If a tree falls in the forest and nobody’s there, does it make a sound? If a small car is made in Malaysia and nobody buys it, will they carry on regardless? The answer to the first question is yes. The tree doesn’t choose whether or not to make noise, so it should make a sound when falling. The Proton Savvy was a relative flop, though its manufacturer is still around. So yes for that one too, though it is likely the Savvy will go down in history as one of Proton’s Deadly Sins.
I assume many of you will be aware of Proton, which stands for “PeRusahaan OTOmobil Nasional” (National Automobile Company). The Malaysian marque was created 35 years ago, at a time when Malaysia’s state-sponsored economic boom was already well under way. The Malaysian government brokered a JV with Mitsubishi Motors in 1982, leading to the production of the Proton, essentially a Mitsubishi Lancer with a different badge. The Saga was joined by other models in the ‘90s, but each one was a licensing deal (Mitsubishi and PSA) or a re-skin. Proton took control of British sports car firm Lotus in 1996, giving the Asian marque a new aura.
Above: Proton Waja (2000-2010); below: Proton Tiara (source: Wikicommons)
Proton’s first home-grown design, the Waja, was launched in the year 2000, though it did employ a Mitsubishi engine. The supermini segment in their sights, Proton tried giving their national rival Perodua a run for their money. This started with the Proton Tiara (1996-2000), a badge-engineered Citroën AX, which bombed completely in the domestic market. Chastened but undaunted, Proton hunkered down and produced a completely new platform and design, launched as the Savvy in 2005 and heralded as a promising product. Alas, the optimism faded quickly.
The Savvy was only available with one engine, a 75hp Renault DOHC 1.2 litre 4-cyl. mated to a 5-speed manual, as seen on the contemporary Twingo and Clio. It’s interesting that Proton preferred this solution rather than using their new 1.3 / 1.6 litre CamPro engine, co-developed with Lotus, which started production at the same time as the Savvy but was reserved for larger models. Somehow, the Savvy’s gearchange was unanimously derided as sloppy and the engine was neither particularly discreet nor powerful. A full automatic was not available, but Proton did provide AMT (Automated Manual Transmission), which sounds like a headache and apparently is one. Our feature car has it, which will lower its resale value in this region of the world, where simplicity and reliability are valued above most other considerations.
It’s not like the Savvy is a bad car. For starters, it doesn’t look like a post-Soviet cobbled-together penalty box, unlike some Chinese cars. The overall impression is not “Yugo” so much as “Fiat” in terms of quality. According to what I’ve read online, it’s more like ‘80s Fiat than 2005 Fiat, but a cut above Chery or Tata. So “mediocre” might be the best way to describe the Savvy. This interior publicity shot doesn’t show the quality of plastics and workmanship too well, but most critics and Savvy drivers seem to agree that these are not the car’s strongest suit.
Esthetically, the Savvy is quite idiosyncratic. Superminis are plentiful and usually boring design-wise, so much so that it can be difficult to tell models apart. The Savvy really tried (and succeeded) to make the front, side and rear of the car unmistakably Savvy. Some of that is rather good: the sweeping edge of the front end is distinctive and attractive, though it does remind me of certain East German designs, for some reason.
I’m much less taken with the side view. That stupid broken beltline, which usually doesn’t work on bigger cars, looks positively ridiculous on a car this size. Of course, Malaysia was the Savvy’s most important market. But Proton’s strategy was always to export their wares – usually providing a lot of car for the money. When the Proton Saga made it to British, Kiwi and Australian shores in the late ‘80s, there were a number of cheapskates folks who couldn’t resist a bargain who snapped them up. After all, it was a Mitsubishi design, so the only real worry was build quality. (And it was a worry).
Whereas the Saga was a classic mid-size saloon priced like a city car, the Savvy was a city car priced like… well, a city car. Malaysian labour had become a lot more expensive by then and shipping costs were pretty much identical for a small car or a mid-sizer like the Saga. Proton offered the Savvy in a number of markets, including Australia, Britain, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, but the Savvy faced very tough competition, including a resurgent Dacia and the ever-competent Korean makers. Sales numbers were extremely disappointing in all export markets, including Asian ones.
