By the way, Ford Fiesta Ecoboost 1.0 will be costly, most likely above RM90k. So I guess it will be out for you. The Ecoboost 1.0 was claimed to be as powerful as the 1.6-litre model. The new Fiesta 1.5 will be above RM85k from what I was told.

Since the Almera 1.5 is underpowered to my standards, I believe the 1.2-litre Mitsubishi Attrage will be even less powerful. Best is to try the cars and see for yourself.

Double post deleted.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Sep 11 2013, 09:13 PM

The Preve Turbo is considered heavy for its class. Before I bought the car I've checked it against Nissan Sylphy, Honda Civic and Toyota Altis. The kerb weight of the Preve Turbo at 1340kg is more than 100kg heavier than Honda Civic 1.6(1225kg) and Nissan Sylphy(1240kg). The Toyota Altis is also lighter at 1270kg. So in order to keep up with the power in acceleration, the Turbo engine is quite suitable for the Preve's body. I did not try the lower-spec Preve but read that it is a bit underpowered if compared to the Preve Turbo.

Yes, I am aware the Focus has torque vectoring, though I am not sure what it actually does in real life. In my short test drive session, the suspension of the Focus Titanium feels more planted and not as "bouncy" as the Preve Turbo's suspension, though the Preve Turbo's suspension can be considered as excellent already, quite firm and solid if compared to some soft and floaty suspension from other designs.

All this is subjective as it relies on "feel", though my first-time impression is the steering feedback of the Focus is certainly more precise and slightly lighter than the Preve, but not as feather-light as the Nissan Sylphy(low feedback). As for suspension, needs some time on the Focus to ascertain on the differences.

Cabin noise, the Focus surely is much quieter than the Preve Turbo. Not sure if it is as quiet or maybe quieter than the Nissan Sylphy. When I floored the pedal and the rpm shoots up high, the engine noise is minimal and not overly loud. The sound of the 2.0-litre engine is refined and subdued, unlike the harsh and loud growl from the Turbo engine of the Preve Turbo.

Also, I like the leather seats in light beige. Feels good to sit in thick leather seats, though the leather seats of the Focus are not as soft or plush as the Nissan Sylphy's leather. But still, softer and more comfortable than the Preve Turbo's hard and thin fabric seats for sure.

But for a price difference of >RM40k, the Preve Turbo will always represent value for money in my book.

City driving patterns are different among individuals. The driving conditions of your city driving will not be the same as the city driving conditions of another person. You may be doing 40km/h to 80km/h in city driving whereas another person may be doing 0km/h to 30km/h in city driving. Big difference in fuel consumption between the two conditions.

The last thing that you ever wanted to happen if you are concerned on fuel consumption, is to not let your Preve to get into traffic jam situations, a crawl which will need your car to accelerate from standstill 0km/h to 30km/h constantly. This is the worst case scenario, and in this situation, please check your mileage meter. THe amount of kilometres left will drop like nobody's business.

Till then.

Anyone experience these issues as below for the Preve Turbo :-

1) When the engine and lights are switched off, you go shopping for 1-2 hours and when you come back you see the strip of white lights on the car is switched on. It's not the main (yellow) headlights but the strip of (white) lights below the main head lights.

Why these lights are automatically on sometimes? On the light switch, everything is already "Off".

2) When you insert the key and press the start button, the engine takes a longer time, say 3-4 seconds to start(usually just about 1 second). Before the engine starts there is a message "Battery Low".

Thanks for the response. So (1) is normal. As for low battery, I have only used the car for about 2 months only. Mileage is still below 2,000km. Will monitor and see how it goes. Sometimes the electronics of the car just goes haywire. I suspect the battery is still strong, and it is just that the message just comes up sometimes when the engine takes some time to start itself.

Okay thanks for the information. Hopefully I won't get the message too many times.

It happens only once. When the start button is pressed, the engine takes a long time(effort) to start, then the message will appear. But when the engine is already running, the message disappears.

There is no more sound coming from the rear of my car already. No annoying rattling sound and pretty quiet so far, though my car is still new, only about 2 months old. CVT and Turbo engine sound is normal in the Preve Turbo, though similarly have got used to it. Only when one is already used to driving quiet cars, then he will feel the Preve Turbo to be little noisy.

