Friday, April 24, 2009

Proton Exora - What You Need To Know

The new Proton Exora, officially launched by the Prime Minister is a model which should have been available a long time ago. Of course, this is not really Proton’s first MPV as there was the Juara, a mini-MPV cloned from the Mitsubishi Town Box. Being a latecomer in the MPV segment is not necessarily a disadvantage for Proton because it had the chance to see the shortcomings of other MPVs and not only avoid them but also offer a better product. From what can be seen, Proton made full use of its 'lateness’ and has come out with a model that is innovative and it also has that Lotus DNA which has given its recent models noteworthy ride and handling. As mentioned earlier, being late allowed Proton to see what the competition offers and do better than them so the dimensions for the Exora could be made class-leading. As the chart below shows, it is longer and wider than the Nissan Grand Livina, Toyota Avanza, Naza Rondo and even the Toyota Innova. From earlier spy pictures, it did not seem that long but apparently it is.
The inside of the Exora is very impressive from the point of view of spaciousness and also appointments. With this model, the interior designers have outdone themselves and far from looking cheap (which was often the comment about Proton interiors), there is thoughtful use of different textures for the various surfaces which makes a lot of difference. In the past, this sort of thing was not given a lot of attention and dashboards looked really cheap and plasticky.

In keeping with the times, the Exora (H-Line) has a standard DVD player/monitor mounted on the ceiling. It’s a standalone unit which can play DVDs and also accept media cards so apart from watching movies, the occupants could review their holiday pictures as they go home.

One thing which Protons have been praised for – right from the first Saga – has been the air-conditioning. Given our hot climate, a high-performance cooling system is important and with the Exora’s large cabin and extra glass area, this would have been a challenge. To ensure that everyone stays cool, there are vents on the ceiling – two on each side so that even those in the third row get cool air. The fan speed can be controlled but the switch is too far forward (ahead of the DVD player) and would be better if it was positioned over the second row.

For now, the Exora has only one engine – the 1.6-litre Campro CPS+VIM which produces 125 bhp at 6000 rpm and 150 Nm of torque at 4500 rpm. It’s a familiar engine by now so we won’t get into much detail. A turbocharged version is rumoured for introduction later on but no one will confirm it. Incidentally, the Exora has front-wheel drive in case you don’t realize it.

The Campro engine – after the CPS version - has proven itself to be a good powerplant in sedans but with the Exora weighing over 1,400 kgs, the weight-to-power ratio is obviously not as good as what it would be in a Waja. For this reason, a lot of effort was put into retuning the transmission control unit to provide the driveability that would be acceptable. This also necessitated a change of the final drive ratio in the Mitsubishi transmission to a lower 4.625 (all the other ratios in the manual and automatic transmission are the same as in the Waja and Gen2). This means that overall gearing is lower and that enhances low-end performance but sacrifices a bit at the top end. However, the Campro CPS is already known to be inherently strong at the top end so losing a bit is no big deal. Most owners would probably not notice it anyway. There is also a lock-up clutch installed which provides a direct solid link in top gear at cruising speeds, reducing power losses that occur with the hydraulic linkage.
The Exora was crash-tested for 12 different requirements, optional and mandatory, all of which it passed. Besides ensuring that it can meet the legal safety requirements in countries that it will be sold in, Proton’s engineers also aimed for a high rating in the EuroNCAP crash test. EuroNCAP is an independent organization which conducts crash tests on vehicles sold in Europe and carmakers pay attention to its results which are also made public. While EuroNCAP has not actually crashed an Exora (and would only do so if it is sold in Europe and it chooses to evaluate the model), its criteria are available to manufacturers who can conduct their own crash tests and see how well their new model will fare. In the case of the Exora, the crash tests conducted in an independent facility in Spain showed that the MPV could score 4 stars (out of the maximum of 5) based on EuroNCAP criteria.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i surely buy this car-especially the white colour one-well design..keep it up

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