Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Daring What?

From Proton Exora Experience

Somehow this daring card from Proton Edar missed my attention all this while until last Saturday when I visited COE. Right smack at the front of showroom I was approached by service center guy and he told me about this card. He also said that there´s a free 20 point checks for any proton cars which I duly agreed and also informed him about my exora´s noisy wiper. The solution was to lubricate its rubber, whatever, as long as it doesn´t produce that irritating noise.

So guys, if youŕe looking at ways to get some discounts from spare parts of your proton car, get this card and the best part is itś free for 1st year.


Note:
The reason I and my family went to COE was because thereś a carnival like event at all Proton Edar and EON sales center called ¨Proton 4 You¨. I think it´s in conjunction with the launch of B-line exora I blog about.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

New Exora: B Line For RM57,548

Right on the eve of grand launch of Perodua's MPV, Proton tries to steal the thunder with another variant of Exora called B-Line or basic version. It strip down many of the H-Line features like:

- Manual transmission only
- Driver airbag only
- No ABS and EBD

and lots of others.

However with the price of only RM57k, it's RM18k LESS than what I paid for my H-line. Booking RM500 and three colors to choose from are white, grey and black.

If anyone asked me if this is a good buy compared to 'other' national MPV, the asnwer definitely YES.

From Proton Exora Experience

From Proton Exora Experience

From Proton Exora Experience

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Off Topic: Facinating Melaka

Itś been way back to 2003 I think when I last visited Melaka. Thereś no Dataran Pahlawan or Menara Taming Sari back then. I completely taken aback with these tourists attraction. Congratulation to Melaka State Governement for their vision. Otherwise thereś always be old and boring Bandar Hilir with bullock car.

Melaka

Other attractions around this place are Muzium TLDM (Malaysiaś Marine Army), Dataran Samudera, Replica ship of Flor De La Mar, River Cruising, Jonker Street, A Farmosa, etc.

Viperś Shame



I felt ashamed everytime driving my exora in the rain. As you can see and hear from above video, it sounds awful and like car with old viper but mine is just 5 month only. I already informed Proton Edar Service Center at Puchong but nothing was done it seems.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Off Topic: Muzium Orang Asli (indigenuous people)

After lunch at Restoran Mohd Chan Abdullah at Melawati, we headed towards Old Gombak road(Route 68)not knowing what to expect. As with most people, Karak Highway (E8) is only known route to Genting and East unlike this almost deserted road. My kids got excited when we told them about Muzium Orang Asli and insists that I stop by. The location is shown below to those who are clueless of its whereabout.


View Muzium Orang Asli in a larger map

My kids were asking lots of questions about orang asli with usual why this, why that........while I kept thinking of the right answers. One notable pictures shown was the way some orang asli cook rice in bamboo which is similar to what Malays cook their lemang.

Admission is free and only registration is needed. It's close on Friday and I've seen some souvenir shops without anyone manning it. Our photos below:

Muzium Orang Asli

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

No more clunking sound

What a relieve. Finally Proton Service Center managed to rectify irritating sounds when my exora hits the bump. On another note, service personel at Proton Service Center told me that service interval should be 5000km NOT 10000km as stated in the service booklet. I challenged him to provide black and white on this issue but he's just dismissed it and talked about oil filter instead.

I email this issue through proton-edar.com.my feedback form yesterday but no reply given so far. Where else can I highlight? I google 'exora service interval' at behold, 10000km in proton-edar website. Who should I believe?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Exora Arrived at Brunei, Third Export Market After Indonesia and SIngapore

From this Article:

HUNDREDS flock to see the unveiling of the first Malaysian multipurpose vehicle (MPV) `Exora’ by Malaysian car manufacturer Proton when it made an official debut here in Brunei at a launching ceremony held at the Rizqun International Hotel yesterday.
Present at the launching ceremony were the Brunei-Muara District Officer, Dato Paduka Haji Md Yusof bin Bakar, High Commissioner of Malaysia to Brunei Darussalam, Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari and representatives from proton Holdings Berhad, as well as from Worldwide Motor Sdn Bhd, the sole distributor of Proton cars in Brunei.
Brunei is the third export market for the Exora after entering the Singapore and Indonesia markets earlier this year. The Exora is also making its way to Thailand and is expected to be launched there in December. This is the 9′ Proton model to be exported to Brunei since proton made its presence in 2002.
The Exora marks Proton’s foray into MPV segment, a new segment for the 24-
year-old company.
“As a relatively young car manufacturer, the Exora is a major achievement for us and it signifies our commitment in developing products that satisfy the current market needs and wants, both domestically and internationally,” said Proton Holdings Berhad Chairman Dato’ Mohd Nadzmi bin Mohd Salleh.
The Exora encompasses almost 90 per cent of Malaysian parts and components and is the first “Malaysian-made’ MPV, with Proton’s involvement right from its design and concept to its engineering and manufacturing stages.
The Exora is also an engineering feat for Proton as it was developed in merely 18 months from the time Proton fixed the design (model-fix) right up to its production stage.
Dato’ Mohd Nadzmi added, “Brunei is an important MPV market for Proton as the segment is in high demand there.
“Our target market is for those families who are looking for an MPV that is competitively priced but spacious, stylish and up-to-date in terms of technology. We hope to see a positive response from the families in Brunei.”

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Wiper's Intelligence

Starting from this post, I'll put my mileage and general conditions of my exora. I just brought my exora to Proton Service Center at Puchong for 5000km service but the actual mileage is 7000km. Somehow I confused whether it should be 5000 or the one stated on sticker, 6700. Service manual clearly states 1000, 5000, 10000, etc. The guy attending my service says that since my first service was at 1700, then next one should be 6700. Whatever....

Now back to the main topic. I felt embrassed for my ignorance about this wiper features. I thought we can only adjust the timer for intermittent mode, that's it. How wrong am I. Apparently this wiper will switch mode when vehicle stop from continuous wiping to intermittently wiping and in reverse if vehicle starts moving. Clever isn't it? Enjoy the video showing this operation below:



Final note, I told service guys about small problems with my exora such as that strange sound when driving over the bump, broken clips of netting, shrudder wiper. They informed me that new parts are coming in by the name of "stopper" to prevent that strange sound and also new netting. For strange reason, I heard new sound coming from the side of my vehicle randomly. HHmmmm.......back to Proton Service Center again.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Raya 2009 with Exora

This is the first time me and my family travel with Exora to Perak for our Eid Fitr 2009. Besides Ipoh, we also visited Bota Kanan/Kiri and Cameron Highland. As with previous Raya celebrations, E1 is congested particularly near Slim River where 3 lanes becomes 2 as shown below:


From Raya 2009



On the second day of Raya, we visited relatives at Bota Kanan and Bota Kiri. I truly admire these traditional Perak houses. 



From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009



I feel sad thinking that if current situation is not changed, most of these houses will be disappeared in a few years since most of it are abandon. 


We also had a chance to climb up to Cameron Highland and stay there in two days. There's no problems with my Exora, just trundle along comfortably without any rush. However traffic can't be any worse since there's night market right in middle of Brinchang small town. 



From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009




From Raya 2009





Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Exora Auto Cruise

It's been a while since I wrote about my exora. I went back again to my home town over the weekend to meet my parents. So, I thought why not write about auto cruise? I'm quite familiar with proton's auto cruise during my Wira's day until it broke down one day.

However Exora's auto cruise is different than Wira as it's more advanced I would say. In Wira, it's either ON or OFF. Drive to certain speed and press ON button will engages it and to cancel it, stamp on the brake.