Even this post-production ad seems to portray the Savvy as a bit iffy…
Domestically, things were also going pear-shaped for the little Savvy. Although it is a relatively small country, Malaysia has two carmakers – Proton, whose initial remit was to make mid-sized cars, and Perodua, who focused on smaller models since its launch in 1992. Malaysians who fancied a small car would usually prefer Peroduas – or any number of other city cars – over the Savvy. Proton’s domestic market share went from over 60% in 2002 to 30% in 2005 and has kept sliding ever since. The reason was the lowering of tariffs, which have allowed more ASEAN-made cars (especially from Thailand and Indonesia) to compete with Proton. This did not help the Savvy’s career, which ended sooner than predicted in December 2011.
Not that the national automaker need worry about the future – it’s still very much state-backed – but even as Proton tried to expand to new markets in Europe, Asia and South America, their footholds in their “historic” markets have also slipped. Thailand has usually been Proton’s 3rd or 4th largest export market over the past couple of decades, but judging by Bangkok traffic, that doesn’t amount to a great deal of cars sold. The Savvy is a rare sight – fewer than 8000 were sold in Thailand – compared to larger cars like the second generation Saga pictured above, which I snapped in traffic recently.
Nowadays, Proton’s lineup remains a mixture of license-built models (e.g. Suzuki Ertiga, Honda Accord) and home-grown efforts like the Prevé. The Savvy experiment was not a total loss: the platform was lengthened a bit to form the new Saga in 2008. But ever-dwindling sales have taken their toll and Proton needed a new partner, which was found in 2016: Geely, owners of Volvo, bought a controlling stake in Lotus and a minority (49.9%) stake in Proton, the other half remaining in the Malaysian state’s portfolio.
The Savvy will remain a valiant and fatally flawed effort from a relatively inexperienced carmaker. The follow-up in this segment, the Iriz, has not been widely exported since its 2014 launch. Proton pulled out of all European markets that year, even as plans to start production in Bangladesh came undone. The Asian tiger cub has had to curb its appetite since the heady ‘90s, but it hasn’t grown into a full adult yet. Perhaps some Chinese medicine will do it good, but that remains to be seen.
Related posts:
Cohort Sighting: Proton Jumbuck – A What?, by PN
Curbside Capsule: 2003-10 Proton Jumbuck – Simple, Honest, Little Car-Truck, by William Stopford
Curbside Outtake/QOTD: 1997-2000 Proton M21 – Would You Buy A Brand New Old Car?, by William Stopford
Thanks to that strange looking/rising window line, this car looks like the front and back halfs are from different cars. Though, if the car in the ad is anything to go by, the Savvy looks better in lighter colors.
And I realize that the English language has quirks when used in foreign countries, but “Bring your Savvy back to life” is a truly poor line for advertising parts to rebuild the engine of a car. It tends to imply that the car has a short life.
English in foreign countries? It could be worse.
In Australia, a “sav” is (one of unumerable numbers of) slang for your manly bit, being short for “saveloy” which is a type of cocktail sausage. Aussies also have a permanent tic of adding “-y” to everything, such as “barby” (barbecue), “techy” (technician), “firey” (fireman), ad infinitum.
Thus an ad to “Bring your Savvy back to life” could be misconstrued, especially when they offer “Attractive Lube Packages for other models!”
No wonder it didn’t sell well here.
Hilarious! I’ll keep my savvy to myself if I ever go to Oz, then…
Wow, I had not noticed that odd beltline on the black car until you mentioned it. Yes, there had to be better ways to do that.
An interesting and savvy take on a car I knew nothing about. Thank You.
I realized that logo at the end could be seen two different ways. If you tilt your head to the right it’s a fierce tiger or lion’s face in profile. But if you tilt your head to the left it’s kind of a camel with pointy humps and Citroen’s chevrons broken apart and placed on the body. Or maybe it’s a species of bird, such as a Funky Chicken. Interesting.
Interesting that they included a left hand drive export market, Taiwan. The cost of tooling up and manufacturing an LHD version must have been a big expense.
I read that a small contingent was also sent to Germany and perhaps a couple of other EU continental markets, but I can’t find a confirmation of that. Proton trying to break the German market with the Savvy is the automotive equivalent of the charge of the Light Brigade.
That beltline didn’t work for the 1962 Mopars, I wonder what made them think it would work here.
They sold them in Australia, but they’re a rare sighting. Having said that, there’s one in my town – as a yard ornament with the front suspension missing from one side.
