Hi all,

I am back from the media launch of the upgraded satria neo CPS held in APAC, Subang.
The review below is totally based from my point of view.

Satria NEO CPS is only available in H-Line only.

Review of the car
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Interior:
As shown by the picture below, the interior is basically the same expect for the plastic leather seats, colour tone and also the door trim.
The meter panel is exactly like the previous NEO. No fancy design what so ever.

The new interior colour tone


The door trim

Notice the red trim?

The front seats


The rear seats


The steering wheel, notice the odd colour tone ??


The same meter panel, only difference is the colour they used for the numbering (milage, DTE, L/100km etc), previously its blue and now its orange/amber


The gear knob (Manual transmission)


Me on the test drive list:


Exterior will be posted in the next post.

Test Drive Review:
The test drive course was actually a mini auto khana course with tight turns.

Oh my, I was in for a surprise. The laggy drive-by-wire found in the previous NEO is not apparent at all in this CPS model. The throttle response was almost instant. Power delivery is smooth. Tap the throttle and go. Based on driving the car itself, the heavier weight (1212kg 1.6 MT) compared to the previous (1159kg 1.6 MT) is not apparent at all in this model.

The car just keep on going and going. You gotta test this car out for yourself and you can see the difference.
After testing the CPS neo, driving back my NEO was kinda sad because the power delivery and the throttle response of the stock standard CPS is very much better compared to my mildly modded NEO.

Power is not the main concern of the NEO CPS. It is the handling that is where the improvement can be seen.

In stock form itself, the body roll is very minimal even tho the car is being thrown around the tight corners. I dare say in stock form, the NEO CPS handles as well as as regular NEO that is done up with strut bars and all. The car is very neutral when being thrown into corners, it just goes where ever you point the steering to. Mind you, the grip is provided by stock CSC-1 rubbers in 195/50/16. If a much better rubbers is use, just imagine the potential of this car.

All in all, this has the potential to succeed Satria GTi as Malaysia next hot hatch.
The styling is spot on, the handling is spot on, and from the test drive trashing, the interior build seems spot on.
Only time will tell.
Hopefully proton get this right by minimizing QC issues with this car.

My dissapointment is that (personal view)
- no Auto folding side mirror
- no HID
- the steering wheel colour is poorly match to the leather wrapping. if you have seen it life, it looks odd seriously.
- interior space utilisation is still poor. so many empty space that can be made into compartments that can be used to store stuffs



This post has been edited by kcng: Feb 14 2009, 04:38 AM

Exterior:
As many has already seen from the spyshots, the exterior is as follows

The rims with CSC-1 as standard rubbers


Front view




Rear view


The spoiler


Side profile






The logo to show what is under the hood


The engine


This post has been edited by kcng: Feb 14 2009, 03:57 AM

This is nice to hear

Thanks for the pics and review

nice review...the grey bolt nuts above the tyre area..doesn't look fit to the design..i think dont have bolt nuts better..more clean design i think.

i wan the rear diffuser... any chance to get it.. hurm...

For the first time in my life...

I like the front bumper...

the rear spoiler

the wheel arch actually looks nicer on black colour because the rubber strip is not as apparent on the white colour


if u look closely above, you can see the white rubber strip that will turn yellow over time thus standing out and make it ugly

look more like a street racer design?

yeah..it will be better looking in white for the solid white, and black for the matalic black.

ohh..and the rim color makes the rim look very plastic feel from the picture.

This post has been edited by nonadoes: Feb 13 2009, 06:59 PM

ya....you're right
the steering colour looks weird...doesn't match like saga's steering

This post has been edited by MR_alien: Feb 13 2009, 06:59 PM

The spoilers look like seriously stupid

the spoiler serve a purpose


at least according to the engineering spec

Lotus handling... Proton engineering?

Lotus is light and stable... Proton is heavy and stable...

may i know the top speed of this car? and 0- 100 takes how many sec?

