Satria Neo: First Impression
Images: Tom
Words: Jason
Car: Eon Berhad
The Satria Neo, or more commonly known as the SRM (Satria Replacement Model) prior to its launch has been officially unveiled on 16th of June, 2006. Much speculation and hype has been built around the Satria Neo as its predecessor was one of the best selling models, if not the best in the country for a 2 door hatchback
Everyday drivers, occasional speed demons, time attack addicts, they have all come to know the Satria through its wide selection to fit every lifestyle, from the humble 1.3L model to the GTi 1.8L model, and later on, the exhilarating R3 model -- the Satria Neo certainly has big shoes to fill. 
While the former Satria shared its platform with its Mitsubishi counterpart, the Satria Neo is an entirely new car, with its platform developed from ground up; though it shares certain components with the Gen 2 due to economical factors. Although looks are subjective, I would rank the Neo as an improvement over its predecessor, and boy does it look good. Its projector headlights are intimidating, given that it’s shaped like a pair of eyes staring down at you; while the design of the front bumper further accentuates the aggressive feel of the car. I have difficulty finding words to describe it so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. 
The first thing that came to my mind while admiring the Neo? Throw in a pair of properly installed and aligned xenon lamps, and this car would look like a killer -- I’m scanning through Aura HID range of xenon lamps while writing this, surely worth a thought. Moving on to the side of the car, the flares running along the sides gives a defining shape to the wheel arches, highlighting the rather unique rims. If there’s one thing I don’t like about the Neo, it has got to be the rims. Proton claims that the alloy rims are of a turbine design, while the 1.3L models are furnished with the turbine design caps over steel rims. What the turbine design does exactly, I don’t really know, but even if it does something, I personally can’t justify having such bling rims on my ride; luckily, changing rims is not a big deal. Making our way to the back of the car, we can see that the rear of the Neo is rather minimalist, the taillights are rather small, but it does its job; the oval shaped tailpipe in the middle gives a hint of a sporty feel, but not overdone. To summarize, the rear end is simple, nothing to shout about, but it’s subtle and stylish, proving that less is indeed more, though I can already envision the various design houses coming up with body kits for the Neo; this car certainly has great potential in the visual department. 
On the inside, Proton has done away with the cream interior, and thank God for that. The Neo has its interior upholstered with a mixture of silver and various shades of grey. Built quality wise, it felt solid, though if one noticed, there is no longer any talk about TÜV standards; that’s because TÜV is not involved in Neo’s quality control. Hopefully, after their last successful quality approval from TÜV, Proton would continue to practice stringent quality control even without TÜV scrutinizing their finished product. Entering the cabin of the Neo reminds me of the time when I first entered the cabin of a Satria GTi - “This is a Proton? Certainly feels like it’s built better than the rest (of the Protons).” The doors’ finish on the inside is simple, the side pockets are rather small, I wonder if it would be of any use, but my main concern would be the dubious door handle, which is shaped like a half-circle and flimsy to hold; it felt fragile, but to be fair, only time will tell if it’s durable. 
The meter cluster is within eye level, thought I wonder if blue on black is a good choice for reading the meters at night. The handbrake lever certainly caught my attention, as I find it rather stylish and it feels good to hold; maybe it’ll even do well for those tricky handbrake turns during autokhana events. The three spoke steering wheel looks beefy from afar, but I think Proton could have been more generous, as it wasn’t that nice to hold and feels rather un-involving. Audio controls integrated into the steering wheel is certainly a nice touch of functionality, but it’s only available on the 1.6L models. 
Talking about audio, Proton certainly didn’t skimp on the in car entertainment. All the Neos are equipped with Blaupunkt Radio/CD players, a reputable company in the car audio industry. The difference between the 1.6L models and the 1.3L models is that the former has MP3 playback capability and 4 speakers instead of 2 speakers. 
Safety is another concern these days, and the good news is that Proton has designed the Neo ground up with safety being one of their main priorities. This can be seen through the diagram of the chassis. How well would the Neo fare in an actual accident is still unknown, but Proton claims that the Neo has passed its own crash tests using various tests standards. Until the Satria Neo is tested by reputable third parties such as EuroNCAP, I would take Proton’s claims with a pinch of salt. 
Other safety feature includes airbag, anti-lock braking system (ABS) and electronic brake-force distribution (EBD). Sadly, these features are only available on the top of the range model, the 1.6L H-Line. This is truly a disappointment, as the Government have been emphasizing on safety in an effort to cut down on fatalities due to road accidents, and I expected the leading national automobile manufacturer to be in the forefront of automobile safety in our country, but it seems they are still lagging behind. In certain countries, airbag has already become compulsory equipment; hopefully Proton would consider incorporating it to their entire line-up in the future. Despite that, I guess it’s comforting to know that all Neo models are equipped with ventilated disc brakes in the front and disc brakes in the rear. Usually, cars below 1,600cc would be equipped with drum brakes in the rear, but it seems that Proton is set to change that with the Neo. At the very least, I believe Proton is moving in the right direction. | For enquiries or test drives, please contact: EON Berhad Contact: 1-800-88-3003 Website: http://www.eon.com.my Sales Contact: Randy Ong 019 334 2587 Rosli Johari 019 2800 333 Mohd Arif 012 630 6666 Ronny Low 019 336 4381 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For enquiries or test drives, please contact: EON Berhad Contact: 1-800-88-3003 Website: http://www.eon.com.my Sales Contact: Randy Ong 019 334 2587 Rosli Johari 019 2800 333 Mohd Arif 012 630 6666 Ronny Low 019 336 4381 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Desire has a new name, says Proton. Is the Satria Neo desirable? For its asking price, it is desirable indeed. There may be some gripes with it, but overall I think it’s a very good effort from Proton. Next, the road evaluation; where we put the Proton Satria Neo’s highly acclaimed Lotus handling to the test, and the Proton CamPro engine to use and abuse. Link to part 2: http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=102127 Proton Satria Neo (On The Road in West Malaysia w/ Insurance) 1.3MT: RM43,500 1.3AT: RM46,500 1.6MT M-line: RM48,500 1.6AT M-line: RM51,500 1.6MT H-line: RM51,800 1.6AT H-line: RM54,800 Suggested monthly Installment structure from Eon Malaysia 
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