​Owner Review: Saved from abandonment, with a new life- My 2003 Proton Satria GLi (base model)

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Basic information about my car:

2003 Proton Satria GLi (base model)

Reasons why I bought this car(purpose):

Initially I never had the plan or resources to get myself a car but as I saw this Satria almost abandoned and resting under a layer of dust at my friend's place, I couldn't hold back to know more about the car. Turns out my friend's grandfather owns it and nobody else in the family seemed to drive it because of the manual transmission. I took the chance, struck a sweet deal with the grandfather and promised to take good care of it. Soon enough, it was sitting in my garage.

Car selection process

I knew that if I wanted to get a car, it would have to be under 5K as my budget was quite low due to being a freshman in university.

I have considered models like Proton Wira, Proton Satria and of course the cute little Proton Savvy. Proton Savvy's automated manual transmission really sounded interesting but upon driving one and listening to the list of problems that usually goes wrong with it, I ultimately had to scrap that plan, leaving me with Wira and Satria. For a small while, I also considered the first generation Iswara and Saga but the fuel injection system seemed miles better than the carburetor fuel delivery system.

Reasons why I chose this car:

The main reason I fell in love with this shape of Satria dates back all the way to 2005. The first time I came to Malaysia and was enroute to our hotel, I saw two pristine silver GTis driving enthusiastically on the highway. Then and there, I decided that one day I'll get my hands on one. Sure mine isn't a GTi but have to start somewhere right? 

User Experience

• I have already done: approximately 35,000 km
•  My average fuel consumption is: 12 km/l

Honestly I'm super happy with Satria. Extremely reliable and even when something goes wrong, the parts are also super cheap due to this 4G13 engine being so common here in Malaysia. Furthermore, I wanted to keep the car as stock as possible while changing small things to personalize it to my taste which include DIY custom tail lights, speedometer, side indicators and spoiler brake-light. I also took up on a challenge to wrap the car white before. Ended up looking weird so painted the car myself using nothing but aerosol spray cans. 12 spray cans later, this is how it looks now. It used to be silver before with paint chips all around.

Pros and Cons

Pros of my car

Fun little car, gets great gas mileage. I have also managed to get around 18km/litre by hypermiling the car from Subang Jaya to Cyberjaya Taco Bell and back. The way I've done it is by shifting to higher gears and not letting the tachometer get over 2,700RPM and stuck to 85km/h top speed throughout the way. Even though it's a 2 door vehicle, I've hauled 5 people comfortably with plenty of boot space. Parts are easy to get. Very simple engine layout so fixing it by yourself is also quite doable. Looks very good for its price-point.

Cons 

Honestly I cannot think of too many cons of this car for now. It has served me quite well the last 35,000 km I've driven with no worries, apart from the one time the fuel pump died on me and had me stranded on the side of the road. Being able to comfortably drive and reliably rack up 35,000km with no major issues, I really cannot complain too much. 

Total Score: 4

Performance: 3.5

Quality & Features: 3

Space: 4

Ride comfort: 4

Fuel Economy: 4.5

Price & cost: 5

Summary:

I really love driving this car and it has been a blast owning it. Maintenance is cheap and a great first car to start driving with a low budget in mind. Performance parts are also readily available if you want to take it up as a project car. All in all, I couldn't be happier. This car has been a very important part of my life now.  

Interesting events:

There are quite a lot of interesting events and tiny projects surrounding the car which I plan on going more in-depth in my Instagram @monircooper. Feel free to drop a follow if you are interested in keeping up with the progress and knowing more about the car!

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