2008 Proton Persona
December 4, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
Struggling Malaysian car maker Proton has given Australians a preview of its new four door sedan, the Persona. Destined for Australia in March 2008, the Persona will be the fifth model in Proton’s lineup (joining Savvy, Jumbuck , Satria and Gen2).
There will be only one variant, a high-spec model that will début at the Melbourne International Motor Show in late February. Proton are yet to confirm pricing but the company says it will be highly competitive with opposition models.
The car is based on the Proton Gen2 Hatch platform and powered by Proton’s self-designed Campro 1.6-litre engine with 82kW and 120 Nm of torque mated to either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.
The new Persona has so far been a great success for Proton in Malaysia with the company selling over 20,000 units in the first 3 months. Australians will have the choice of seven colours; Blueberry tea, Light gold, Tranquillity black, Metal grey and Solid red and Solid white.
Although talks between Volkswagen and Proton are now well and truly over and many analysts are signalling troubled times ahead, the company is determined to prove its worth with the most recent JD Power customer satisfaction survey awarding Proton with the greatest improvement of any marque.
Print it: 
it’s a great car and very strong engine ,good fule consumbtion and not expencive …..my advice..just try to drive it
Bought a demo model of the 2008 Persona with 4000k’s, after 4 months i must tell you the vibrating from the dash is a nightmare, the doors vibrate inside at random times. Put the pedal to the floor, it has the acceleration of a golf cart, thank you Proton for your shoddy Malaysian quality, i have to sell it, and I’m only being offered around 10-12,000 Australian, when i spent 17k for the bloody thing. Wish i did the research a bit more before i bought the car, so any Aussies reading this get a Mazda 3 or a Lancer, don’t get caught into buying this lemon.
LUKEE^^^
Welcome to lifes learning curve, looks like u actually got A-GOOD-ONE! :-) LOL
If your been offered $12k, mate, jump on the buyer and grab the cash!
The Proton is the ONLY car i saw at the auction that NOBODY would bid on, kinda sad really [not!].
I think even the Chinese make better cars, have not seen any of them yet, but the mail is 3rd. quarter they will be here.
Buy a Japper, move on!
Cheers
F-0
Just one thing, change the top management to other race, it will improve.
i do not know much about cars, i was quite confident in proton persona. just that they do not know how to do business
u know what, i was planning to get a persona until hear word of mouth from my friends. of course this is part of the business factor they need to control.
even if they deliver quality cars, it wouldn’t help if they do not know how to market them well. just word of mouth alone, kills them badly. they lost the sales before even selling the car, they don’t get it.
yea, the other thing is, i think they make malaysia felt being “force” to buy their cars due to pricing. who would give good word of mouth when they buy with the main reason of low price? “i buy proton because of price”
they just make customer don’t feel good about their decision, how the hell customer gonna tell u good about the car.
having the government to cover their ass gives people the opportunity to bash them again and again. conclusion is they not really doing a business, their aim are low, always cheap,yea u get cheap image now,proton
Business Says:
February 6th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Just one thing, change the top management to other race, it will improve.
refer to the above..
that shows how idiotic some people are in this forum. what has race got to do with managing an auto company? *duh*
I own a Proton Waja, it has done about 250 000 kms, still on regular service with proton dealers, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Yes, its a decent A – B car. I also own a Proton Persona. Globally, its not a competitive model. To gain credibility, it has to have a larger model line – up, catering to more sectors of the motoring industry. The R & D, safety aspects should be up to scratch. Most of their car models can achieve a Euro NCAP 4 star rating.
Take Kia and Hyundai for example. I think that the Koreans are moving in a better direction. I hear that in 2011, All car models exported from Korea will be fiited with Electronic Stability Program / VSC as standard.
I don’t care too much about these wannabes continantal-car-owners. My Iswara car clocked 320,000 km (I kid you not) without even a top over-haul. For two years it has given me faithful service everday weekday , from kuala lumpur to rawang–without any problem.
Then I changed to a Waja–5 years and 240,000 km later—again, no overhaul or major repair or top overhaul, I swopped it for the Gen2 CPS. SAfter 7 months, I ‘m still very happy with its performance.
Sure it has its problems — niggly at times. But then, my son’s Airtrek cost him a bundle when he he had transmission proble, His next BMW too cost him a major repair. So far he is happy with his new Audi A4. AND HE HAS NEVER COMPLAINED ABOUT MY PROTONS. HIS PREVIOUS CARS INCLUDED THE ALFA 156, THE SUBARU WRX AND ANOTHER AIRTRK TURBO.CONTRARY TO THAT HES THINKING OF A GEN2 CPS TO RUN AROUND.
So to those buggers not happy with my Proton, nobodys forcing you to buy. You have choice—-BUT PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR FANTASY IS !!!!!
Last 2 posts….
Good to see you Malaysian;s are buying them [forced by you GovCo's heavy tariff on imported car brands]us Aussie’s inc. your good Malay brothers here in Oz are not.
You can buy superior with the same coin.Cut the price and it *might* work, doubt it though, you cannot fool all the people all the time, besides the Chinese are here very soon, and the prices will be super low and they will blow you out of the water.Over 9 million cars made in China, i think we need to take serious notice of them!
Frankly Proton’s are hated here in Oz, they cannot get the brand off the ground, come a day when they will sell more Lotus’s here in Oz than Protons….lol
I would take Lotus off them though, fantastic brains-trust organisation.Honour to own such a icon.
Cheers
F-0
Hi,
i m amazed what is being transpired. i owned a proton and i bought it for both nationalistic reason and pratical purpose. Proton is a practical car, i have 3 of them, i also onwed a mercedes, a perodua, a Kia and Naza. At times i prefer to drive my proton and vice-versa. It is not a bad car, it is comfortable, smooth, a hardly breakdown except for a few punctures and flat batteries. i dare say it is compatible with my other car and i wonder how come u r saying all these bad things with proton.
my advised is dont compare proton to to other cars just have a feel of driving the car ang judge it on its own merit.
Bought a Proton Pesona…
U do stupid things in life, some u can reverse some u cant. I bought the Pesona.
First few days, the power windows got stuck. Sent for repairs. Got stuck again. Me, Mr Stupid didn’t read the so many reviews about Protons and their power windows.
Second week, the ignition keys got stuck in the assembly. I mean c’monnn problems with keys too??
Third week, some rattling sounds coming under the dash…a screw loose sumwhere that eventually fell off. Its highly irritating like an itch that u cant scratch.
Fourth week, power windows got stuck again! i should have thought so. Also the fuel indicator indicates empty when i just filled up!
I tried selling the car…no takers…they have obviously read all about Proton and their miserable cars!