RM115k for new Proton R3 or Top Up for DC5

[minivan]

This car has become so controversial because its a PROTON. So people's usual perception is that its low quality not worthy of any form of recognition. So when you slap on a RM115K price tag to it, people are jumping out of their shoes. "rediculous", "nuts", "better buy this, better buy that", "better mod this, better mod that", "this faster, that faster"...

Fact is, its for people who can afford to blow RM115K. For those who want quality mods and parts done by professional tuners albeit being done on a neo. Plus it has the added bonus of having a nice Lotus Racing theme on it. And i'm pretty sure there are 25 of such persons. Itu je this thing.... no need to get your knickers all twisted because of it....

And for the comment on there will be plenty of copy cats. The FD2R, Evo X, etc all suffer the safe fate. This is Malaysia ma, car prices are nuts, n people wanna look the part, but also want it cheap to...

 

[WAFS]

Now I understand...The car is a collector's item...hence the price.
So, for a car collector, his garage must be full of nice cars including Type-Rs, Mugen RR, Evo MR, FQ, S20x, M3 CSL, GTR, Novitec Scuderia,etc...so this Neo R3 lotus edition is just a new addition to the line-up...
In my opinion, it's for collector...for normal people like us who can't afford to have many cars in the garage...just buy a Type-R!

 

[vtec_1088]

hahaha.. lot of people buy proton or local car bcoz they can't afford 2 buy imported car.. if they afford 2 buy it bye2 protonggg.. made such a good quality (actually not 2 good but better) car for export version but for own people let them have a poor quality car (thanks in advance 2 our gomen).. proud 2 be malaysian but not too proud with our gomen.. cheers

 

[MatK]

It is expected for any of new cars to have mixed reviews. Personally, i dont think it is a bad car just because it is Proton. Satria Gti is a very good car. I remember reading it in an Aussie cag mag on 1999 top 100 cars and Satria Gti is on number 70++. I drove a 97 Putra before switching to a 99 Satria Gti. Of course the latter is better but wicked good cars both of them. Sold off my pocket dynamite Gti to upgrade to DC5.
If the Neo R3 meant for collector's item, how many would 'collect' a proton? What are the distinctive values of having it? I dont think just by having only 25units in the whole world is enough to be categorized as such.
For 115k, general public would react like what of us has reacted. Hence all the bad things said. But, i think those people just don't know how to express properly their disbeliefs on the price and unproven quality.
Personally, I wonder which market segment is Proton targetting. Say, they do the upgrading on the CPS engine & throw in some add-ons (handling, braking, recaro seat etc like Satria Gti) and sell it for about 75-80k, i'm sure it will give cars like Suzuki Swifts Sport a great run of their money. Make it a Gti version of Neo, and i'm sure they can sell it, just lke they did on Satria Gti.
What is Proton's strategy, i dont know. But it there's chance for money to be made, why not?
Then again, it's up to an individual what they want to get for themselves. After all, one man's beyonce is another man's rosmah...
Cheers....

 

[loose_end]

Do a conversion on the exterior ..

 

[ap3xi]

I think the car will sold out fast, no problems. If i have the money and time, i will buy a second hand neo, strip everything and rebuild from there. More power, lighter chassis, recaro spg, momo, BBS, body color of your choice and TWICE THE SATISFACTION!

 

[dawg]

i think what the original poster meant is proton neoS2000 not honda s2000. proton neos2000 does produce 280hp

Yep I was referring to the Satria Neo S2000. (Complicating eh? They used the same code)... This was made for Rallying. Karamjit has had experience driving it (left hand drive).

That engine does churn our 280hp from NA. If this engine can produce 280, take the same engine, and downtune it to at least 200-220hp (should reduce cost significantly as for NA to get 280hp is CRAZY expensive. dropping the power by 60hp should reduce the cost by a tonne!

Now with a 220hp on this Lotus R3 Satria, who's gonna look down on it and say it doesnt have a recaro or a bucket seat? I'd say sign me up for a test drive! The seats/ steering/ rims can be changed to your preference, but a 145hp engine vs a 220 hp engine is not as easily changeable. Even if they priced the 220hp engine RM150k, it's still a head turner. The fact that it is now able to be used to compare with FD2R, DC5, it will even make MME or 1000km endurance race exciting to watch becase Proton is now a real competitor.

