Ok here we go. I'll start with some simple pros and cons first for each car.
Myvi Pros
- Its from perodua, expect a high(er) level of QC compared to proton, they follow japanese work style and their service centres are good
- Good FC straight from the moment you get the car, low engine noise level, relatively decent NVH (noise,vibration,harshness) levels.
- Low maintenance, highest I ever paid for maintenance was about 300 + for a major service.
- Power wise, I have only driven 1.0, so I cannot comment much on power, but the 1.0 power is sufficient for city drive but on highways or hill tops, it really is underpowered. Able to go to genting without issues although you have to turn off the aircond and the drive up is really quite painful due to the power to weight ratio of 1.0. I think for 1.3 should not have any issues
- High end myvi has dual airbags, ABS, EBD and also optitron meter panel which is nice.
- Very very easy to drive and park the car.
- NO BOOT LAMP!! This is the drawback to this car although you could DIY, but there's no boot lamp at all. The daihatsu version has it, I have no idea why they didn't add this in.
- Overall good space and legroom even for tall people.
- 4 Power windows
- Has TWO trip meters. The trip meter is useful for checking distances or for calculating FC and you get two in myvi.
- Big center console area and very deep glove box for storage purposes. Big plus for those who like to keep stuff. Also, the storage area at the door is deep enough to fit your touch and go card or car park cards, etc).
- Huge side mirrors. I really liked myvi's huge side mirrors, they really cover a lot of the blind spots and you can see more of the vehicles that are coming from the left or right side of you.
Myvi Cons
- Lousy stereo sound when compared with Saga. The different is HUGE.
- Poor handling on corners due to size of the car and height of it, feel like it wants to tip over.
- On high speeds of 120 KM/H above (i've heard both 1.0 and 1.3 have this same issue, so its not about the engine power), the whole car feels floating and not stable at all, feel very dangerous. The light steering wheel doesn't help either, you have to hold on really tight with both hands at those speeds otherwise you will swerve to other lanes and end up in an accident
- Small boot space compared to Saga, but myvi has 60:40 foldable seats, so that helps a bit, but you wont be able to have passengers at the back seat if you do that.
- Dashboard materials easily get dirty and scratched (my old myvi got some dirt stains that couldnt come out with any cloth or detergent i used).
- Aircond not as cold as Saga's (my colleagues sat in my old myvi before, and then they sat in my saga, they said my new saga's aircond is cold - at the REAR seats). Basically from what I read, saga's aircond distribution around the car is good, even better than the previous version of vios (04/05 version).
- Lousy horn (i call it "chicken" horn). Some may not be bothered with this, but it matters to me, the horn is just too...girlish for me. Sounds like a "polite" way to say "hoi!"....but that's just me.
- Expensive when considering that its a hatchback car, but no doubt its a good quality car with minimal problems.
- Myvi is basically what they call a "butless" car, when in an accident, the damage can be very severe for the passengers as the front and back of the car is short with no protection. Only the front dual airbags can save the front, but what about the back?
Lets move on to saga
Saga Pros
- Good looking sedan car with Audi look-a-like front and mercedes c-class back. You will never be able to find another car that has this kind of look at this kind of price!
- Good stock stereo. I was blown away by saga's stereo when comparing with myvi's, the sound is just so much different even with the stock player.
- Very stable car at high speeds (from what i've been told). I only managed to go up to 120 km/h as I don't want to overstress the car and also I didn't have enough road space, so I couldn't go further than 120. But I can tell you, the car is really really stable.
- Excellent handling especially during corners, I managed to go through some pretty tight corners at 80km/h compared to the SAME corner in myvi about 50-60km/h. Saga feels very stable.
- Good suspension, the place where I stay in has lots of uneven roads, bumps and holes. Compared with myvi, the saga went through all that with relative ease and I didn't really feel them when i'm in the car, compared with myvi.
- Large boot space (415 litres if not mistaken or 55+ durians..haha). Saga has a really large boot if you compare with myvi. However, there's no 60:40 foldable seats, which is a waste because that'll be a great addition.
- Aircond is really cold even on level 1 and the aircond distribution to the whole car is good, everyone in the car can feel the aircond which is great.
- Cheapest sedan car you will ever find in the market. You can get a M/T car for 39000 or A/T car for 41498 with one driver's airbag (m-line spec). Now that's value for money.
- Comparing with myvi, headroom is slightly less but legroom and interior width is more or less same as myvi. That is what my colleagues told me.
