Owner Review: Fuel consumption is bad? - 2005 Proton Gen 2 1.6

Basic information about my car

2005 Proton Gen 2 1.6

Reasons why I bought this car

My parents bought it to replace their previous car.

Car Selection Process

• I had a budget of more than RM 35, 000
• Model(s) that I have considered include: Proton Waja (My dad was actually looking at a Waja but then we bumped into Gen 2 at the used car lot, and the rest was history.)

We chose to buy Gen 2 without specific reason, just happy with the package as a whole.

User Experience

• I have already done more than 298,000 km

Back in 2008, as an eight years old, it was a very sporty and handsome car in my thoughts. Along the years my thoughts have changed as I grew and had exposure to more cars (japanese/continental/local). For my 20 years so far, my thoughts on the car are:

1) It's a car whose design has aged really well and looks fairly sporty and functional (minimal to non existent compromise on practicality).

2) Fuel consumption is bad for traffic drive but not so bad on highway (depends on how it is driven).

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Imo looks sportier than most B-segment cars currently on sale.

• Pretty fun to drive even with really worn out suspension.

• Ice cold aircond.

Cons

• Aircond switch.
• Mine came with a cream interior, personally would have preferred black instead.
• Lack of a proper glove box instead of the centre compartment armrest thing.
• Original side mirrors were horrible because of the design,not very functional. Had to swap them out for side mirrors of a Persona elegance.
• No way to open the boot from outside, one only way is from inside the car via the lever next to the driver seat back adjuster.
• Reverse sensor is too soft, sometimes its really difficult to hear it.

Rating

Total Score: 5

Performance: 3

Quality & Features: 3

Space: 4

Ride Comfort: 3

Fuel Economy: 2

Price & Cost: 2

Summary

I started officially driving this car when I was 18 after swapping out the side mirrors for better visibility for a new/experienced driver (myself fairly new at that time) and the car was 13 years old then. It has been and still is very enjoyable to drive imo, just curious to feel how it was like to drive and live with when it was new or at least when we bought it in 2008, used but comparing how it was at that time and how it is now, I think it is safe to consider that it was almost if not brand new back then.