Proton Saga FL 2010, 6500 units sales target

31 December 2010 - You have seen the facelifted Proton Saga from our Thai Auto Expo 2010 coverage earlier this month, and now it’s the Malaysian market’s turn to get the car. Unveiled by Proton MD Datuk Syed Zainal moments ago, it is officially called the Saga FL.

Proton has set a monthly sales target of 6500 units for the new Proton Saga FL (facelift), which was launched days ago on Wednesday. The facelift comes three years and 204,150 delivered car units after the Saga made its debut in January 2008.

Proton hopes that the Saga FL, now with a redesigned exterior and better-equipped interior, will appeal more to the younger-generation of car buyers, who would be attracted by the Saga FL’s positioning as one of the cheapest models in Malaysia with a starting price tag of RM 37,998.

Powered by the same 1,332 cc Campro engine with 94 hp and 120 Nm, the Saga FL gets Proton’s new face, which will be sign of things to come. As detailed before, the new exterior consists of new lamps front and rear, new grille, new bumpers on both ends and new design rims. Standard variants ride on 175/70 R13 wheels while Executive FLs use 185/60 R14 rubber.

Most of the new features that the FL gets over the old car is for the Executive. They are dual airbags, steering audio buttons and USB/AUX ports for the Clarion MP3 stereo. New goodies available on both trims are side mirrors with LED signal lamps, rear power windows, rear LED tail lamps. The rest of the Executive-only equipment includes driver’s seat height adjuster, powered wing mirrors, fog lamps and slim rear spoiler.

The new Proton Saga facelift is now available in four different variants – the Standard M/T and A/T as well as the higher spec Executive M/T and A/T, which is one grade level less than the pre-facelift Saga, which was available in N-Line, B-Line and M-Line. Effectively, this means very basic N-Line with the cheapest price tag and the black bumper is not represented in the new line-up.

The pre-facelift Saga became the second best-selling model in Malaysia soon after its launch, averaging sales of 6200 units per month. Alongside the Persona and Exora, the Saga is one of the three core models that Proton is relying on to achieve increasing car sales and profit margins.