Usually I won't bother about the Almera because of the ugly looks. However, this evening when driving on the roads going out for dinner with the family, I saw a vehicle from a distance which looked rather elegant but didn't manage to see the badge. As I drove closer I noticed it's an Almera but a different looking one. It looks unique and one of a kind, all grey or black and the rims are also in black. For once I thought this version of the Almera looks nice, elegant and special.

When I went to the Nissan website later, I realised there's now a Kuro version of the Almera with a RM8k add on which will turn everything to black front grille cladding, black 16" alloy rims, black boot lid spoiler and Tomei aero kit.

If I were to pick between the Proton S70 and regular Nissan Almera, it would be the S70 because my main priority has always been the exterior looks, first and foremost. Although a vehicle may have impressive performance on paper, if it looks ugly I won't bother looking at it. With the new Almera black edition, my preference is now this Almera Kuro mainly for looks, apart from the reliability, comfort, quietness (good nvh) and performance. Based on my 5 year experience with Nissan Sylphy I can vouch for the reliability and performance with zero issues throughout the ownership until I sold the car.

Of course if people look at acceleration power, handling and value for money (cheapest 1.5 turbo with close to C segment size) then maybe the S70 will be a better choice but for people who look for other things such as refinement in the drive, nvh or smooth transmission and proven little to zero reliability issues, the Almera is a better choice although it's ugly in my book(there will be others who find it beautiful so to each his own). To me the new improved looks of the Almera Kuro black edition wins it as I don't look at power too much these days. When I owned the Proton Preve Turbo, it's also powerful with good handling but the refinement is poor with some serious rattling sound inside the cabin after 2 years with loud and unrefined engine sound during acceleration with lag. The gearbox broke after 2+ years and luckily was replaced during warranty period. Some other parts broke too and was replaced either under warranty or out of warranty. With the Nissan Sylphy, nothing breaks after more than 5 years, with almost zero rattling sound although the noise got a bit more after 4 years.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Jan 13 2024, 10:24 PM

I'm not so sure about the numbers in the table but even though it's estimated, I guess it won't be too far off. Based on my experience with Proton Preve Turbo and Nissan Sylphy, I was actually surprised that the cost of maintenance of the Nissan Sylphy 2.0 is actually lower than the Proton Preve 1.6 Turbo. The service intervals for both vehicles are the same at 5,000km mileage or 6 months whichever comes first.

The major service of the Proton Preve Turbo comes up to RM1.6k+ if I'm not mistaken, while the Nissan Sylphy's services were almost always lower than the Proton, minor service RM300+ while major service around RM1k+/-.

I'm not sure about the new Almera but Nissan cars Sylphy and Teana have always been well known for superior NVH, perhaps on par with Toyota equivalents or better, much better than the rest including Honda. If one desires a comfortable and quiet drive with low noise from the traffic, engine or road and with minimal rattling sound inside the cabin, Nissan is usually the best choice. As the Nissan(Sylphy) excel in comfort and quietness, they fall short in handling so there's a trade off. The (new) Almera is in a different category so I'm not sure how close it is to the Sylphy or Teana's nvh levels.

The new Almera being a 1.0 litre turbo should be fuel efficient too. I believe the low reception is people are not willing to pay a high price of RM80k-90k+ for a 1.0 litre engine vehicle although the advantages may outweigh the weaknesses, apart from other reasons as mentioned earlier on this thread.

I hope the S70 will be a different story and I wish Proton well. It's surely something that remains to be seen, a gamble for potential or future owners who have placed booking for the car. My experience with the Preve Turbo was not a good one. Too many horror stories that I won't post here since it's not relevant as the S70 is an all new model from Proton/Geely collaboration. However, based on your post above I presume you have test driven the S70, and I presume the nvh and performance of the transmission are a huge departure from the punch cvt and turbo engine in the Preve. Time will tell if the quality of the S70 is good, with regards to not showing serious rattling sound inside the cabin or reduced nvh quality or any breakdowns or parts of plastic piece from the gear knob falling off like my Preve. The small little things with fit and finish. The Preve Turbo was only good within the first year or so as the quality dropped rapidly approaching 2 years and then above.

The Proton Preve Turbo was the cheapest car with the best performance during the time it was launched at RM69k, so it sold like hot cakes. Yes, it's the same now with S70.