0-100 according to brochure is 10.5 something... top speed 190

price?

Starting from 54K to 60K... Of course auto being more expensive

proton can make the car light also

using light high tensile steel but will the buyers pay the price for it?

auto 60k

Opss... Sorry Kcng... Forget about that...

But.. Just maybe at first glance, the weight there is a big joke put off...

Nice review kcng..Now all showroom already available huh??

selected showroom will have the display unit
hopefully by end of the month, all show room in malaysia will have one

ZeroSP,
yes, the weight is a big putoff initially cuz everyone is talking about it. but after the test drive, the response was totally opposite.
you cant feel the additional weight there

Haha... Kcng, when change one? Then can try drag with my stock junk...

nice.. white wit those rims, i like it.. only thing is, the spoiler it looks too try hard 4 me..

Well the engineers says it serve a purpose . Just wait and see how it goes

even from the pics u can see that the leather on the steering wheel doesnt really match..

4 those who juz bought a normal neo will surely

This post has been edited by CooShyRee: Feb 13 2009, 08:00 PM

wow. im impressed. it looks cool though.

wahaha...nice nice i want!!!

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Added on February 13, 2009, 8:28 pmdrag? sigh

This post has been edited by samlee860407: Feb 13 2009, 08:28 PM

Why? You want to impress me with your handling? Lolz...

This post has been edited by ZeroSP: Feb 13 2009, 08:35 PM

i love this CPS except for.....its spoiler...

At least.. Get rid of disaster Campro already...

er...even i can also no use, coz i no more driving a neo.
sold off 2months ago . lol

and i just notice i still putting the tag as "proud neo owner" LOL

but biar pi la...

Haha... I see... Nvm, when you can I always waiting you with GTi or ExigeS...

Since you driven Neo, mind to share with me your 0-100 timing?

And dun worry, I driving City only...

This post has been edited by ZeroSP: Feb 13 2009, 08:38 PM

Finally, now it is the right time to get a neo.

agree wit u there.. fans of the neo has been 4rever anticipating 4 this..

my 0 to 100 is lame....and i driving auto.

its more than 12seconds , less than 13 sec, around that la. forget liao. When study that time like to play car, now lazy liao....if got money wana get driver liao.

The question after the proper release of the neo cps:

Care to get a bargain 2nd hand neo for special project ?

I think now's the real neo.they should first launch a neo with this kind of spec...it shouldn't be in the old spec.this's what we can call a satria neo.perhaps after this,it'll able to replace the so long,GTI.feels like wanna sell my current neo n buy this new neo.heheheh...But,how bout the QC??

hmm.. yeah lor.. now that u mention it

the prob wit the old neo was never bout anythin, juz it lacks the ummmpphhh.. now that we can get the older one cheaper, it makes a good project car..

Hmm not bad front bumper eh..spoiler looks kinda weird for me, but said it serve a purpose..fine then. Interior looks kinda hasty? Just my 1st impression when I first look at the pictures. But I think this car perfomance would top up other things hehe.

Ermm.. Lolz.. Hire a driver, sit a comfort car... Lolz

Ya... In fact, many work shops says local Auto tak boleh, but Manual is good enough.

2 me, this is by no means a performance car.. 0-100 in more than 10secs could never be classified as anythin that 'performs'..

its juz a better neo, not a performance neo..

A performance oriented neo should be the R3.

Anyway, the early release of the non-CPS Neo R3 make me wonders if they will produce a facelifted version of Neo R3 with CPS later.

i think that's why they stopped the production of satria neo R3 last year.maybe they would rather wants the R3 to be in the CPS version.

Oh wow, looking forward to test this one myself in dealers.

Not all showrooms at the moment, I think likely the bigger ones will sure have like the Platinum one in Mutiara Damansara. Later only all will get, but they didn't give a timeline.

