An Empty Feeling

Yeap, this is my humble ride, a Proton Savvy, which I bought it in August 05.

When it was first launched back in mid 2005, it drew a lot of negative comments, from it’s exterior design to it’s Renault engine. I first took notice of it, when I saw the spy pictures of it from www.carspyshots.net.

At that time, I thought it was the most horrible looking piece of junk I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I mean, what was the designers in Proton thinking when they designed it. It was so ugly that I even had the even took the time to see it in the flesh from a nearby EON Showroom in Kajang. That’s when I said to myself, “Hmmm…..not that bad looking lah….can do lah…something different lah…..may consider it lah…” I then ask the salesman whether I can test drive it, and he politely said NO for some reason he did not want to reveal to me. I walked off and a week later, managed to test drive the Savvy from another Proton showroom in Shah Alam and I was impressed. The car had a continental feel to it. It cornered well with some noticeable body roll. The suspension managed to soak up the bumps and potholes. So a week later, I traded in my Proton Iswara (man, I loved that car) for the Proton Savvy from another Proton dealer because he managed to get a higher trade in value for the Iswara.

45580kms later, I still enjoy every moment driving the Savvy. Yeah…it has it’s niggling quality problems, I mean, this a Proton we’re talking about. But otherwise, I’ve never had so much fun in my life driving a small compact hatchback.

Number of modifications done to the Savvy were limited to only two. Downgraded the tyres and rims combo from 175/50/R15 to 185/60/R13. Yeah…sounds strange huh? Normally people would upgrade their rims and tyres to a bigger size, but a couple of Savvy owners including myself have decided to downgrade the rims and tyre size for a more comfortable ride without sacrificing grip.

Changed the standard muffler to an R3 muffler and this has help in terms of torque. It has a discreet low sounding growl to it. Of course the downside to this is higher fuel consumption, but, hey, who cares.

At RM42,888 (in 2005), one might say it’s quite expensive for a 1.1litre compact hatchback and one might be true. But you know new cars in Malaysia are outrageously expensive, among other things.

For the time being, I am happy with the Savvy until of course something better comes along, like winning the lottery so that I can buy the Skoda Octavia 2.0FSi Combi.