Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Test Driving the Proton Satria Neo CPS

Not too long ago I was having coffee with Mathew, a classmate of mine from secondary school. Since graduating from college he had found a job at a telco and had been very quickly climbing up the corporate ladder given his young age. While we were having that coffee he brought up the topic of buying himself a new car. He was driving an old Proton Satria and he had his eyes on the newer Proton Satria Neo.

I never really thought much about the Satria Neo. I mean it looked nice from the outside at all but I’ve never actually been into one before. Then just recently I was put in touch with Roslina from Proton and she wanted to let me test drive the car. She was even going to be nice enough to drive it from their showroom in Shah Alam all the way to my office in KL just to let me have an hour with it.


The minute I opened the car door and saw the very sporty looking seats I was like
“WOAH!!! What’s with the seats? Is this some special edition?”



And Roslina said 
“No… all the Satria Neos are like that”.

The front seats were nice and comfy. The back seats is tight like many other two-doors but it’s pretty comfy too.

I excitedly got into the car and starting pressing all the buttons I could find. Just to explore a little.

Then I put on my seat belt only to see my biggest horror: A manual gear box.

I had not driven a manual car since I passed my driving test.. it had been like… 7 years! 

I warned Roslina that I was probably going to do really badly and she very kindly just said “It’s okay…”.
So off I went. 


5 minutes passed and I was doing really well. Roslina then praised me
“Not bad what… you seem to be doing very well”.

Just 3 seconds after she said that, I released the clutch a bit too quickly and killed my engine. I was at the traffic light and all the cars in front of me had already gone passed. The cars behind me on the other hand were patiently waiting though. They didn’t honk me or anything but I looked into my rear view mirror in the time of crisis and noticed the guy in the car behind me shaking his head.

I quickly freed my gear, started the engine again and then tried to move forward but again, out of the anxiety I killed the engine again. This happened I think another 2 times then the light turned red.

I looked into the rear view mirror again at the guy behind me and this time he looked annoyed. He looked like if I were to make him miss the next light again he would get out of his car with a durian and smash the durian on my bonet.

I focused really hard when the light turned green next and fortunately managed to pull away from the light. I immediately insisted that I drive out of the city. All that traffic, way too many stops for a manual gear hopeless like me. So I drove out to Mont Kiara which was when I really got to try out the car.


I liked it very very much!

Made me feel a little nostalgic. My first car was a Proton Wira, a car my dad gave me to when I first went to study A-levels in College. It wasn’t exactly like any of the sports cars that my other friends in college were driving but it got me place to place. 

Sure the old car would have some problems here and there like power windows failing and all but it never once broke down on me or had any really serious problems.

Perhaps it was because I abided very strongly to my dad’s motto. “Take care of the car and the car will take care of you”.

The Satria Neo however is generations after the Wira and I must say the improvements are really obvious. It’s not just how the inside and outside of the car looks a lot nicer but it’s the experience of driving the car.

The handling is great plus when I drive at 110km/h, the steering doesn’t rattle anymore like my old Wira used to. I really enjoyed the drive except for my stressful moments of killing my own engine because I suck at the stick. 




Desmond called me when I was driving and I was too focused on trying to let my engine die again I didn’t answer his call. Then after a while I stopped by the road side to take a break and returned his call. I told him I was driving the new Satria Neo and he asked me how much it costs.



I said: “About RM57,000”.

And he went “What?!? So cheap?! Can’t be so cheap!”



So that could mean one or both of two things. Either the Satria is really cheap at that price or Desmondkiu is rich. I think probably both.

I returned the car later that day uninjured from anything (whew)… 



Thanks for the fun drive Proton 

23 comments:

Ray said...

Haha...you really funny leh! engine die more than 2 times and making the drivers behind you very annoyed. The driver must have thought "Another auto car guy trying to drive a manual car, this time pokai lo, why I drive behind him!"
Manual is fun...just the clutch is a little bit..troublesome. When driving manual I really scared the engine is gonna die when I stop at traffic light(still a newbie) and annoy the drivers behind (just like you).

blurblurpiggy said...

my first car was a satria. i loved it. i like manual cars but not for traffic jams.

Your Humble Servant said...

i love driving manual better... hehe

JD said...

Manual car is good to drive but not if you are stuck in the jam. My first car was manual and I regret getting it because of the jam I need to endure to my office in KL. But since then have changed to a Auto and all is good.

tieroflife said...

Proton url also got salah. :p
tot u had blog about it.

Maxine said...

haha i drive a satria neo. but sadly not the CPS :( but yeah driving at 110 is awesome!

and thank god, its auto for me! :D

elaineC said...
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elaineC said...
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elaineC said...

http://www.mycen.com.my/sightings/sightings030509_pulau_ketam_dogs10.html


i feel veyr heartbroken to see the dogs dyin on d island, do u think nuffnang can give a hand to sabrina? to help those poor dogs.

do u think u can give a hand to those poor dogs

elaineC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
michelleho said...

The model you test-driven is the current Proton Satria Neo CPS recently out in the market, which is why the interior is way nicer. The older models of the Proton Satria Neo (non-CPS engine) has fabric seats.

Glad you liked your drive. Are there any other Proton models you're interested to try?

elaineC said...
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elaineC said...
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elaineC said...

sorry i didnt know why it turned out to be 4 same comments.

the link is

http://www.mycen.com.my/rescue/updates.html

KY said...

he's so rich i want his job! desmondkiu!

Boss Stewie said...

ahh everyone.. i want to reply your comment but i'm a little sick today. need to rest...

brb

des said...

Hey Tim... alot of censored comments, i bet they put too much praise on the model you didnt wanna set too high expectations. good move dude haha

and must have been an experience for you boss... driving a neo. I love the player! Blaupunk WAU!

ahlost said...

*LOL*

I heard the new satria neo is great too.. haven't got the chance to try it kok :(

Love a Lot said...

Get well soon!!!

By the way, teruk la u... engine died so many times!!!

Judd said...

Does it come in orange?

jess~ said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA! i can drive manual n im and 20 and im a GIRL!
*rubs rubs* :p


get well soon ya... ;)

Stella said...

I drive Satria Neo too..Good enough my petite size girl like me..Fair enough for fuel consumption for 1.6cc car..But just don't like the part where steering wheel is too tight and i felt the physical car is quite heavy...but but, it is really stable when speed in highway ;-)

Pipy said...

wow!
really hope i can have a test drive like u too !!!
thinking to get a NEO CPS white color with manual gear too!!!