December 20, 2005
Savylicious – aftertaste
Here’s the second part of the review that I had promised since two months ago. The reason for the long delay is because I wasn’t immediately allowed to test drive the car on the highway. Knowing that I was still green to the car and I’m quite a heavy footed person, it’s definitely a potent combination that spells disaster. (In fact I do plan to test the Savy’s drag capability on that day) Anyway, after spending months with the car and getting used to it, I think it’s time to complete the review. Besides, there’s another new car that I’m going to review soon.
Highway run,
I’ve tested this car on 3 different highways. The NKVE (to Klang and back), PLUS (North Selangor – Damansara) and LDP (BU – Kepong and back) the reason why I split the highway category into three because I’ve noticed that all three has different characteristics.
NKVE
Mostly straight and has long curves (high speed corner) road is quite wavy (think: oscilloscope) towards Klang though it’s very straight, it’s not suitable for any drag events. Traffic is generally medium during non peek hours which is suitable for driving at speed above 100km/h.
PLUS
Long distance driving. Since it’s one of the oldest highway in Malaysia, most section of the highway are still concrete and very noisy to drive on. Furthermore, these old sections are rather bumpy especially nearing Rawang. Built wide and straight, it’s ideal to race the car here.
LDP
Daily route to work. New highway provide smooth tar road. Tighter corners and relatively high volume of traffic, daredevil’s playground.
During the initial testing on the PLUS highway, the front left tire was over inflated which caused a rather bumpy and unbalanced feel during the test. This error was later corrected the day after the PLUS highway run and was properly tuned for the NKVE lap. Throughout high speed test of the car, it still handles like a dream. Its narrow tires has surprisingly strong grip even at high speed and there’s no under steering. One thing though, there’s strong wind sound coming from the side mirrors.
Performance wise, the 1150cc Renault engine is very very powerful. While cruising at 120km/h it didn’t take much to propel faster reaching speed of 140km/h on the straight. During drag from standstill, the tachometer rise fast when it’s gassed properly at the right gear and gearshift. Within no time I’m already screaming down the highway at speeds of 140km/h from the toll booth. Do note that due to poor insulation and sound damping the engine roar can be clearly heard at the driver seat. It takes loud thumping music to drown the engine sound.
Test of time
In just 2 months the dark side of Proton has started to show. The gear stick squeaks! And to make matter worse, it’s not your regular un-oiled door squeak but a rather short rapid squeaks like how a Geiger-miller would sound in a nuke plant. I’ve no idea how to get rid of it. Even when I place my hand on the gear knob it still squeaks. Take it off and it still squeaks. I couldn’t open the synthetic leather cover to examine the insides because it’s built tough and so well designed that regular users like me can never temper with it. It’s back to the service center for a small, petty annoying matter. I’m not going to waste an entire day waiting for my car over something so small so I guess that whoever that drives with it have to live with the small annoyance.
Not my cup of tea.
Don’t get me wrong, the Savvy is a good car and definitely a fun car to drive. But due to my tall built, and the oddly positioned steering wheel, I cannot see the signal indicator and the 4, 5, 6 of the tachometer. I’d have to sit lower in order to have a clear view of the dashboard. Furthermore, I’m still an old school type and much prefer the much simpler analog fuel gauge, water temp gauge, odometer and trip meter. Number of times I accidentally reset the trip meter when I wanted to switch to odometer to check its mileage.
On the plus point, I like the seats. It’s quite bucket and beats the stock seats in my Kembara (planning to change to bucket real soon). Furthermore, it’s rather roomy above the dash. Definitely a good place to place aftermarket gauges. But since it’s not my car and my sister likes it in it’s original form, you won’t be seeing any 5” Auto Gauge tachometer on this Green Melon (a nick name given my by sister)
