2011 New Proton Saga FL Launched In Malaysia

The 2011 new Proton Saga facelift, now known as the Proton Saga FL, has been officially launched in Malaysia, two weeks after its unveiling in Thailand. Featuring a number of exterior, interior and equipment changes, the Saga FL's variant lineup has been given a revision: The base N-Line variant and range-topping SE variant have been dropped from the range, while the B-Line variant has been replaced by the Standard variant and the M-Line variant by the Executive variant.

Costing a premium of RM 1000 over the B-Line manual and automatic, the Saga FL Standard manual is priced at RM 37,998 and the automatic at RM 40,998. The Saga FL Executive manual goes for RM 40,698 and the automatic for RM 43,298, representing price increments of RM 1200 and RM 1300 over the M-Line manual and automatic, respectively.

Outside, the Saga FL receives a revised grille, new headlamps, a modified front bumper, restyled front fenders and a remodeled bonnet. The wheels are of a different design, while the side mirrors incorporate LED turn indicator. The rear end gets tail lights with LED lighting, a massaged bumper with reflectors and a muffler cutter. The Executive variant adds on front fog lamps, a lip spoiler on the boot lid and side protector mouldings for differentiation.

The Saga FL's cabin now comes with a new fabric for the seats and door trim, rear power windows and an audio system with MP3 support. Most of the new items are reserved for the Executive variant, however, including steering wheel audio controls, USB/AUX audio ports and dual front airbags instead of just the driver's airbag in the M-Line variant.

Other equipments that the Executive variant adds on over the Standard variant are 14" alloy wheels (13" steel wheels on Standard), driver's seat height adjuster, electrically-adjustable side mirrors, a multi-purpose container and an immobiliser. Available for both variants are six selectable colours: Solid White, Tranquility Black, Genetic Silver, Granite Grey, Café Latte and Blue Rock; the last two are new colours.

The powertrain remains the same: a 1.3-litre four-cylinder engine, with 95 hp at 6000 rpm and 120 Nm at 4000 rpm at its disposal, is mated to either a five-speed manual gearbox or a four-speed automatic gearbox. With the manual gearbox, the century sprint takes 13.0 seconds, with a top speed of 160 km/h. The figures are 14.5 seconds and 155 km/h with the automatic gearbox.