The exterior of the new Almera Kuro in grey and black looks better than the Vios to me. Interior-wise the two tone dashboard of the Almera looks quite good, but the door panels and 2-tone leather seats look a little cheap from the photos.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Jan 15 2024, 07:56 PM

Wow, looks like engine mountings in the X70 cost more than the ones in the Ford Focus, surprisingly as I thought Ford parts already cost a bomb ( ford focus new steering rack RM9.8k). Sorry to hear about the problems with your X70. I guess S70 will be the same and time will tell.

My Nissan Sylphy, absolutely no issues from the day I bought the car until the day I sold it at 5+ years. The only small issue I had was wind sound from the side windscreen which was rectified easily at the service centre. Sometimes people just look at performance only but reliability and cost of spare parts and maintenance are also a huge factor. If one has the patience to do frequent visits to rectify issues with the car and has no issue spending the money to replace faulty parts(out of 3 year warranty period), then that's a different story..

And the Nissan Sylphy is really quiet and no rattling sound within the first 3 years, very comfortable drive. Just some minor rattling after 5 years which is acceptable. It's too bad there are no more Sylphy and Teana replacement models from Tan Chong.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Jan 15 2024, 08:15 PM

It's not only the punch CVT but the gear knob of the Proton Preve is junk. The plastic piece of the gear knob fell off not only once but 2 or 3 times even after it was fixed at the Proton service centre. I have to temporarily use a rubber band to tie the plastic piece to the gear knob of the vehicle before I have time to send the car to the SC to get it fixed. It's just horrible. I had a picture of the gear knob with the rubber band tied to it as a temporary fix posted on the Proton Preve thread when I owned it, about 6 or 7 years ago. I also found the gear shifting feel of the Preve to be the same as a toy car. I made this same comment many years ago. When you shift the gear knob from P to D, or D to R for example, the gear knob feels very light and hollow. Sometimes I feel like the whole gear knob is going to break into 2 pieces if you put too much force in it as it really feels poor in the hands when you shift it around the gears.

All these small details affect the overall quality and refinement of the Preve. I presume the S70 is a completely different car with much improved fit and finish inside the cabin. But reliability-wise, judging from the experience of X70 users like Gargamel I suppose time will tell if it will receive the same fate.

ps. the CVT gearbox of my Preve Turbo was found to be damaged when it was less than 3 years old. Luckily still under warranty replaced at the service centre free of charge. The vehicle was at the service centre for about a week when they replaced the gearbox and I need to go find a temporary car to drive to work which was a hassle.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Jan 16 2024, 11:09 AM

After spotting a nice looking Almera Kuro version earlier last week which had piqued my interested a little, I investigated further on the vehicle. Everything looks good until I noticed a rather huge minus point. The vehicle does not come with powered seats, not even for the driver. All manual adjustments for the front seats.

Everyone is different. Even though the car may be used by one person only, I find powered seats to be useful. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the Ford Focus where both front seats come with powered seats. I occasionally adjust the position of the seats, front and back, and the backrest inclined at various angles or upright. Sometimes when I'm at the traffic lights, I will put the seat inclined to rest if I have a bad headache, and when the cars start moving I'll get the seat straight up by the push of the button. Very easy and convenient. Of course manual adjustments will work too but it's just more work to adjust to the optimal position. With powered seats, the adjustments are minute so you can get to the desired position accurately and easily. With manual adjustments the positions of the seat are preset in say 4 or 5 places so you get less play.

If the car is used by 2 persons or more, occasionally if not regularly, the powered seats will be more useful. If it's older folks, it will be even more useful. In my case the vehicle will be mostly used by 2 persons.

There are people who pay a lot of emphasis on 360 degrees parking camera, auto cruise, paddle shifters and some advanced safely features but they are all not important to me. In the end it depends on the criteria of the individual on what he/she regards as important. Everyone is different and people have the choice to go with whatever that is appealing to them. If your ask me, I wouldn't pick the Proton S70 even though it is packed with many features and have a more powerful to engine to hit higher top speed or whatever. And I would go with Toyota over Honda anytime. It's good to have options.

