Cheap - For A Reason
by Alan Douglas (21 Dec 04)

They say you get what you pay for and that’s certainly the case with the latest offering from the Malaysian manufacturer, Proton. But with the GEN-2, it’s almost a case of what you don't get - like ABS for example. In spite of almost every other car company in the world recognising that ABS is a basic element of road safety, in the GEN-2 it’s standard only on the top-of-the-range GSX model. Yet airbags, including side ones, are a standard feature.

For the life of me I can’t fathom the thinking here. Surely the ability to stop in a straight line is far more important than reducing the impact of not being able to? It sounds like a clear case of dealing with the symptoms rather than tackling the cause of the complaint.

The lack of ABS sums up the almost cynical approach Proton has taken to the international car market. They’ve gone for window dressing rather than unseen yet what the rest of us would consider essentials for, not least, our safety.

Let me explain. Compared to what Proton have offered us before, the car looks quite good, but then that’s not really saying much. It has style, something which the Far Eastern companies have always found difficult to get to grips with.

It looks quite good, even if the £9595 GLS test car I had was an all-too-vivid bright Angel Blue. The back end particularly works well, conjuring up images of BMW’s Chris Bangle’s latest creations in, for example, the new 1 Series - and the front end also does the job on the superficial looks.

But examine the car closely and it all feels a bit cheap and not really thought through. I got really annoyed for example with the lack of a boot release button either on the lid itself or on the key fob. If you want to open the boot, you have to pull the lever which is on the floor on the right hand side of the driver’s seat. On almost every occasion I wanted to get into the rear loadspace, I had to go back into the car to find the release button, usually when I already had my hands full.

Once you step inside, things get even worse. The whole feel of the interior is decidedly cheap and thrown together . . . and will probably fall apart just as quickly.

More . . .

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