Owner review: 430,000km and Counting, My 2011 Proton Persona Elegance1.6MT

Basic information about my car:

2011 Proton Persona Elegance 1.6MT, B-Line

Reasons why I bought this car:

Prior to gettinga hired purchase for Persona, i have been driving my father's 1997 Proton Iswara for 3 years.

The second handed iswara was rarely driven by previous owner and not well maintained. Even though my father patch it up before it was handed to me (looking back I'm really lucky to have my father to cover my first car, love you dad), i constantly had to deal with wear and tear issues such as failed air-cond system and leaking power steering rack.

The final straw came when government introduced RON95 and removed subsidy on RON97 fuel, my iswara due to wear and tear developed engine knocking that my mechanic deemed unsolvable unless i revert back to RON97.

I decided that yeah, I'll be needing a new car.

Car selection process
Our budget is Like any young chap without strong financial muscle, i aimed at a 9 year hired purchase payment of RM500 to RM800.

Models that I have considered include:

Persona Elegance B-Line, Proton Saga Full Spec, Toyota Vios and Honda City

Reasons why I chose this car:

Having considered my income of RM3,000 during that time, i have decided to drop both Japanese candidates. My justification was i need to be prepared for any repair cost, and my job nature as a salesperson would definitely burn the warranty out prematurely via extensive mileage clocking. Since i have planned to pay my car off in 9 years, it's best to get ones that cheap and easy to repair.

In between Saga and Persona, i have chosen the latter as it gives me bigger cabin and luggage space, that i might need it for family use in future.

User experience：
- I have already done: 430,000km
- My average fuel consumption is 8L/100km

There's no other better way to describe Persona, it's a car that get things done. Everything is ok for the car that's made in 2011, with design language I'm happy at. On and off she gets cough and cold due to poor QC and parts quality problem even as a new car, but with my experience of owning iswara for 3 years, and education from my mechanic as well as forum members, we happened to work out fine.

I do find adhering to service schedule tabulated in owner's manual even after warranty helps keeping car in good working condition. Every 5,000km for Engine Oil; 25,000km for transmission, power steering & brake oil; only use distilled water or RO water for radiator coolant is essential; etc etc

Common issues with Persona that hit my unit were:

Steering rack bush loosen - fixed by changing to aftermarket silicon bush

Cabin flooded with rainwater - my mudguard men found the leak from an ill formed wiring entrance rubber plug on firewall, behind fender.

IAFM rattling - Fixed by Zordaq at RM50.

Leaking cam cover gasket - change it together with timing belt change as part is relatively cheap.

Cracked ignition coil boot - silicon replacement boot is cheap and can be bought online. Use iridium spark plugs and you only need to change boots every 100,000km.

The list goes on but mostly it's just wear and tear that comes with any car ownership.

The thing with this car is it's build with a budget in mind, thus owner really has to understand

preventive maintenance in order to keep it from extensive breakfown.

Pros of my car:

Affordable initial ownership, simple to understand car and a lot of maintenance support such as DIY video on YouTube as well as mechanic well versed with this car. Part is cheap and abundant.

Some say it handles well, I'll have to agree. As family man i spend more time driving it gently but it never stops to amaze me when I'm alone and have a bit more aggressive cornering style.

Manual transmission definitely keeps the maintenance minimum as well as providing fun and heel toe.

Cons of my car:

Poor QC, yes. But not deadly for those who willing to DIY a bit.

CamPro is high revving engine, when it's alive at 4k RPM, the roar infiltrates into passenger cabin. Depends on your driving circumstances, it can be an awkward trip rushing to airport with critical parents as passenger (tsk tsk tsk zomok buy proton? "Zomok" being phonetic of "why" in Malaysian mandarin), or an exhilarating journey feeling your engine response to your right foot.

Rear passenger seat backrest slant degree is not something i would proud of. I'm very grateful to my wife and 2 kids who never complain about this.

Ratings: 

Total Score: 4

Performance: 3

Quality & Features: 3

Space: 5

Ride Comfort: 4

Fuel Economy: 3

Price & Cost: 5

Summary：

Looking back of my history of car ownership, i sometimes resent to the fact that i should give my old Iswara more tender loving care. Perhaps this regret made me a bit stubborn sticking to this Persona and try to give it the maintenance it deserves and hope one day, it will die a rightful way, such as rotten frame.

I truly believed that a car is a tool that should be loved and kept healthy at all cost, and cost of repairing shouldn't be weighted against the residual value of the car. Afterall it's cost of the new car that we pay to have current car replaced. Take care of your tool and in time, your tool will take care of you.

Interesting Event:

Wiring bundle quality is one common issue of this model. Around 3rd year and 6th year of my ownership, i faced issue of throttle body unable to open fully and knock sensor fault code (yes i bought an OBD2 reader to had it diagnosed as every check in workshop I'll have to pay like RM20 and in the end the code keep coming back).

Throttle body was solved by Proton Plentong, by opening up my wiring bundle near engine and discovered it's all wet. They charge me nothing but spend a lot of labour hours on my car, I'm truly grateful for their help and continuously sending my car to be repaired after accident until their queue time were too long to accept my car.

Knock sensor code, funnily enough, disappeared after an accident repair when i was sandwich between an Axia and Mazda 3, with Axia hit into both of stationary cars in a traffic jam. Bless Axia owner for solving my problem. Mechanic reckon it's grounding issue.

Anyway it taught me nowadays, wireman is always on shortage, and worksmanship of any automotive shifus (including mechanic, wireman, aircond shifu, and mudguard shop shifu) should be cherished, because only with them, we can stay longer with our car. If you have a team of good foreman, you're blessed.

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