Exora's one as depicted above is quite different. For a start, it is attached to a stering and occasionally intervene with my fingers.
To operate, just press "IN" and orange icon will appeared at center console like below:
 
At this time, auto cruise is still not engaged but merely turned ON. In order to engage it, press the toggle "DOWN" at desired speed and that icon will turn green as below:
 
 What makes it special is that, the cruising speed can be increased or decreased by 1 or 2 kmh while still engaged. The toggle need to be press "DOWN" to decrease the speed or "UP" to increase it. Stamping on brake will cancel the auto cruise but the icon remains orange. Just press "IN"  again to permanently turn it OFF. 
One feature I wish  my exora would have is the temporary suspension of auto cruise when there's a slower vehicle in front. Apparently after reading the manual, temporary suspension of auto cruise is available after stamping on the brake, just press the toggle "UP" and auto cruise will engaged again.
Other infos I found was that auto cruise won't engage if the speed is below 40kmh.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Exora fuel consumption

 
Judging from the Google referral that this website received, fuel consumption is one of top search I guest. As you can see above, fuel gauge warning LED turn ON while there's single bar left and blinking. 65 means estimated distance in KM before empty while 503.7 means distance in KM I have travel so far since last fill up. One perculiar data about distance to empty reading is whenever I fill up to full, it shows 600++ but as you can see above, it's only 500++. Maybe software bug.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

GPS Navigation on Exora, part 2.



Parden me on part 1 video. It's my first attempt to create a video tutorial. I'm using Toshiba G810 smartphone as my video source. Thanks for the feedback.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Thank you Proton!

I would like to extend my gratitude to Proton for assigning someone to do a survey on my exora. I hope Proton will utilize the data to their good use and overcome any problems occured. There are lots of questions being asked in the survey such as whether I like BCM, DVD, bluetooth, etc. Any problems with interior and exterior. Should Proton installed parking camera?

In the end, they offered me a Petronas voucher worth RM15 and I told them that they should organized something like a family day if they really interested to gather more data. Any exorian who read my blog can call this lady to be interviewed.

To you guys from whatever research network, here is your photo :-)

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Off Topic: HM Bagan Seafood Restaurant, Bagan Lalang and Al Baraka Restaurant, Cyberjaya Again
















By now some of you guys knew that I like to visit restaurants around Klang Valley with my family of course......driving an exora.

People said that if you like something, you wanted to tell the world about it. It's no exception with me and I'll tell you again about Al Baraka Restaurant in Cyberjaya. I have some more photos to show just in case anyone needs it to convince themselves :-)

Another one is called HM Sri Bagan at Bagan Lalang. It's famous for its seafood like fish, squid, prawn, cockle and all other seafoods. I visited this place earlier in March 2009 during normal working day and it's quiet. But this time, it's over the weekend, almost full house and we have to wait for 45 minutes for the food to arrived.











AFC, DTE, IFC and JT

My exora's mileage has reached 3000km now. It's not much since I don't drive it everyday. I had a chat with another exorian which also my neighbour last Sunday and he had an interesting story. Apparently his exora had loose rubber pipe to the radiator and to cut long story short, had his engine rebuilt due to overheat.

I also informed him about DTE, AFC, IFC and JT indicators. DTE is Distance To Empty, AFC is Average Fuel Consumption, IFC is Instantaneous Fuel Consumption and finally, JT is Journey Time. All these indicators can be shown one at a time buy pressing preset button for 5 seconds while ODO is shown on the right. It will blinks continuously while we press again the preset button to cycle the readings. My exora shown below is on AFC indicator.

 It's 10liter/100km now which means 18 cents/km. Another neighbour of mine who brought Naza Ria said his is 25 cents/km. Anyone who drives different makes of MPV interested to comment on their fuel consumption?

My exora runs on Goodyear tyre with indicated pressure as below:

Monday, July 20, 2009

Exora Launched in Indonesia

In their own words.

"JAKARTA: Persaingan di segmen MPV kian memanas. Setelah Honda Freed melenggang di pasar, PT Proton Edar Indonesia merilis mobil keluarga pertamanya Exora dengan tiga varian.

Mobil yang didatangkan dalam kondisi utuh (completely built up/CBU) dari negeri jiran ini akan menjadi andalan Proton Edar untuk memperebutkan kue mobil multi purpose vehicle (MPV) di Tanah Air.

Saat preview produk kemarin, agen tunggal pemegang merek Proton ini mengungkapkan 3 varian Exora yang akan dipasarkan di Indonesia, yaitu Executive transmisi manual, Executive transmisi otomatik, dan Supreme transmisi otomatik

Ketiganya mengusung mesin sejenis yaitu Campro CPS 4 silinder, DOHC 16V. Mesin berkapasitas 1.600 cc ini juga digunakan oleh model sedan Proton Gen 2. Mesin ini diklaim mampu menghasilkan tenaga maksimal 125 hp/93 kw pada 6.500 rpm dan torsi maksimal 150 Nm pada 4.500 rpm.

