Public opinion is an odd thing. Sometimes it’s absolutely spot on, while other times, well, the public is just plain wrong. But once faith has gone, it takes a painfully long time to rebuild. Once scorned, it’ll be a while before many of us go near that guilty party again, if ever. That is, if there’s even a choice.
And so, to Proton. Public confidence in the national carmaker has been tailing off for years, and not without good and/or (most likely and, for most of us) frequent reason. There was the Waja, Gen 2, Persona, Exora, and last year, the much-awaited and hyped Preve. All promised a lot of things, but delivered few.
You hear all the time that the new one is the turnaround car, but it isn’t quite so simple. Even if they’re very good – and the Preve did come very close – it’ll take several years to build up that vital public confidence back again. Strike gold, and the absolute best Proton can hope for is stabilisation.
The real turnaround will come only a few years down the line, when buyers get confident and feel they can put their hard-earned cash behind the vehicles from the first national car company once more. That’s the upside, provided the new Proton Suprima S – now ready to be tested – really is good enough to start the brand back up again. Well now, is it?
If it isn’t, then Proton really is in trouble. We’ve driven the new model a fair bit to shake out the truth. When the Preve was launched, you may remember, it was pitched, in theory at least, against the Civics and the Fortes of this world. It did well and we rather liked it, even if we did have some reservations.
Now though, the Suprima S has been moved upmarket and is aimed at the mid-sized hatchbacks – the Golf, Focus, 308 and the like. The new Proton hasn’t just changed its gunsights in class and price – it’s also trying to be a bit more sporty.
Out goes the boot, replaced by an intricately designed rump that – take this subjectively, if you will – grows on you the more you see it. I enjoyed a striking moment when it was parked back towards the sun for photography. The light play around the protruding, complex rear panel clearly shows that a lot of work has been put here.
It’s an intricate design that calls upon a fair bit of interplay between seemingly stray lines and surfaces. The Gen 2 had a similarly busy-looking rear end. But they both work, and very well at that. The Suprima S appears taut and low from behind, with no way of telling that it’s ever based on a sedan. It’s just too bad the exhaust pipe is hidden behind the non-functional rear diffuser.
The whole design looks purposeful, like this is exactly the way it was meant to be in the first place. There’s no awkwardness present in the way the rear end dips downwards to create a clean hatchback look, and this is despite the Preve and Suprima S sharing identical rear door panels – check them; they’re the same exact doors.
It has to be said that of the two, it’s the sedan that appears to be less cohesive in terms of proportions. The rising window line fits the hatchback design better, the Suprima S clearly benefitting from not having an awkwardly high bootline. You’d have expected the spin-off to be the one taking compromises, but it ends up looking better than the original. Funny, that.
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