Since I've tested the car, maybe I should share my thoughts of the car.
Exterior
There were 3 variants on display in the showroom that I went. 1.6 Premium, 1.3 Executive, and 1.3 standard. All 3 of them are in different colour. Citrus Green, Atlantic Blue, and Silver Moon Dust. All 3 colours look nice to me, especially the Atlantic Blue.
The front does looks a little bit like a ford fiesta. And the back actually looks better in actual than in pictures. Even without the body kit, the exterior does not feel empty. The car looks great in overall, but please do not look at the exhaust as it might cause severe eye injury.
Interior:
Cabin space. Well, not bad. The seats at the back is more comfortable the of suprima s, as the thigh support is larger. There are 7 cup holders in the car which fits only 5 persons. Don't ask me why. The leather seat design is not bad actually as the executive feel is there. But the fabric seat is not as comfortable than of Axia. Axia fabric seat is soft and comfy, it's like an old sofa which you wouldn't want to remove your butt once you sit on it.
The door trims looks abit dull to me. Proton should have thrown in some colour or finishing that makes it appealing. The dashboard design is quite nice, nicer than the Preve and suprima. There are stitchings (fake one) like what toyota has it in the current vios. However, it doesn't produce the same outcome. I feel that the vios fake stitching really does trick my eyes, while I can't bring out the executiveness from my eyes on Iriz fake leather stitching. Well that could be because of the plasticky plastic feel of dashboard. I still feel that the plastic being used or maybe the moulding is not as good as even of a perodua. Apart from that, the meter is too small. The numbers are small, the needle is small, the dial is small, but hey, the center LCD that indicates which door is open is huge!! You won't miss if any door is open in the car! How great is that. The meter does not give out a wow factor. Well at least to me it does not. And my old man might need telescopic specs to read it. Another downside of the meter is that it is not lighted up during day drive.
Moving to driving position, the side mirror is positioned too low. Even though there is no telescopic adjustment for the steering, I still feel comfortable and the ergonomic is good, until I tried to engage the manual stick into gear 1. F-king far. Too far too I actually had to lean slightly to the front to confidently get it engaged. Not to mention also the gear knob design...really, Proton, wtf?
The sound system is good! I was told by the sales person that proton is still using blaupunkt. At least it is some branded speakers which has got recognition, unlike perodua which gives us paper speakers.
The test drive:
So the variant that I tested was 1.3 Executive manual. The car is fully loaded with people - 5 ekor. Since the variant is not equipped with keyless entry, I did not have the chance to test Proton keyless entry. The crank was good, and the sound was good too. Vibration is not noticeable too. The odometer shows only 273km. I tested for a short 7km, on main road and residential area.
Power and acceleration: I was like Jeremy Clarkson, tried to make the car going faster by shaking my body front and back. Seriously I could not feel any power at all, even though I'm flooring the pedal at gear 2 and the rpm went up to almost 5k. Well ok this is a 1.3 and not only it is fully loaded, the engine hasn't really break in as well. So I give it a 30% reduction in power in comparison with driving it with only 2 persons in car and the engine has well been trained. No doubt, the car feels heavy but the rev doesn't. It revs happily but did not translate to acceleration, which means it could be giving a bad fuel consumption.
Gear change: like driving a lorry. I'm driving a manual myvi and I feel that it is a lot better than iriz even though it is still rubbish. It is rough, long throw, and the gear knob...wtf proton. But I guess after some good mileage with proper maintenance, the gear shift could be better. Oh ya, the clutch is soft. Waaayyyy softer than my myvi. Good if you are stuck in traffic jam.
Noise and vibration: The nvh suppression is surprisingly good. I bet the passenger didn't know that I revved the engine up to 5k rpm. Road noise is within acceptable level. Not bad.
Brake: Although it grips, the sponginess is quite immense. I did a hard braking (though it didn't step all the way in at once) at around 40kmh and the car slowed down better than expected. But the sponginess feel does reduce some confidence. Maybe the pads hasn't really break in?
Ride and handling: It is stiff, which reminds me of my myvi. Body roll is within comfortable level and it the solid ride feeling is there when going straight. I did not have the chance to really test it in corners, but what I can tell you is although the steering "heaviness" is good (some people might feel that is it abit heavy since it is eps, but I like heavy and solid feeling), it is not as responsive as I expected it to be. And steering feedback is absent too. I did a 3 point turn in a tight space and the turning radius is good. It did not disappoint the fact that a small zippy Zappy car should have small turning radius.
Blind spot: I came very near to a kancil! The front A pillar blind spot is not there, as iriz copied jazz and made a small triangular window portal there. But Proton missed out that the rear blind spot is the most important one. I was entering the main road from an intersection. I looked into the rear and side mirror, I saw a black car was coming from the main road, at 5 o clock direction. I saw a kancil behind the black car which was following the black car quite near. I signaled and join the road slowly, and I intended to let the both the cars pass before entering the road. However, the kancil slowed down as the black car passed. I was actually searching for the kancil! Totally lost it! I believe the kancil wanted to let me pass but because I slowed down intentionally to let them pass, he ended up in my blind spot, which is just beside me. The line or blind point is the front bumper of the kancil is at the B pillar, 5 o clock direction and wallah!! The car disappeared. So to anyone who will be getting an Iriz, please get a huge and long rear view mirror with blind spot viewing mirror installed at the side mirrors, and drive cautiously.
Will I get one if I'm looking for a car?:
Probably, but not now. Proton is famous for its first batches of new models. Most of the first batches have many problem which proton slowly rectifies one by one throughout the years. That's why they can sell a model for a decade. It is one of the cheapest car equipped with features we would like to have like ABS, airbag, and vsc. I believe many parents will get Iriz for their children, if they are not anti proton. I had tested many small cars like ford fiesta, Suzuki swift, honda jazz, kia picanto, Mitsubishi attrage, myvi, and a few others. While proton claimed that Iriz is benchmarked against the fiesta and polo, I feel that it is still far away from them. It is comparable on paper, but in actual it's totally different. However, it is comparable or better than some compact cars in some aspects. For example the ride is better than honda jazz, but not fiesta. I feel more comfortable in iriz than swift, but swift braking win hands down. Pros and cons, it all depends on what does one expect from it. Cheers