Dengan kecepatan maksimum 165 km/jam, konsumsi bahan bakar Proton Exora diklaim mencapai 13 kilometer/ liter.

Ketiga varian Exora ini sudah dilengkapi dengan beberapa fitur keamanan dan safety, seperti dua kantung udara, sistem pengereman ABS (anti-lock braking system) dengan EBD (electronic brake force distribution), sensor parkir, dan sistem kunci immobilizer.

Perbedaan mencolok ketiga varian ini terletak pada kelengkapan lain yang disematkan varian Supreme transmisi otomatik. Pada varian termahal Exora ini, Proton melengkapinya dengan cruise control, monitor DVD/LCD, lampu kabut, spoiler belakang, front seat armrest, serta jok yang sudah dibalut kulit."

Source: Bisnis Indonesia Online, Kamis 16/7/2009




Sunday, July 12, 2009

Exora's Family getting Bigger

A few days ago Proton launched another version of Exora which is having a manual transmission. They also launched Saga SE with body kit, leather trim, etc. Manual transmission will probably lessen the effect of underpower feeling since we can manually choose which gear are we in and get hold of it longer.
From Proton Exora Experience

From Proton Exora Experience

Exora manual price is RM64k while saga SE is RM43k.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Joined Other "Exorian" at Facebook

I stumble upon a virtual club catering for Exorian at facebook. I hope it will be more meaningful and informative in my quest to document my experience.

Off Topic: Best Arab Restaurants in Cyberjaya

Sorry friends,
I couldn't help but posting this off topic experience about my favourite eating place at Cyberjaya. There are more than four arabic restaurants in Cyberjaya due to their large communities. I somehow always visited two of it which called Saba and Al-Baraka. They serve best rice I ever tasted which not found in any local restaurants be mamak or malay. I plan to bring my friends to one of this restaurant soon with my exora.


View Arab Restaurants in Cyberjaya in a larger map



Thursday, June 25, 2009

Exora Specifications

From Proton Exora Experience

Design Defect?

Facing front screen on the right. Noticable gap. Loose.
Facing front screen on the left. Worst, not even fit in rubber. Loose.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Exora to Genting?


Some doubt that Exora can climb Genting Highland famous steep road. Well I proved them wrong this afternoon and got picture to prove it.


Friday, June 19, 2009

2nd Visit to Proton Service Center


I went back to Proton Service Center to complain about noise when hit a bump. They mentioned about spring fully compressed and other rants but I insisted it to be rectified. My exora was there all day long and the next morning when I drove it, guess what? That sound still there.

I called Proton Customer Service 1-300-880-888 to tell about my problem and they suggest me to send back to COE. I already make an appointment to COE for next Monday 8.00AM. Hope it will be solved. 

Mileage: 2005 KM


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

First 1000 Service at Proton Edar Puchong

After back from long journey to my home town at Johor, it's 1700km now. Estimated cost for my first service is RM117 using Petronas Syntium 800 engine oil. I also asked them to check on plonk sound everytime I hit a bumper and also under power feeling (engine firing in the above service sheet).

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Mileage - 4/6/2009

It's 700km now and the average fuel consumption drops from 13.4 initially to 11.8l/100km. For those who 'forgot' about this features, press the button on the lower middle of that meters until panel on the right shows ODO. Then press again that button until panel on the left flashing, it's normally 5 seconds and release it. After that press again the button to cycle between average fuel consumption, km until empty and timer. Good luck.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Greeting

Hi everyone who stumble upon this blog. I'm trying to document my experience with Proton Exora that I bought in May 2009. The ODO shows 690km only and so far so good. However there are two minor issues:

1. Strange sound whenever I hit a hump or pothole. It's not loud but nevertheless annoying.
2. Probably due to my inexperience in handling auto, it feels difficult to get into the right gear especially when overtaking

I'll service it for 1000km soon and tells about it.