In Sabah sure it will arrive a bit later.

omg.
that actually looks quite nice.

good to see that they are providing thinner tyres as standard.
and nice rims too.
but for me, im gonna spray it grey/black.

not bad not bad......hope my dad will buy it for my bro and i can use it as toy car....hehehee help bro mod it abit...

then soon it will be ur car

Flared wheel arches + "pakus", CPS, bad ass functional spoiler, bronze rims

Nais...

walaweh..nice lor..

ehehehe...no ler...end of the day still my bro's car....share share drive lor.....weekdays i'll definitely stick back to my car for work...auto ma....

weekends or maybe during night times....hehehe.

1st thing me and my bro will cahnge is the rims. we already have a set of rims waiting, so if we really do get the car....i'm gonna be trading the new neo rims and tires for any rims and tires that can fit into a waja.

The rims very buruk meh?

i'm glad i waited for awhile before getting the neo.

First of all thanks to kcng for his efforts for this brief but brilliant review

Overall the car looks great with the bodykit and the interior. Not to mention the CPS is finally included inside the engine bay

Just that the minor turnoffs are its leather steering, the rims and the overweight. Need to test drive this baby.

May consider for a 2 door car considering i have already one family saloon in my house which explains i actually can go for a hothatch, its time for some fun in the road after been in a bot (myvi) for 3 years

Cooshyree, what do u think?

This post has been edited by travis_ckf: Feb 13 2009, 11:12 PM

I think this car will excel

those OEM wheels are wicked.

anyone planning to buy neo CPS and ditching their OEM wheels, pm me. i'll be glad to rip it off from your ride and slap it on my waja

When is proton going to make a Satria Neo CPS GTi. The wheel arches may be taken from the GTi, but I think its too thick. Maybe making it thinner would make it better? Someone try photoshop see how it looks like

so anyone got plans to buy neo cps

bro...im sure stock rims are heavy ....

anyway...kcng...great review..i love this neo cps..wasted i got waja cps 10 months ago..haih....40k..time for service...

Proton has no plans for the gti version of the satria neo since their direction is towards people's cars like the persona, saga and the upcoming MPV. The best we can wait is via R3's tuned version which wont be cheap either since it will be limited quantity.

Lotus do have plans to tune a existing road car and the satria neo has a very good potential. With their planned participation in the WRC via the S2000 rules this year and next year, this look good for the satria neo.

This post has been edited by travis_ckf: Feb 13 2009, 11:42 PM

well, if u wanna buy a neo, then u definitely will have 2 get the cps.. no use gettin the mline or the lite now..

but then again, like igor said, this new neo cps will surely make the old ones depreciate like stone.. so if u dont mind not having the cps, a 2nd hand neo might be a good value buy that u can consider as well..

also 4 60k, quite a number of 2nd hand 2 door sporty lookin cars that r worth lookin into..

u have a myvi now rite?? do keep in mind that this neo has much less space than ur current ride, especially headroom n rear passengers.. so if ure tall or u carry people 4 most of the time, u might wanna look elsewhere..

but overall, i think this neo cps is a good choice.. looks good n drives well.. only thing is, its less space inside n there r few other things that we cant tell now yet, like FC n quality.. but seeing how new protons r gettin better these days, i think quality is not a very big issue anymore..

watever also, go n test drive..

Finally... Might be my upcoming manual fun car.


kcng, is the seat real full leather? Or just PVC kind?



Note: Why Proton still insist on the ugly steering wheel? Anyway the door knob I would prefer a Savvy-like sharp looking one instead of half-moon cartoon like.



p/s: If I remember correctly, the steering wheel in MPV ones looks nice.

i like this car , but gen2 cps is a wiser choice for me .