The Preve Turbo compensates with excellent delivery power and acceleration though. I recently let a friend of mine tested the car and he commented that the car's acceleration is powerful.

Okay thanks for the note. Will have a look when I have the time. Cheers.

Oh, okay. As for starting the engine, once I inserted key, I pressed on the brakes and push start button. Guess I skipped one step by pushing start engine button first this morning.

As for the lights, funny thing. Perhaps I have accidentally pressed Unlock on the remote which caused the lights to come on when I took it out from my pocket, and I am not aware of it. Anyway, will monitor further.

Would like to check. For the Preve Turbo, does anyone experience a slight or soft metal grinding sound when accelerating uniformly from 0km/h to 100km/h, say when exiting the toll or when going up a slightly inclined slope?

In my case, the car usually doesn't exhibit this metal grinding sound but the sound sometimes will pop up. The sound isn't really loud but it is definitely there.

Is this inherent in all Preve Turbo? If not, then I'll ask the guys at the SC to check it out in my next service.

I presume you had chosen the Preve Turbo? I have not tried the low-spec Preve but personally I feel that although the Preve Turbo's engine is louder than the low spec model, it has many other more useful features(auto cruise, GPS etc.) and most importantly the powerful acceleration which is useful for everyday drivability. The strengths and fully-loaded features in the Preve Turbo outweigh all other weaknesses.

There are not many cars at around RM70k in the class of Preve Turbo that have Auto cruise control feature, and to me the Preve Turbo really represents good value if compared to other vehicles. I just bought the Ford Focus Titanium, and at RM115k it does not have Auto cruise feature, a feature which I think is quite useful. I will just have to live with it. The higher spec version of the Focus which has this feature is not worth it to me at an additional premium of RM10k.

Having said that, I just got to know that the actual value of the RM115k Ford Focus is only RM34,977 from the shipping invoice from Thailand. Shipping from Thailand to Malaysia comes up to RM1472 and insurance RM300+. So all in the RM115k Focus is still around RM36k+. In this sense the Proton Preve Turbo is seen as good value due to the high sales/import tax imposed by the government to imported cars.

Enjoy your Preve Turbo. It is surely one solid car. I crave for the Auto Cruise control feature of the Preve Turbo that is missing in the Focus. Anyway, not a big deal.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Sep 21 2013, 07:47 AM

How much can distributor profit be. Proton vehicles are not subjected to high import/sales tax by government since it is Malaysian-owned, and yet they are selling at far higher prices. My point is Proton(or Perodua) could be more competitive even though the prices are already seen to be "competitive" when compared to other imported vehicles. AFter all, it is a Malaysian vehicle made for Malaysians.

Preve Turbo is value for money. Personally I recommend the Preve Turbo over the low-spec version as there are not only more added features in the GPS touchscreen and paddle shifters but the added power in acceleration will be useful for drivability. Once you've got used to a sufficiently powerful car, it will be difficult to drive an "underpowered" car. The only downside is the slightly loud Turbo engine but it's still manageable if you keep the speeds below 120km/h and don't do any hard acceleration too much.

Reliability of the Turbo engine may not be as good as the normal version. However, I feel reliability may be more to the way you drive. If one always drive fast and furious and always do hard acceleration with rpms reaching 4000 or higher, chances are the gearbox or engine may break down quicker than you expect. If driving normally, I suspect the Turbo engine will still reliable with many years to come. Personally I think the gearbox transmission may be more prone to breaking down than the Turbo engine. The rougher you treat the gearbox(frequent hard acceleration), the quicker it will be damaged.

1 year old and the steering wheel vibrates already. Great. Sooner than I have expected. Apart from your friend's recommendation, you can check the engine mounting. Usually old worn-out engine mounting will cause the steering wheel to vibrate, but the mountings will last long, 7 to 8 years before they show cracks or deteriorate. In your case, perhaps it is something else.

I will be monitoring this thread to see if anybody encounters early problems with the Turbo engine. Perhaps 4-5 years down the road. Reliability issues will usually only crop up after the 5-years warranty period, ironically.