145hp for 1.6litre is still unable to beat what honda had done 13 years ago as stated by another forumer. Heck dont compare to b16b, this engine already lose to b16a, 4age..

The rest of the car package is delicious, only the engine and horsepower is the let down. Plonk in a 2.0litre 220hp engine and they can now afford to yell WHO's THE DADDY NOW PUNK!...

 

[KhalilK]

after all, one man's beyonce is another man's rosmah...
Cheers....

rotfl

 

[nurburing]

What I can say, Proton marketing skills are terrible. They just want to prove their CamPro CPS power, shuld have make a special edition Neo's but keep the price just around 60-70k.

115k is just not there yet, coz Proton donot have that kind of reputation yet, and yes a stupid 145hp car, on wheel maybe 110hp needs OHLIN ? OMG !

 

[lightningfield]

What I can say, Proton marketing skills are terrible. They just want to prove their CamPro CPS power, shuld have make a special edition Neo's but keep the price just around 60-70k.

115k is just not there yet, coz Proton donot have that kind of reputation yet, and yes a stupid 145hp car, on wheel maybe 110hp needs OHLIN ? OMG !

hey dude please be respectful and understand the whole picture of the production before putting it to words. they have all the rights to put even an Aragosta suspension or Brembo GT 10 pot brakes if they want to coz its their game. 145hp is not as stupid as you think it is. Its just that it would be nicer to have an extra 50hp to complement this special build. cheers

 

[subcon]

aiiyooo padang kilat you beat me to it... i was about to post the same reply ha ha ha!!! F1 tak turun?

 

[akuma]

awww come on guys,chill a lil....no matter how many crap cars Proton haf presented in d past n present,let's gif 'em a chance.yes,i myself m still labeling them loco 4 pricing d Neo Lotus Racing @ such.but thn again,dis came frm d R3 ppl who r also car enthusiasts n they shud know better abt our local car enthusiasts' market & scene.i m quite sure they haf done their homework slapping on d price tag.n all dis call 4 more powah rm Proton,heck,who doesn't want it?but it's d new age ler.....all manufacturers hafta pass thru strict emission tests,no?i wonder if Honda's 185ps B16B will pass d current emission test?
in short,as a manufacturer,they r quite tied down.while v r car enthusiast,who can mod til kingdom comes(or as long as ur pocket can tahan,hahahahah).....
anyway,i'm stil hoping 2 meet dis Neo Lotus Racing 1 day(preferably on track).time 2 renew me car's roadtax...dah 2 bulan x jalan!hahaahha

 

[minivan]

What I can say, Proton marketing skills are terrible.......shuld have make a special edition Neo's but keep the price just around 60-70k.

U understand nuts about marketing n business. Special Editions are expensive not just becoz of its exclusivity/rarity. But because of their small numbers, they can't benefit from economies of scale to get prices down like the mass produced ones...

 

[nurburing]

well then, I apologize if I post too harsh. but face the reality, I dont really care what proton wants to put nor any special editions they want to make. in this picture they are borrowing extreme upgrades but with campro cps, so what are they trying to proof ? their cps ofcoz. but this is a rather unwise way. who gonna buy ? i really like to see, and i am waiting to see other 90's cars ready to spank this 115k satria neo on the track, looking forward to it. i sat inside gti before and i know the difference of it and a cps. is this 115k cps really good, can take on mivec, vtec, vvti ? to me, i donot think so.
i can also simply take any car mix with other upgrades n make 10 cars in the whole globe n call it LIMITED EDITION or COLLECTIBLES....problem is it gonna work out that way ?

