PROTON GEN-2 Saloon 2008 on

I have just sold my Gen 2 Saloon I place a cheap private plate on it to enhance its value and it worked , the cooling fan kept coming on all the time , it would crunch into gears . The thing you have to remember about Protons is that they will lose their value like water running out of a holed bucket .

I have owned a few protons because it was cheap motoring , but I owned a Satria Neo Sport from new a 2010 model and two years later varied dealers offered me £2500 in part exchange for other makes of car a Proton dealer offered me £4500 but only in exchange so I part exchanged for a 2009 Gen 2 I have thankfully cut my losses and will not ever buy another Proton when you decide to part ex for something better you will be offered peanuts

Reliability is minimal , service costs expensive, road tax £170, build quality is not very good either paintwork scratches easily , always check paintwork , number of owners, take a long test drive to bring to light any faults and make sure the person you purchase from sorts these first .

The lure of Autotrader's 'Win £500 for your review' tempted me to post this update.

Very little to add TBH - my car, now 27months/ 21,000 miles old, continues to give satisfactory service under a variety of conditions.

Seems to be standing-up to family use quite well and takes whatever I throw at it. Still looks smart if given a decent wash/vaccum and has been mistaken for a variety of more expensive saloons...

Only minor glitch has been the keyless remote opening of the boot, which started playing-up sometimes from November. Friendly and cheap, (if sometimes of patchy workmanship) dealer is due to replace it's solenoid under warranty next week.

LPG system has proved fautless so far and cost-wise deliveres fuel costs equivilent to a 53MPG diesel - without the drawbacks.

Chosen from a long list of possible new VFM family cars, (upto around 13K) in 2009. Car to be kept for many years and used for a wide variety of conditions, including city work and high speed/longer-distance journeys in UK and Europe.

Main strengths over the stiff competition seemed to be general spaciousness/size of the boot, the smart styling inside and out, more refined and driveable petrol/LPG engine, cheaper fuel and other running costs and better handling/ride balance.

Happily it has so far lived-upto expectations and seems noticeably better executed and finished than the earlier GEN-2 Hatchback versions.

Current IAFM-equipped engine is more refined and has the lower-down power missing from the standard 1600.

Only failure in 14,000 miles has been one rear door that started refusing to lock/unlock on the remote. Quickly fixed by dealer.

Although a saloon, the additional length, combined with the fold-down rear seats make for a boot a long as most large hatchbacks, which has proven very useful.

As with most cheaper mass-market cars, the depreciation is awful, but long-term ownership/buying used negates this and I consider the car to be genuine VFM.

It is a lot of good, cheap to run car for the price and dos'nt present itself as being an inferior product to the more obvious choices.