Hey guys, I recently got my Proton Persona and already travelled 1300km in 2 weeks. I would like to share my experience/review as well as the after-sale service experience. I hope this will help any potential buyers make their decision if the product suits them. To make it easy I am breaking the review into several parts as below:

1.0 Car design

Visually, the car looks nice from the front but towards the back, it has a weird disproportionate look to it. I like the design of the light, but the rest of it seems a little weird. But after awhile, you get used to it and start to like it.

2.0 Cabin Design & Space

2.1 Seating comfort

Looking at the interior, it looks great considering the price. My version is the premium variant so there was leather, and in the door, there was a leather like material. The way the seats hold your body made it really comfortable when sitting and even driving. Even in the back, my family said it was really comfortable. But from my opinion, it looks a little cramped from the back appearance wise, but when you sit down it feels like there is space. When comparing to my previous car which was a Perodua Viva, I felt that it was even bigger than Persona from the rear space. However, after sitting in Persona's back seat it does feel like there is space. I must warn you though that when the front seats move backwards a little the backspace is reduced tremendously. I got a feeling that it is mainly due to the size of the seats (correct me if I am wrong).

2.2 General aesthetic

The two-tone door and dashboard, with the faux leather like material, made the cabin look modern. In overall it's quite comfortable and I have no complaints in this area.

3.0 Sound system

The Proton Persona comes with its usual Blaupunkt speakers. I came from my Perodua Viva and also a Myvi whereby the speakers sucks beyond imagination. I am an audiophile abit and to my relief the Persona's speakers was not disappointing there is a certain level of depth and clarity to it which is awesome! But as for the player, it sucks!! Some of the issues I found with the player on my car are:

- The volume increased itself to max once 
- The bluetooth sometimes can connect sometimes cant connect
- The USB playback is jerky sometimes it hangs (They updated the radio firmware and issue still persists)
- The screen at one time was completely non responsive, and was hung at one screen turn off engine turn on still same had to bring to SC to do factory reset.

(I am planning to utilize the warranty gao gao and ak them to change the player)
4.0 Driving Experience & Performance

4.1 What I didnt like?
When I first got the car, I was very satisfied with the performance. I have driven a Perodua Viva, and Myvi and there is something really pleasant and fun when driving a Proton Persona. However, it was strange when I reached around 200km one fine morning, the car had a jerky feeling when moving from idle. It feels like as though the car was abit noob in releasing clutch. I didnt like this feeling, I will mention how I solved it in the next part of the review.

Also when coming down even a tiny slope engine braking kicks in immediately. This was very annoying, but there is a simple solution that you must continue to pressing the throttle and the engine breaking disengages. So problem solved here (to me).

4.2 The handling is awesome!

The car's handling is superb!! I can only give you my feeling based on comparison with Perodua Viva, Myvi, Toyota Vios, and Honda City. And honestly, the handling beats all of them... I drive alot meeting clients and all, and I still remember in a MyVi I have to break abit when approaching curvy roads otherwise the car will feel like its tilting. But on the Persona it gripped the road and went around the curvy road without any feeling driving around 90 km/h it was extremely enjoyable in my opinion. I drove a Toyota Vios and City before and I dont feel the same experience in terms of handling in the Proton Persona. Proton's much praised Lotus Ride & Handling is really something to shout about here.

There was one time where a Nissan Almera was behind me and the driver was high beaming me along the highway, I couldn't switch lanes because I was driving around 90km/h and there was a lorry on my left. The Nissan Almera was tail gating me, I was waiting for an opportunity to switch lanes. But I approached a curvy turning road and I continued driving while I noticed that the Nissan Almera had to slow down (being unable to handle the curvy road) and I could still maintain at 90km/h like a breeze and went quite a distance and changed lanes after coming out of the curve. To me, this was an awesome feeling !!

4.3 Performance-wise

In this area I must say that I am a very fuel conscious driver, I do not drive like a racer. I press the throttle gently and move from stop out of traffic lights slowly while other cars sprint away. However, there are situations where I needed to overtake cars and Persona could do that without a sweat. The car accelerates well but the sound dampening really masks it giving it a very elusive feeling. To me, I like it because comfort is very important. I would say that there is a balance of comfort and performance here. The car has enough power reserve to do well for road driving.

I must say there was one bad experience where I was trying to come up a hill and it felt a little sluggish if compared to a MyVi. It must be that the car is heavy. But not to worry there is still power there because I was hardly pressing the throttle hard enough as I mentioned I am a fuel conscious driver. The fastest I have ever took this car so far is at 100km/h 

4.4 Noise Vibration & Harshness

In terms of absorbing road bumps persona beats Viva, and MyVi hands down. I am not so sure about if compared to Vios and City, but to me it is good enough. In terms of noise the car is silent at speeds below 90km/h whereby after that there is some noise. But the noise is still so much more dampened than a MyVi. I did drive a Honda City (an older one) from KL to Singapore and the noise was louder than the Persona at between 90 - 120 km/h. So to me it was satisfying considering the price of the car.

In overall the NVH is really satisfying and Proton kept this part of their promise here.
Before I conclude with the verdict, I will update in my next post (when I am free) with some of the issues I found with this car - the solutions and my first service experience at COSE.
Thank you for reading, hope it was useful.