Accident

I had a vehicular accident last Monday thanks to the sleepiness and negligence early in the morning. Yes, it was 5.30 am. I did not notice the width of the turn where the "U-turn" sign is, and rammed the road shoulder, busted my radiator and the bottom plate. For your information, I was driving my four-year-old Ford Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost, which I named "Pony", in response to the brother car that I cannot afford thus far, the Ford Mustang.

I am sad to announce that I have to part with my Pony for at least one month to get it fixed and have to resort to some other forms of land transport.

Gratitude

Thanks to my Dad willingness to lend me his new daily drive, PROTON Saga, I am now driving the red 1.3L automatic cheap Malaysian made lean sedan to everywhere I go. And following is my review (or rather rant) over this national car.

Poor acceleration and speed

The heading says my first point. Given that I have driven a pocket rocket boasting 125bhp for four years, this 94bhp engine is simply pathetic due to its lack of passion for life. In contrary to my driving approach of "step-and-go" in the Fiesta, the Saga simply "step-lag-move-step-further-jerk-then-go". I find overtaking slow moving vehicles extremely hard, as I am can never move quick enough to switch between lanes. I miss the effortless and quick throttle response of Pony, thanks to the turbo strapped onto the tiny engine.

Poor handling

In contrary to the slogan of PROTON, "It's in the Drive", the handling of the car is some distance away from perfection. I find the turning of the power steering wheel less responsive. It's particularly harder when I have to get out from tight corners, especially in the hospital staff parking lot. When the car goes around the bend at speed, the amount of body roll sometimes scares me. However, thanks God that the car does well in straight line. I have no idea why is that a plus point.

Small fuel tank

Initially I was skeptical on how "economical" the Saga can be, especially when the "Eco" indicator lights up when I am running the engine between 2K to 3K RPM. My skepticism is at the maximum especially when I have to refuel merely driving for three days, while I only have to refuel my Pony after five days of drive! Fortunately, when I learned that the fuel tank capacity is just 40 litres compared to the Pony's 43 litres, I was less dissatisfied. Even still, the fuel consumption of the Saga is still higher than the 1.0L rocket, and the official statement of 5.4L/100km is definitely an overstatement. To be honest, how can I trust any figures, given that Malaysian government never tell the truth?

By the way, I only need to pay RM20 annually for the road tax, lower than the RM70 for Saga.

Verdict

To be honest, having the chance to suffer in a PROTON Saga, I would say that I love my Pony Fiesta even more. Please bear in mind that despite my complaints, Saga and Fiesta should not be compared to each other, as they do not even belong or aim at the same group of target drivers.

I know the manual version of PROTON Saga can make a pretty formidable racing car if heavily modified, but I doubt I would be glad to use it as my daily drive. In fact, I might try the combination of KTM, MRT and GrabCar tomorrow as my transport to and back from work.

Wish me luck. Selamat sejahtera and keep writing.