This was the junction i was at early this year. Inspira or a used Suprima. I am a lil spirited when it comes to the twisties. I enjoy driving unfortunately my budget only allows for these cars and frankly speaking anything else in this price range is older or if its newer its a boring car. After lurking around the inspira forums i found that some people tend to have overheating gearbox. some while driving hard, some while cruising. Interesting enough not everyone have these issues so it was a 50 50 chance of getting a problem free one. The next thing that came to mind was the cost of ownership. maintenance and of course roadtax is a big difference too. Then i decided to hunt down a suprima and see what is it like. Saw many bad shape ones made to look decent you knowla used car dealers. After driving a few around i decided to research on issues and boy did i find a ton of issues with the car. Main issues with Suprima/Preve, fusebox, radiator fan harness, oil cooler hoses, engine mounts premature failure, unreliable cvt box, turbo failure, brake switch and tire crack. These are the major ones, smaller issues like brittle dom light, laggy headunit, head lamp bulb premature burnout and etc i can deal with (so far only experience the laggy headunit). Once i knew the issues i started to look around and noticed that some things have been updated in the 2015 model onwards. The manufacturer of the fuse box seems to be different and the radiator fan harness seems to have been upgraded (according to an SC) and lately the engine mounts.
I found a 2015, one registered in 2017 belonging to an expat family. Saw the ad by the owner but he was no long reachable and came across the exact car at a used car near work. i knew because of the name in the service book. i inspected the car and although i am a car guy to look at mechanical things i still wanted the SC to have a look and take a peak into the ECU for any stored faults. Discussed with the dealer, he was accommodating enough. The mounts were in pretty bad shape, the car had really bad vibrations (premature failure). Had the car hoisted in the SC took a look to ensure mechanically sound and then we plugged in the scanner had took a peak. had an error with the brake switch which was fine because i already anticipated it. Drove the car around again with the guy gearbox was fine as well. Another reason i went to the sc was to check the actual service history of the car, afraid of dealers faking the stamps on the book or tempering with the odometer. So concluded the deal with the used car dealer. Got the car, had the oils changed, including the gearbox oil and filter (it was the wrong colour, i suspect the used car used regular ATF in it) changed the engine mounts and all the shocks and arb bushes (it wasnt leaking but i felt wear on em). Overall i have been very happy with the car, the cvt lag isnt my cup of tea. Had to alter my habits and have a lil more patience on starting from standstill, going over a bump or reversing up a hill. I do drive the car very hard on hilly roads not once has the cvt overheated. Have yet to see any major problems with the car *fingers crossed*
i think alot of the premature failure that people keep having could be due to the general maintenance habits. turbo failure from using cheapo oils or stretched service interval. as for the engine mounts, it could be a design issue (even the newer design ones seem to not that good), new ones dont last very long. Since owning the car i have almost covered 30K km in it. Btw i did consider buying the car new, but at the rate of depreciation i decided not to. Out of all the suprima's i have tested this was the best one. Fully stock, not even rims changed and it was very well kept by the previous owner and serviced every 5k with fully syn oil. i have changed the Oil Cooler hoses in this car once already. since it is prone to breakage i wouldnt want to try and extend its service life. Proton recommends every 40k km to have it replaced. Btw just because its a proton dont expect the maintenance to be cheap, it aint. it does cost a fair bit to upkeep this car. Sorry for the long ass post by i hope i managed to give you some insight to what to expect if you do buy a suprima.