KY drives

I was at outside KLCC tower two one afternoon after work and spotted the Proton Waja Limousine that I believe, own by a high ranking government officer or politician.

front view, not the government emblem on top of the number plate

Not to be confused with the Proton Chancellor, this is a true limousine version that is alot more elongated than the former. Form the look of the back, it shares the same exhaust tips as the 1.8 version. My best guess would be that it uses the same 1.8 liter Renault engine.

side view, you can see the limousine version is much longer

I did not manage to find information on this model, I guess it’s a limited production solely for government usage. A pretty decent looking limousine model.

back view, you can see the double exhaust tip

I went to NAZA’s showroom last weekend to take a look at the rebranded Peugeot 206 (as Naza 206 Bestari) as one of my friends is in the market to get a car. I checked out the interior of this ride and took a few pictures.

The four door hatch rear shot

The european hatch, as you would expect from a hatch, is not very spacious. However, it will accomodate four adults comfortably. I would say the rear seats are slightly more spacious than that of a Proton Satria, with the extra advantage of having 4 doors.

The 206 dashboard and center console

The dashboard and center console of the 206 is pretty stylish and yet simple. Essentials like the techometer, speedometer, fuel meter, and temperature gauge are right in front of the steering wheel, unlike some of the new designs that put it in the center (eg. Kancil’s interior.)

The built in CD player has a seperated display mounted on the top of the center console, just right above the hazard light button, this is a good configuration as the driver does not have to adjust the eye lever too much while fiddling with the radio.

The climate control is pretty simple, though you can see the heater setting on the temperature knob, Naza has already taken out the heater core, adjusting the knob to red will merely switch off the aircond compressor.

glove compartment

The door for the glove compartment also serves as a cup holder. It also has a place for you to place sunglasses securely. The actual glove compartment itself though isn’t very big. I would actually rather they have dedicated cup holders and not needing to keep the glove compartment opened whenever I have a can of drinks in the car.

the make-up mirrors

Female drivers rejoice, the 206 comes with not just one, but two make-up mirrors. I think this is the only car that I have come across that has a make-up mirror on the driver side. Lets hope we don’t see any girls using this while driving.

the rear boot space

For a hatch, the rear boot is surprisingly large. The rear seat is collapsible to create a larger boot space. Spare tyre is mounted under the car and not accessible from the rear boot.

rear seats

While not very spacious, the rear seats can easily accomodate 2 average sized adults. The power window buttons are mounted in the center of the car for the rear passenger, a little counter intuitive but probably a good safety feature when you have little kids on board.

triptonic gearbox

The tiptronic gearbox offers ease of driving just as an automatic transmission while offering the manual override that until recently never heard of in cars of this price range. This could come very handy, for example, being able to downshift to increase braking power while going downhill from Genting, if only the engine is more powerful..

Note the cigarette lighter, power window, and side mirror adjustment controls are all mounted right below the shifter.

the 206 engine bay

The engine bay packed the 1.4 liter engine (TU3). The airscoop on the top left of the bay serves as a cool air intake for the engine, a pretty innovative touch that is both cosmetic and practical. I wonder if this configuration can still allow installation of struct bars.
The listed price is RM 68,888 on the road. A pretty good buy if you’re in the market.

My previous post on the 206.

Looks like Naza’s rebranded Peugeot 206 (NX2) will be priced at RM 65k. I came across this from surfing motortrader, take a look at the screen shot. Some of the dealers are already starting to take orders for the 1.4 liter 206.

Rm65k for the rebranded Peugeot 206

The official engine isn’t listed yet. However, from wikipedia, I found out that there are basically two versions of the 1.4 liter engine. The TU3 I4 makes 74 hp and 121 Nm torque while the ET3 churns out 88 hp and 133 Nm torque. Pretty respectable power for a car that is only about 910 kg. In comparison, the 1.3 Myvi engine produces 87 hp and 116 Nm of torque at a slightly heavier 960kg. Generally, a higher torque contributes to better stop-and-go city driving experience.

I think at this price point, it will be a pretty good alternatives to the other compact 4-door saloon, and not be viewed as “like Satria but prettier”. This will put it in direct contention with Hyundai Accent, Getz, Inokom Matrix, and Proton Gen2.

A couple of posts from Paul’s site covering the story with some pictures of the car at here and here.

Unlike in the States where you can have a customised number plate, here in Malaysia our car number plate system is pretty restrictive. Apart from the handful of commemorative special issued plates such as “putrajaya”, “proton”, “perodua” and so forth, most of us have the standard (up to) 3 alphabat and (up to) 4 digit plates.

Over the years I have seen several interesting plates, such as PEN 15 and PAR 15 from Penang. There’s also a guy with CA 511 that has a bolt connecting the 11 to make them look like a H. Anyone waiting for PUK 1?

These photos were snapped with my camera phone while driving at Subang Jaya a while back. Pretty nice WAJ4 for a black waja. How appropriate.

Black waja with WAJ 4