

Overall on the exterior not much different from current Waja on the road, the most noticeable different from curent Waja is the twin tailpipes. Nice… Not sure about the interior though, but under the hood is the upgraded Campro engine with the CPS and VIM of which should bring a lot of power to current low power on low RPM campro. Some comments that CPS + VIM on Campro is groundbreaking technology in automotive world, I’m not an expert to comment though. Groundbreaking sounds like a strong word don’t you think. You may want to read on Paultan as well.

One picture only? I only have one, because of the same outlook of the car i focused only on the CPS badge. But you can enjoy the following two pictures. Malaysian is full of creative people. A Waja converted to EVO X. The cheapest and slowest too EVO X in the world hehe. Found on lowyat. Previously there’s a Waja converted to EVO 9, the exterior is almost 90% same with the EVO but the interior 100% Waja. Not sure what happen to the car now as the owner did mention to transplant the engine and upgrade the interior as well.

One more picture after the jump. So jump now

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Behold, the latest Proton Saga BLM Pictures, in full, not disguised and and not clay model, not even on Paultan. From what I see here, damn cun. I especially like the lamps, both head and tail. Proton now have to find the right time to introduce this into the market, too soon will hurt a bit Persona sale (or may not), too long, some people might already loose interest. With the super cheap price, it’s hard to resist. Current dated saga selling only RM27K. No interior spyshot yet for the BLM. If you have any, please share with us will ya. Heard that the BLM interior very nice.

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