That Dead On Blocks With A Large Missing Bit is the fate of every cheap and failed (or failing) brand, it seems. Daewoo, Chery, SEAT (in Aus), they should form a wheeless car club. Clearly, meetings would be attended in real cars, but at least they could feel supported.
Hell, I believe there’s a Datsun 120Y (B210) club, and since having no wheels is vastly preferable to one of those nasties, anything’s possible!
I drove these in Australia (along with the rest of the Proton range) and like the other Protons it made me smile, but was clearly cheap and nasty at the same time. My personal fave was always the Jumbuck – bear in mind I only drove them in a yard, although it was big enough you could get up to 70km/h occasionally and get a bit sideways in the gravel section.
I’d love to know why they didn’t use their own engine. It was a nice revvy unit.
My congratulations. You may as well have won Indy for the rarity of that achievement – the only person ever to have got your Savvy sideways.
(No double entendre arising from my comment up above intended. Though, now I think of it…)
Close, but no cigar (double entendre?).
It was the jolly Jumbuck I got sideways, which is normal for Australia.
I like this shape. The belt line is questionable, but in black here it’s camouflaged well. My fave is the Satria GTi with its baby bolt-ons. There’s one around the corner I need to write up.
Interesting post about a car I never knew existed.
They could only ever have been bought in Aus by those who needed to move about as cheaply as possible in something warranted and new, and who cared not a jot for any other feature than those ones in a car.
Such skinflint owners seem to like them, having, I suppose, no point of comparison. I presume they accept packaging-level interior plastics and low mileage failures of major items as normal. (It’s also a skinflint habit to be, at minimum, self-deluding about their cheap purchases: “See, they DO fit” “Well, yes, but I don’t think I’m supposed to be able to see your arse ABOVE the waistline” but I am digressing).
Perhaps most superminis are a bit boring in the styling, not to mention samey, but perhaps this little beanbag illustrates why the derivative choice is usually made. It looks unhappy at it’s lowly station in life, frowning at both ends and hunchbacked in between. A servant neither lovely or loyal.
Rather astonishingly, I’ve discovered they still sell Protons here, warranting them for up to 5 years. And even though currently impecunious and unthrilled by my exisitng timeworn wheels, I just couldn’t.
Actually, given what I just wrote, I wouldn’t tell you if I did.
Small correction: we didn’t get the Saga in Australia. Our first Proton was the Wira in 1995, based on the ’92 Mitsubishi Lancer.
Proton has managed to exist in Australia since then without ever increasing their market share meaningfully. They have ZERO brand recognition. In that time, Hyundai, Kia, hell even Ssangyong to some degree have all gotten brand recognition.
The Savvy is one of the better-looking Protons. The rear end always reminded me of a cartoon eagle with its angled lines; the taillights are the eyes.
I have Savvy Street 2007 and l love it to bits
had it for 2 years ideal for local and medium trips you get what you pay for prior to this l had a Wira 1500 which also was a good reliable car my daughter has it now it is 51 plate l wish people would stop running these cars down well done Proton!
As someone who lives in Malaysia I must say these are becoming very rare sights here. I kind of like the design – feel it is a little Renault 5 at the back and the beltline kickup helps give this small car some style.
Having said that they have an appalling reputation here. Never taken a ride in one but their offspring, the Saga is around in large numbers, often as taxis and our local Uber service (Grab). The first time I rode in the Saga I was astonished that a car of such low quality materials could still be sold today. It really is cheap inside – while the slam of the door sounds like something from the 1970s.
One correction to the article – I believe that Proton no longer has any government ownership, nor any support in the past 4 years or so.
Well hullo there, neighbour!
Re: Proton’s ownership. It’s tricky. As you know, the line between public and private ownership and control are very fuzzy in Malaysia. The government is always meddling / helping / underwriting / dictating policy goals, whether they actually own the company or not.
Strictly speaking, the government fund stepped in to rescue Proton in 1997 by merging their titular owner (Hicom) with the national motorcycle company DRB and providing a loan through their sovereign fund and Petronas. This soon turned into de facto ownership, but the stakes were sold back to DRB-Hicom in 2012 with the understanding that a new JV partner would be found (Geely).
Currently, Proton is majority-owned by DRB-Hicom, but to call it private would be kind of misleading. The government, which is DRB-Hicom’s biggest customer and supporter, still calls the shots in many ways. And with Mahatir , who initiated Proton back in the ’80s, back in power, That’s not likely to change soon…