- I was initially under the impression that insulation in saga is worse than myvi, but I feel that the insulation (apart from engine noise) is pretty good if not better than myvi (surprising).
- Has a boot lamp! Compared to myvi, saga AT LEAST has a boot lamp. Thank god proton didn't cut this one out.
- Front and back of Saga is much longer than the myvi hatchback, so logically when it comes to accidents, saga is safer DESPITE the fact that saga onyl has single airbags.
Saga Cons
- No ABS,EBD or dual airbags (only single airbag) even at current high spec (m-line)
- High clutch for manual transmission (i'm not sure if I should consider it as a con, previously when I drove myvi, the clutch release is really short, for saga I have to release it at least 80% before I can move the car or switch gears). I'm somewhat used to it now though. The high clutch does however have one advantage - the chances of the "engine dying" is much much less.
- Proton's hit and miss QC issues still plague saga, so far my car is at the moment ok except for the handbrake which when i release it, i have to release it fully properly, otherwise it will go back up a bit, and the handbrake light goes on the meter panel. I've been told that I could just adjust the screw (tighten it) but I have not done it yet.
- I've been told that proton's service centres are lousy (depending on location) and that the maintenance cost is quite high. This is in comparison with perodua cars.
- FC wise I have not been able to fully test as from my understanding, proton cars don't have good FC when come out from factory. Curently my FC is not at all good, I've pumped RM 45 and now my car has already gone 200 KM with only 2 bars remaining (I pumped the RM 45 petrol from shell when there was 1 bar remaining). This is left to be seen.
- Noisy campro engine. The campro engine is really really loud but my colleague who drives a satria neo says he likes the sound, feels more like a man's car.
- Only 2 front power windows and back power windows are old fashioned "pully" type like kancil and kelisa. Back windows don't go down completely due to the design of the car and was touted as a "safety measure" for kids. No issues to me though.
- No optitron meters for current highest spec of saga (m-line). However, I don't mind that and I really really liked the meter panel especially during night time, it has this cool glass-like feel at night. Not sure how to explain this.
- Saga only has 1 trip meter compared to myvi's two. To me, it is fine, but some may prefer two for FC calculation on 1 and the other for calculating distances from places.
- Small glove box and center console area (below single-din player), can't put that many things.
- The storage compartment on the doors in saga is not deep enough to fully cover the touch and go card or access cards. I find this quite irritating at time when i'm driving, there's the sound of the plastic hitting against each other due to this. Myvi's one is deeper.
- Smaller sized side mirrors but sufficient enough to catch vehicles coming from the sides. Most sedan cars have similar sized mirrors.
Ok that's pretty much all I can remember and think of. The above is the total UNBIASED different between the two cars as I have owned both of them. I'm not paid by proton and just do this to allow the public to make an informed decision on which car to buy. Now after the review, I shall address everyone's most important question - which car to buy ? This is very simple. You should make the call. When I bought myvi back in 2005, saga was not out yet, otherwise I might have considered saga. If you want a car with a big boot, just go for saga without question. But put everything you see in both cars as what you want, then decide which car to buy. If you're ok with the small boot and the unstable floaty feel of myvi at high speeds and also the somewhat-overpriced hatchback, by all means, go ahead with myvi. Otherwise, go with saga. Please put QC into your consideration too. If you buy saga, please do NOT expect it to have QC as good as perodua, there's no way you will ever get that with a SEDAN CAR at that price. When I decided to buy saga, I told myself knowing full well that proton's QC is a hit and miss affair and that there's potential problems with the parts in the car, some noises in the car, etc, so I just choose to accept that fact. Because if I want a sedan car at that price, I can only go for proton. THere's no other way. BTW, myvi is actually a good city car due to its size and light steering. But if you want something in between, saga is better as it is more stable at higher speeds.
So the conclusion is, know what you want and decide carefully. Do not regret after buying the car. There's been a lot of bashing on proton everywhere in forums, kopitiams, etc. I am one of them too, but after reading and fully understanding the issues, I decided to give proton a try. This is my FIRST proton car. I believe they've come a long way with this car compared to the first saga. So I told myself, lets give them a chance and SEE FOR MYSELF rather than just blindly bashing proton. Oh and take note that FC for auto versions of both cars are different. Many said saga's FC (for auto especially) is pretty bad (but it depends on your right foot and also driving conditions like traffic jams, etc). Please do readups upon readups before you buy either car. Then align it with what you want in a car, then just buy it. Hope this helps.
Jul 7 2009, 08:49 PM
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