This post has been edited by dantck: Feb 14 2009, 12:48 AM

hehehe.. i think the steering wheel in this looks much much much better than the one in the gen2 n persona

yeah, the mpv one is nicer.. the design is kinda like civic's steering..

gen2 cps oso claim to take 10.x sec to get 0-100km/h
but the youtube video proof only take 8 sec.

i hv posted the video but hv been deleted

This post has been edited by dantck: Feb 14 2009, 12:51 AM

Great review! Yeah, the spoiler spoils the car

Actually the spoiler serves its engineering value. Though it's same with some of the Scooby owners putting 'not-so-eye-pleasing' functional spoilers.

yeap, could not agree more on the steering. looks much better than Gen2 CPS steering and looks similar to EK4 Sir steering with red stitching.

but the seats does not look that it can tuck you properly if you're taking sharp corners.

yeah
2nd hand neo h-line value will drop like mad

yay


its not full leather
its PVC kind......

the steering wheel looks nice IF it is not wrapped by the leather...
the colour tone is odd.... if they had made the colour tone to match, then it will look nice...

A bit disappointed as it looks better in brochure than in real and the meter panel really is a big disappointment, and the price also a big disappointment.

Else, it is a really nice car to own with.

The white colour 1 is really attractive...

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Added on February 14, 2009, 2:55 amOh yeah, Thanks KCNG for the review!

This post has been edited by DaViDcHiN: Feb 14 2009, 02:55 AM

sorry guys, i took down the pic for watermarking because my pic is stolen and credit is given to others

it will be back up shortly with more new pics.

sorry for the trouble.

anyone notice that the driving position in this car is all wrong
the front windscreen is very near to the driver's face..
effects will be feeling dizzy..no one feel this kinda thing?

Owhh yes bro you should do that...

ok i am done water marking my pic

and for the first 2 post, i have made some changes to the pictures..
its different now compared to earlier


i put up some new pics

See here too for more information about the new Neo CPS by Paultan, many beautiful pictures here.

Paultan Satria Neo CPS Review

This post has been edited by DaViDcHiN: Feb 14 2009, 04:20 AM

if you want the wheels you can buy them from Advanti, Proton either licensed the design or ripped them off. The design is called the MEDUSA.

http://www.tyrepitstop.com.au/vshop/shopexd.asp?id=443

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jElfzcmnOO0

Video from the launch by Cars, Bikes and Trucks

This post has been edited by momoOK: Feb 14 2009, 08:53 AM

Yup, just like savvy, but people in Malaysia too skeptical.

the front bumper reminds me of the mitsubishi lancer...

its a nice car btw. Cant wait to know the exact price of this car

1.6cps.. why dun proton jus make it a sport car 2.0 V6 will be nice

This post has been edited by hakunamatata: Feb 14 2009, 01:48 PM

cool car. but just not worth the price. sadly after all these years it still no match for a old and completely stock EG6 or even EK9..not even a race..cornering or drag

if me i will get a used neo for 35k and drop in mivec would be faster

waaargh, i sooooo want this.

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Added on February 14, 2009, 3:50 pmproton buy the design from advanti i guess.

This post has been edited by xshiro: Feb 14 2009, 03:50 PM

btw..advanti is local malaysian made brand....at least proton wise enuf not to choose the jrds this time...hopefully it will be s light s advanti's rims...

Advanti and proton i guess have been good friends for some time now

lol, u went to MME before? u saw how the R3 car race at track before?

swiiiittt...
but alil pricey~

overall its actually a cheap production?

have no idea wad crap are u talking, both the EG 6 and EK 9 are type-r models from Honda..
those are track ready cars which are street legal, it is a no brainer to think of comparing them.

at least if your comparing stock honda civic that is more appropriate.

to me any kind of improvements is better than no improvements.
At least there is a campro now..then there is the cps and iafm.

10 years ago we only had ripped-off mitsubishi engines.

Yup...Even all R3 production cars (Satria,Neo) using Advanti wheels

Just to check, 57k is OTR price izzit?

57k is ok lah, mine gen2 camptakpro was 57 when launched 4 years ago, now worth less than 24k

i think the ripped-off engine is better anyhow.