 

[Emp]

Hmm.....so it's like a special bread compared to some normal cakes huh:rolleyes:

 

[lightningfield]

well then, I apologize if I post too harsh. but face the reality, I dont really care what proton wants to put nor any special editions they want to make. in this picture they are borrowing extreme upgrades but with campro cps, so what are they trying to proof ? their cps ofcoz. but this is a rather unwise way. who gonna buy ? i really like to see, and i am waiting to see other 90's cars ready to spank this 115k satria neo on the track, looking forward to it. i sat inside gti before and i know the difference of it and a cps. is this 115k cps really good, can take on mivec, vtec, vvti ? to me, i donot think so.
i can also simply take any car mix with other upgrades n make 10 cars in the whole globe n call it LIMITED EDITION or COLLECTIBLES....problem is it gonna work out that way ?

halo dude. they got nothing to prove coz this limited edition is to commemorate the proton-lotus partnership that's all. well, maybe yes they wanna show that the campro is capable of churning 145hp but honestly, u know and i know that there A LOT of other cars can beat this car on the track or straight road. so why bark as if this car is like your greatest contender or sumthing. have you not seen other automobile manufacturers producing limited edition/collectible cars? and please give us a good example (with statistics) of a failed limited edition/collectibles automobile marketing (ie couldnt be sold due to price/unattractiveness etc).

bring your pessismistic thoughts somewhere else la bro.

 

[minivan]

well then, I apologize if I post too harsh. but face the reality, I dont really care what proton wants to put nor any special editions they want to make. in this picture they are borrowing extreme upgrades but with campro cps, so what are they trying to proof ? their cps ofcoz. but this is a rather unwise way. who gonna buy ? i really like to see, and i am waiting to see other 90's cars ready to spank this 115k satria neo on the track, looking forward to it. i sat inside gti before and i know the difference of it and a cps. is this 115k cps really good, can take on mivec, vtec, vvti ? to me, i donot think so.
i can also simply take any car mix with other upgrades n make 10 cars in the whole globe n call it LIMITED EDITION or COLLECTIBLES....problem is it gonna work out that way ?

OK la...i may have been a tad harsh on u. But the point i was trying to make is that its not quite as simple as you gather it to be...

And taking from what lightningfield pointed out, its important to put things into perspective. Now what honda did with the b-series engine was exceptional, some say even astonishing. How many car manufacturers were able to match that feat? Boleh kire sebelah jari beb. Even the likes of toyota and mitsu merely got the nombors from their engines close to what honda had, but still lost out in terms of real world performance. So what honda did was exceptional. Now is the campro 1.6 anywhere close to being exceptional?? So whats the point of pitching it against the VTEC, MIVEC, VVTI as 1) its stating the obvious and 2) Its just too easy to do (to attack/condem)... so by putting things into perspective what r3 have done is not all that bad...

 

[WAFS]

Come on guys...horsepower is not everything...the MK1 Lotus Elise just got 118 bhp! I had driven it and I would say thats enough for us to have some fun. I believe this Neo R3LE with the package it has will give a good fun level too. Another fun car is the MX-5, the 2009 model has 2.0-litre engine with just 167 bhp (whereas our K20A 220hp) and it's not even a limited edition model. Why people don't complain on this mx-5 I'm sure the price is well over rm200k.
This neo r3LE is limited edition...thats why it has the RM115k pricetag....thats all. I think before giving any bad comments, better drive the car first...I'm sure it's well engineered and performs well at Sepang...

 

[Dayline668]

Sorry to say, but as far as i drove proton suck.. but neo do hav a good hot hatch look.. And the price tag problem ly on 'Gov' not proton.. dun shoot me..

 

[YellowFlash]

AP racing brakes, Ohlin coilovers, advanti rims, 145PS and 115k RM doesn't rhythm..

i believe they could have spent more time on R&D and slap on a turbo to make it 220hp on a AWD system that they used for their rally and then include all the bombastic brands for their parts.
Seems like they are trying to keep price down but want to add super expensive parts.

Anyway from my point of view, a brand new neo cps only cost 60k, we can spend 20k to do a custom turbo set up and bring its output up to 220hp(with reliability). spend another 5k on average branded BBK, 5k on avg japanese coilovers, 5k on japanese rims, 5k on exterior bodykit, cf bonnet etc and probably another 8k on bucket seats.

total cost = 60+20+5+5+5+5+8= 108k
this is just a estimated figure and i believe proton has the expertise and better economy of scale than a ordinary car enthusiast and this figure could be further much reduced. So probably they are trying to earn a huge chunk out of their current limited edition.

just my 2 cents...don't flame me :)