Text from Paul Tan’s page

Proton Edar’s Proton Exora teaser page reveals how the Exora’s seats and seating configuration looks like. The seats are in the typical three-row MPV 2-3-2 order for 7 seats, and Proton claims them to be suitable for full adult seating.

From the looks of it every seat (wrapped with leather) has its own headrest, and Proton says there are also individual air conditioning blowers for each row. From the details revealed at the Proton Technology Week, it is revealed that the dedicated air conditioning vents for the 2nd and 3rd rows will be located at the ceiling of the Proton Exora MPV. The 2nd and 3rd row of the Proton Exora can also be folded in 6 flexible configurations, and it looks like the 2nd row’s middle seat can be folded down as an armrest. There will be a total of 10 cupholders in the MPV, which is more than 1 for each seat, so there should be more than enough space to keep one’s drinks on a road trip.

As previously revealed, the steering wheel will feature audio controls but there is no mention yet on what the phone button is for. The Proton Exora will have an overhead LCD player that can read VCDs and DVDs along with a variety of other storage devices such as devices using USB input, and a memory card slot that supports SD and MMC. This will likely be available only in the high spec model.

Speaking of specification levels, Proton has also revealed tentative prices for the Proton Exora on its booking page. The tentative pricing are RM 72,000 for the M-Line model with an automatic transmission, and RM 76,000 for the H-Line model with an automatic transmission. This is well under the RM 80,000 maximum figure previously quoted. So far only prices for automatic transmission models have been revealed but if the automatic M-Line is 72K, a manual transmission M-Line could go under RM70k if Proton decides to make such a model available. But I feel manual is a must for the Proton buyer segment, and I am pretty sure their product team knows this too.

Bookings for the Proton Exora just opened yesterday and Proton Edar reported over 350 bookings. Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal hopes to achieve between 4,000 to 5,000 bookings before the April launch date, which gives them roughly over a month to go.

There have also been other details on the Exora revealed over the past few months, please read our previous coverage on the Proton Exora to find out more exclusive details!

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Fine, I am a nationalist but who in the right mind approved of this vehicle? Has anyone ever wondered can a 1.6 litre engine pull of a task similar to a Japanese MPV which actually utilises a minimum 2 litre engine!

The people at Proton really lives up to the Malaysia Boleh (Malaysia Can Do It) motto huh? I can’t wait to hear the first batch of the Exoras to be recalled for some ‘technical’ error like most of Proton’s earlier models.

Don’t get me wrong, I support local products but a 1.6 Campro engine will not suffice. At first when all the hype about Proton will be producing an MPV, rumour says it will run on a 1.6 turbo charged Campro. Now that is something else. A friend of mine installed a turbo kit on his Gen-2 and achieved 168 brake horsepower and generating 260Nm of torque. THAT can work on an Exora!

Then there was another rumour of it will be produced with a 1.8 litre Campro. That may help a little if not much. I wonder, when will Proton actually produce vehicles worth our hard earned money? Or will Perodua come to our rescue? I wonder…

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