** This article is the personal experience of a 2020 Proton x70 new owner and does not necessarily reflect the views of WapCar.

Detail about car

• Car info: 2020 Proton x70 Premium X CKD
• Order date: June 2020
• Delivery date: August 2020 (on Merdeka Days)
• Price: RM122,800. However, due to the current Government direction of SST rebates of RM7k of this model, plus additional rebates thrown out by SA, the ODR price of this is even cheaper than 2020 HRV 1.8L V Spec.

Reason to buy

Basically, I owned a Honda Accord 2.4 2015 while my wife is using her Perodua Viva Elite 2011 which was her car since the University days.

Due to her parent’s old car (2001 Wira 1.6) starting to give up on reliability, it is the idea to return back the trusty and reliable Viva Elite to them for daily use. 

Due to the above reason, my wife and I had a survey a few cars since late 2019. Our decision of the car purchase process is basically must be an upgraded car (from a Viva Elite) and price capped at RM130k or below without considering any segment size etc.

So off we go from Toyota Yaris, Honda HRV, Mazda CX3, Honda City, and Toyota Vios. Honestly speaking, since bought my car back in 2015, I rarely had a chance to go test drive of any new car which is all equipped with the latest safety technology like Lane Departure Warning, Auto Braking System, etc. Well, my current Accord does not have those and it will nice to have those in my next wife’s new car.

From the test drive of all model listed above, we concluded that a CVT equipped gearbox is the one that we dislike, which we felt like the engine sound drowning is not best during mid-hard acceleration.

Additionally, since I love reading online car forums, Facebook car clubs etc, I can say I had encountered numerous car owners who had claim new CVT gearbox under warranty which I believe not 100% reliable yet.

Based on this, we concluded that Proton x70 is the one we choose, which was in CBU form back in late 2019/ early 2020 and come with a Conventional 6-gear auto gearbox.

Then on March 2020, Proton had launched the CKD version of x70 with an upgraded DCT 7-speed gearbox and few updates like the Engine tuned up to 300 Nm of Torque.

Then the MCO hit up in April hence we hold our purchase until it is returned as normal. I used this time to review the real user review of 7-speed DCT provided by Geely, the reliability of it become commit the purchase.

From my homework for Geely car review, FB, car forum, etc, mostly inform it is petty reliable DCT but much slower GB compared to VW DSG.

Then in June 2020, the Government informed the good news to car buyers for SST rebates which vary of price on certain car manufactures, some thrown in the only couple of thousand only. But Proton had slashed out RM7k for Premium X, that the time we hit to purchase it.

Moreover, from the Lowyat x70 car club forum, got few users shared the contact no. of their SA which threw in additional thousand rebates on top of SST, hence we glad to had this car.

Test Drive Feeling

• Pros

a. Build Quality: I can say it feels solid like a Continental car, not squashing/rattling noise on the interior, dashboard, and door trim.

b. Safety: Come with Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) on this price range. Great.

c. Size: It depends on the user. I love an SUV size car then this car is in a great size for my wife used.

d. Interiors Quality: Everywhere feels premium, the NVH is great, the closing door does sound great as well as others like rear cup holder

e. Tire: Luckily Proton put a premium 19” tire of Continental UC6 SUV tire. It does sound very quiet.

• Cons

a. The Car System: It is better if the car system can save the user preference mode without resetting back to normal every time, we switch off the engine. I.e. the ECO, SPORT mode can be the default mode every time we switch on the car as well as Intelligent High Beam Control (IHBC) which will switch off back once we off the engine.

b. The After Service: Heard the rumors on the after service had some hiccup for parts available especially for the case of an accident, need to wait for parts to arrive close to 2 months.

c. The Sunroof fabric cover: Proton should familiar with our scorching hot sun hence need to give thicker fabric cover materials.

The Driving Experienced & Ownership of my Proton x70 Premium X

The first few hundred km of driving it, one thing that surprises me is the quietness when driving it compared to my pricier; 2015 Honda Accord 2.4, especially the outside, tire and wind noise.

It either Geely/Proton put the priority on NVH or it is Honda Malaysia undergoing cut cost practice for sound insulation materials on my accord model.

The only noise we noticed is when heavy rain hit the Sunroof, it does sound different. Many x70 owner complaints the sunroof fabric cover is too thin hence fell hot under the sun.

My solution was tinting it at the best spec tint, ie 99% IRR, 88% TSER hence it does not hot even with opening the sunroof fabric.

Back to Proton x70 CKD, the good-looking gear lever DCT is petty seamless and very smooth gear changing from D1 – D7 on top of 300 Nm of Torque, I must say it is adequate of this size car.

I have to admit that from 1st day owned it to the current 1050 km, I just left it to Normal and Eco mode without ever test it on Sport mode as its ok driving it.

In regards to Fuel Consumption (FC) of owning it for the past two months, it is slightly above my Accord which I believe is ok considering the size. Just had a weekend outstation holiday with x70 and a full tank give me about 460km of 46L Ron95 Petrol.

The strange thing is the meter detected at 8.4L/100 km while it around 10L/100 km on real calculation. The car hit 140kmh at 2.5k RPM which I believe best on highway driving.

What best about the car interior? For me is the Napa Leather seat, which gives me different feeling when using it.

I used to have a Black Theme Looking car interior on my Accord and to repeat it with the same theme is a complete No! The car does lack an Android Auto/ Apple Car play, that the pity thing, but Proton does come out with a solution on it by having an Easy Connection Apps to cater to the Waze user community like me.

Well 3 days ago, the GKUI had another update, and now Apple IOS user also able to use the Easy Connection without fail.

The exterior of my car

Looks great on side view.

Side profile after tint with JPJ spec. rear unlimited VLT.

Rear picture 

Front side view

Latest GKUI software update, 27 September 2020

Proton Link in picture, able to check GPS tracking FOC