Inspira vastly improved by Star Motoring
SUBANG JAYA: Even before its launch, Proton’s latest Inspira sedan was the subject of controversy with some quarters accusing the national car maker of back pedaling towards the early Proton days of rebadging Mitsubishi models as its own.
At a special media briefing held at Proton’s Centre of Excellence last week, the Inspira’s project manager Zulkifli Bidin took the opportunity to clarify several matters.
He said the Waja replacement model originally started out as a joint development project between the national car maker and Mitsubishi Motors Corp some three years ago.
The project was supposed to be on a joint platform development and sharing basis.
"Under the project, Mitsubishi and Proton will then use their very own upperbody designs on the new platform which will result in two very distinctive models.
"But because of the economic downturn, Proton decided to defer the project but Mitsubishi carried on with the platform and upperbody development which became the Mitsubishi Lancer," he said.
Rather than to restart the project from scratch, Proton decided to use the Lancer as a new start point while adding value to an already good design.
Zulkifli said Mitsubishi was willing to allow Proton to rebadge the Lancer as the Inspira without changing any key features.
"We felt that our engineers who had trained under our subsidiary Lotus Engineering were able to improve the driving dynamics and handling of the Lancer," he said.
After convincing Mitsubishi that Proton could improve on Lancer’s driving performance, Mitsubishi gave the green light to the suspension tweaking.
Among the improvements were revised suspension rating and bushings for a more comfortable ride and the incorporation of thicker anti-roll bars for better cornering stability.
Others improvement work include closer body gaps of 2.5mm compared with 3mm in the Lancer, and reduced levels of noise, vibration and harshness.
"Even when our products are good, people will still say they are not good enough because we are Proton. So, we have to be better," Zulkifli said.
Proton had shipped five Inspira sedans produced by its factory for crash testing in Japan to ascertain its crash worthiness and safety features.
"At our Shah Alam factory production lines, Mitsubishi have stationed its engineers to ensure that the Inspira were produced in accordance to Mitsubishi’s quality standards," he said.
Even Mitsubishi Motors Corp’s top management team, consisting of its head of research and development, DCGM of Asean and master vehicle evaluator who came to Shah Alam to test the Inspira, have praised Proton for work done on retuning the suspension system for better comfort and handling.
"They told us that Inspira offered better ride handling characteristics and noise, vibration and harshness isolation compared with the Mitsubishi Lancer," Zulkifli said.
Proton Plans to Export Inspira Component Next Year
from Bernama
SHAH ALAM, Nov 10 (Bernama) -- Proton Holdings Bhd plans to export Inspira components next year, says managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir.
Inspira, Proton's latest model, is a mid-sized four door sedan introduced to enhance and strengthen the upper C-segment offering in the line-up of Proton's models.
Syed Zainal said Mitsubishi Motor Corporation has committed to purchase the components produced in Malaysia for export to other countries, particularly in Thailand, for its Mitsubishi models.
"The export of Inspira components will start next year. We are now finalising discussions on this and also on how to export the model outside the country," he said at the official launch of the Inspira here Wednesday.
Proton has slashed the price of Inspira models, claiming it is a result of manufacturing cost savings. The company also stressed that the vehicle is the result of an original equipment manufacturer collaboration with Mitsubishi Motor, not a rebadging.
The 1.8 manual transmission model was initially priced at RM79,888 at the soft launch last month but has dipped now to RM78,999.
The 1.8 litre auto started at RM87,000 and has been slashed to RM84,999 along with the 2 litre auto model which has seen a reduction to RM91,999 from RM94,000 previously.
Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said Proton reduced the prices due to cost savings from the models being manufactured in the same plant as the Exora.
He added that Inspira is a testimony to affordability.
Syed Zainal also defended Proton's collaboration with Mitsubishi Motor in producing the Inspira, saying it was an industry practice.
"Collaborations are the norm and demonstrates that Proton is fully flexible. The door is always open to other original equipment manufacturers," he added.
Syed Zainal said Proton has target to increase the local components in the Inspira to 60 per cent within a year from 40 per cent.
On whether Proton will further reduce the selling price of Inspira if the vehicle achieved 60 per cent in local components, he said: "It is too early to say. I think overall, we want to localise the car within a year, to 60 per cent."
Proton has to date received 1,800 bookings nationwide for Inspira since its soft launch on Oct 14 and is seeing about 100 bookings daily.
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