For anyone who is interested, there is currently promotion for Nissan Almera Kuro black edition. Some photos forwarded to me by the sales guy. These are the new glacier grey finish for the Kuro which is different from the old Dark metal finish:-








The old dark metal finish:-

Yes, same thoughts and that was the reason it got me interested as apart from the new glacier grey finish, the Kuro black front grille add-on made it look much better as the original silver front grille didn't look good to me. I didn't look at the Almera all this while as it does not look good but this new Kuro version with glacier grey finish now looks appealing to me.

Further investigation revealed that there is a new Almera 2024 version already launched in Thailand and Philippines lately, or maybe a year ago. It's basically a facelift with a new front grille and minor changes in the interior (blue-coloured leather at the dashboard replacing the beige coloured one, all black leather seats) and some additional features such as tyre pressure monitoring system. Not sure when it will be launched here, if it ever gets to Malaysia.

Not sure about Nardo grey but it looks a bit like the old grey colour on my Nissan Sylphy 2.0. This glacier grey is slightly lighter in the shade than the grey of my old Nissan Sylphy.

The metal grey on the current Almera doesn't look too good.

The other plus point as some might have known is that the maintenance cost of Nissan vehicles is very low, even when compared to Proton which is actually higher with some models. There's also 5 times free service bundled in as well. When I spoke to the Nissan sales guy on the phone, he told me it is worth it to consider a Nissan car as the servicing cost of Nissan is very low. I told him I knew that already being an ex-owner of the Nissan Sylphy more than 10 years ago.

Can expect minor services to be in the range of RM300-400+, maybe slightly higher now due to inflation and also higher SST.

I missed this post. Yes, it's really cheap. When I spoke to the Nissan sales guy on the phone, he brought up the low maintenance cost of the Nissan being the main selling point of the car. I told him I knew that already being an ex-Nissan owner.

When I owned the Nissan Sylphy 2.0, bearing in mind a C-segment 2.0-litre vehicle, the minor service came up to around RM300+ to 400 only. Very cheap. I was flabbergasted that the Proton Preve Turbo's maintenance costs much higher than the Sylphy, with the major service touching RM1.6k+ apart from the vehicle coming with so many quality probelms as mentioned earlier while the Nissan stayed absolutely problem free for 5+ years.

It is likely I won't own a Honda in my lifetime as the brand has been repeatedly scratched off my list, perennially, having sat in various City, Civic and Accords throughout the years some in long distance journeys outstation. I am aware of the complaints as my ex-colleagues, in fact all of them who owned the Honda City only have bad things to say about the car, nothing good. One of them went to Mazda CX-5 already.

Fortunately most if not all the parts on my Preve Turbo were claimed under warranty, if my memory does not fail me. The OCH hose was a recall and they changed in free of charge. Can't remember what else they changed under warranty apart from the gearbox and gear knob.

I found the thread of the gear knob which fell off just after 1 year. They first used glue to stick back the plastic piece but after it came off again they replaced the whole gear knob. The car was sold in 2019.

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...preve+gear+knob

Forgot to mention, low end torque and power of the Preve Turbo are good but throttle response and turbo lag are not good. The vehicle is slow to respond to throttle action at any speed or standstill as there is a lag. With other cars, the lag is minimal and more instantaneous. When you step on the pedal, the car will surge forward instantaneously or with minimal lag as you feel the power coming in, especially with Ford Focus thanks to the dual clutch transmission. With the Preve Turbo, there is around 1 second to 1.5s from the time you step on the pedal before you feel the power coming in and the car going forward, combined with loud engine roar. WIth other cars the engine sound is more muted with a much refined and pleasant engine sound. The Preve's engine sound during acceleration is rough and loud.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Jan 19 2024, 07:33 AM

Guess I am getting old and my memory isn't as good as it used to be. It's not only the plastic piece on the gear knob that fell off on my Preve Turbo but the whole gear knob came off when I was changing gears. Could you believe it. Dangerous situation and fortunately it only happened when I was parking the car. I still have the photos as they are in the complaint email sent to Proton.

That is surely unexpected if the gear knob also fell off in the Corolla Cross. Must be an isolated case. Nevertheless, the gear knob of the Corolla Cross feels solid and good in the hands when I test drove it unlike the gear knob of the Preve which feels like a toy car.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Jan 19 2024, 07:41 PM

Don't understand your remark. Care to elaborate?

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Jan 24 2024, 08:05 AM