2009 Proton Jumbuck – Long Term Update
June 29, 2009 by Paul Maric
2009 Proton Jumbuck – Long Term Car Update
I wasn’t looking forward to it, I had to drive the Proton Jumbuck, surely I could move house in the BMW 7 Series we had on loan.
I couldn’t convince Road Test Editor Matt Brogan to get out of the front seat though, where he was busy programming the distribution of the heated seats.
I sucked it up and turned the Jumbuck over for a quick drive to my house where all efforts were underway to dismantle my gazillion belongings.
It wasn’t long before it struck me that the Jumbuck isn’t actually that bad.
The smells, the noises and the feel reminded me of a Holden Camira, which in my opinion wasn’t really that much of a bad car!
No ABS, no airbags and a cable controlled throttle meant that the Jumbuck is about as honest as they come. It doesn’t claim to be the next best thing in the utility world, nor does it claim to be the fastest ute on the planet, its claim is that it can carry things and getting the job done.
After Matt putting around 1500 kilometres on the odometer, I went to work filling in the next 750km.
Although the ride is pretty rough without a load in the tray, it seems to hold tightly to the road. The steering is very direct and as such the car feels extremely agile and nimble.
The tray has six hooks in total (three on each side), which meant it was easy to tie things down. The tray is also quite deep, so you can fit quite a bit into the load space.
If you fill the tray and weigh the Jumbuck down, the ride quality increases significantly. It’s a character trait of leaf spring suspension.
Gear shifts from third to second require a bit of a shove due to the configuration of the shift pattern, but aside from that, driving the Jumbuck is right on the money.
The heater and air-conditioning both work very well and the stereo is pretty decent for such an affordable ute.
The Jumbuck has me converted; it’s a pearler for the price and does the job without complaints. You can see why it appeals to the farming community to such a degree, due to its simplicity, I can see this thing trucking along for years to come!
It’s due for its first service soon, so we’ll report back with how it all goes!
Print it: 
Please tell me the bonnet is open on that first pic.
P/M, why is the Hyundai, in the background, number plate all blanked out?
Are you doing a drive-by shooting, or the free drive-off petrol offer or other?
:-)
Cheers
F-0
RPITUP:
Haha, I knew someone would pick up on it!
Yes, the bonnet was open when I took the picture. I was keen to have a sticky beak about the engine and decided to take a photo just before I closed the bonnet.
FrugalOne:
It’s not my car, it helps keep stalkers at bay.
cheap & chearful ute, but still not as good as the original small ute the BRUMBY,
Paul Maric: I wasn’t looking forward to it, I had to drive the Proton Jumbuck, surely I could move house in the BMW 7 Series we had on loan.
May I suggest that you join my call to try and get BMW to drop either the X3 or X5 and release a Ute based on either a 3 or 5 Series sedan.
BTW: How many trips did ti take you to move in the jumbuck?
Wheelnut:
Two trips, Wheelnut.
It was interesting with a 3 seater sofa on the back, but it coped really well quite surprisingly.
I’m seriously looking at one of these and your long term test comes at an appropriate time. How well did all those 64KW go with a full load in the back?
Also, does it need PULP?
Proton Jumbuck-a cut and paste 20 year old Japanese technology. They should put the poor bugger to rest.
Utility123:
As disturbing as it sounds, we have fallen in love with the Jumbuck. It’s such a simple car which just does the job with no stuffing about.
As I mentioned earlier, we have a full load in the rear and it copes really well. The more weight you put in the back, the better the suspension seems to cope.
The power is also fine due to the car’s weight. It’s a pretty torquey motor, so it pulls along nicely, even with a load in the rear.
the sooner proton make the jumbuck a 4 wheel drive the better it will sell like hot cakes they won,t be able to make them quick enough