Prestigious Preve, prestige for all

Front view of the Preve at Proton Showroom. Preve CVT CFE Premium variant.

  Preve is a word that means proof. The name carriers everything what Proton aspires to and, ultimately delivers. But don’t take their word for it. Let the cars be the proof of their commitment to be better. Proton knew that Malaysia future car owner knew better then Proton itself.

  Through the time when Proton were established, may people were so skeptical and take Proton for granted. The Preve were hope to be better, an eye opener for all the people out there.

Front view of the flyer.

Morning, 21 April 2012, I had the chances to test derive the so prestigious Preve. From the pictures on the flyers the car seems to be not so cool and dull at the same time. After went through the flyer for approximately 2 hours the car suddenly shows its glows. After you had tested drive the cars you then would be amazed by the cars. Illuminate that the prestigious word for it.

         The Preve had so much new technology by Proton but outdated technology for the market.  First impression inside the showroom the cars were great and outstanding. With solid white color by Alesco in premium variant the car is even more prestigious. The Preve body lining curve and building had so much resemblance to the current market cars right now.  Proton had mix up several design characteristic from other cars in Preve. People can clearly see the resemblances. First thing you notice from Preve first time you look at it is the enormous and beastly look front grill. The grill was so big that it wrapped the front side of the cars almost 70%.

           

Straight forward curve. Just my point of view la.

            The grill is square if viewed at the front side to hide its 200++ hp inside the engine bay. This made the cars looks humble and cools at the same time. Sometimes the front grill did remind me of a Chevrolet Camaro. From my personal point of views the grill design should shows its beastly and horrified hp by added stylo shape grill not square and flat design. But yet again Preve market segment were family men and executive person where as this segment can easily settle the intended figure demanded bu Preve.

The fat ass and bulky yet in shape spender steering. I want this in my FLX!

      

   Opening the driver door you immediately be caught on view by the steering. The sterring is same as the Exora bold but for a person that never goes in an Exora the steering is so beautiful with its fat yet tough appearance you cant wait to hold it. Even its fat and tough you can notice that the handle bars is smaller compared to FLX. It’s a well balanced design of steering. With small paddle shifters and frankfurter size wiper and signal level you knew that something is messy there. Then you tried to look forward through the windshield but your eyes detected something, the meter panel. You look a glimpse of the meter for a second then you stop staring at the meter panel as its so boring. You look forward again and again its happened, your eyes automatically fixed and at the black tinted areas just behind the rear view mirror. The new auto rain sensors were placed here and black tinted were used to hide the big sensors anomaly. On the flyer it can’t be seen but on the real car it’s bugging me.  

Some said that the wood trim is inspired from Merc? Come again?!

   Then comes the dashboard panel appearances.With wood wannabe trim but no wood colored this can be a mistake maybe? It’s better to let the dashboard panel standard without a wood like surface but not wood-like dashboard panel. Next you are looking for radio and notice that no Clarion installed inside Preve. Premium variant offer built in GPS embedded on the centre of the cars with touch screen features and no Clarion names on it. Blurrghhh!

Gear knob. Notice the special S. Sport/SAT?

You look further down and notice the gear knob with P, R, N, D, S were present on the gear level. S is for Stepped Automatic transmission (SAT) and L were replaced with +ve,-ve gear shifting that can be change by driver smoothly.  Suddenly you felt comfortable and cozy on you body from head to toe, thanks to the seating of Preve. I really love the seat of Preve that come in fabric with water repellent in bracket. Then you put your hand on the door panel you noticed modern and Forte shape design with something missing. Preve had no door lock stick pointing out of the panel. Its equipped with auto lock and to unlock it you have to pull the open level twice. Brilliant!

The rear armrest with 2 cup holder. I want his also!

The boot that can fit 5 person. Perfect!

At the front end of the door panel is the push to start button with key slot. Going at the rear seat you can feel the comfort with wide ergonomic seats and plenty of rear leg room for the passengers. The rear seat also is slightly deep inside to demonstrate lean just like a chair. With Isofix seat mounting you can folded down the rear set and see the rear bonnet completely exposed to enormous space for bigger items. The bonnet offers 508 liter of boot space giving you plenty of room to stuff up the Preve. Your elbow suddenly felt the comfort of fabric seating when rear center arm rest come to the rescue completed with 2 bottle/cup holders. WOW!

Remind you of any car? BM..? What letter after that huh?

Seeing the rear view you noticed only 60% of the rear view can be seen in your eyes. Other 40% of the rear views its blocks by the rear speaker holder with transformers – like shape. COOL! Then you go to the rear of the cars because you though there was a pretty girl passing by just now but there wasn’t. Disappointed you look at the rear of the cars you noticed rear curve of the Preve is so sexy and voluptuous yet modern at some spot and it’s somehow making you less disappointed. The rear tail lamp just outstanding and give the effect of slims rear back whereas in reality it is a fat ass but in slim style. Preve curve and body lining is astonishing at the rear and it’s remind of the rear end of a BMW body style design. Nice!

The embedded spoiler shape on the Preve body lining.

Overall, Preve has delivered an outstanding package and set up Proton design and ideas at a new ascending order. Good job Proton.

The tutorial how to drive Preve the correct way.

Driving the car! Superb!!! Reaching to 7 gears!

Next is the test drive. Sitting at the driver seat you can see that the seat and sterrig height is perfectly measured at Asian level. You can see the entire road with perfect view, not to big and yet not to small. Grasping the steering give you the goosebumps as you can’t wait to unleashed the full power of the Campro CFE. I did had the chances to test the multilink suspension along the sharp and curvy roads of Kulai. This time Proton had nearly nailed the bumpy and hard suspension problems with smooth and comfort suspension. Multilink does feel better then torsion beam. The throttle pedal is quite sensitive with quick to the top engine response, thanks to the turbo power that push the cars from 0-100km/h in 9.6 seconds. Then you engaged the gear knob to manual shifting enabling you to play with the gears. The shifter is smooth and change to correspond gear almost immediately. I did push the RPM to 4000 and then the Campro CFE reached its roar peak and I shift to fourth gears. Not long from that I finally reached at 7 gears that to me is really sluggish. The Preve best gears is third and fourth were it’s long and fast KM eaters. Again at 120 km/h you already at seventh gears and you notice this time the engine roar at decent decibel. Proton did good job to hide the engine sounds with good sound proofing. I did a couple laps with Preve and I felt in love with it immediately.

What with the divider on the window?

            Preve is a good car with high value and better yet at reasonable prices for all people to own it. Overall, Preve is a car that we Malaysian should be proud of. You should drive it to believe it, it’s an astonishing Proof of Proton outstanding effort of improvement.