Proton has dropped the price of its new Inspira models by as much RM2,000, claiming it’s a result of manufacturing cost savings.
The company also denied that the Inspira is only a re-badged Mitsubishi Lancer, pointing out that there were “stylistic differences”.
The 1.8 manual transmission model was initially priced at RM79,888 at a soft launch last month but has dipped presently to RM78,999.
The 1.8 litre auto started at RM87,000 and has whittled to RM84,999, so too the 2 litre auto — reduced to RM91,999 from RM94,000.
Proton MD Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said Proton reduced the price due to cost savings from being manufactured in the same plant as the Exora.
“The Inspira is a testimony to affordability,” said Syed Zainal at the official launch of the car today.
Proton said that it has received about 1,800 bookings for Inspira since its soft launch and is seeing about 100 bookings per day.
Syed Zainal defended Proton’s collaboration with Mitusbishi Motor Corporation (MMC) in producing the Inspira, saying it was industry practice.
“Collaborations are the norm and demonstrates that Proton is fully flexible,” said Syed Zainal. “The door is always open to other OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).”
The car had come under criticism that it was merely a “re-badged” Mitsubishi Lancer and while Zainal admitted that it was based on the Lancer, he said that there were stylistic and performance differences including changes in the grille and bumper to reflect a Proton image and Lotus enhanced ride and handling.
“The name Inspira is to provoke inspiration in customers to look at the style, dynamics, performance and affordability,” he said.
The car comes with a MIVEC lightweight aluminium block engine designed for efficiency and paddle shift technology for those who want to be able to switch between manual and automatic transmission.
Safety features include a “strong body structure”, ABS and dual SRS airbags.
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