Proton X70 A 45 day 3,450km review

Proton X70

A review

Sun 10 Feb 2019

We took delivery of our X70 on 27 Dec 2018.

After forty five days it has been driven driven about 3,450 kms. That is an average of 78km/day.

The X70 replaced our Volvo XC60. (2012 to 2018 : 127.3k kms) Frustration with the monopolistic and arrogant attitudes of official Volvo dealers led us to consider the X70. Thank you to Chairman of Proton who put us on the list to be one of the early birds. We have the red , highest specs ,version. I believe some of the features we describe below may not feature in the other models.

In summary, it has been a great ride. The X70 exceeds expectations. It is great value. It exudes luxury. It has gadgets and surprises. So, it is a Chinese car. Well, they make iphones as well.

My first car was a proton, a new Saga Knight in 1989. We never owned another proton after that. Prior to the XC60, we had an XC90 (2004-2012: 143.7k kms). So this review will make comparisons to both these cars.

Random comments

• The red colour is nice. As one of the first few on the road, there was a lot of interest in the car
• We gave lots of friends rides. The “hi Proton” , talk to me, Siri feature, impresses most people. It doesn't always understand what we say and gets things wrong often, but it's a cool gimmick and does work most times
• The leather interior is luxurious. Well stitched and crafted, it is a pleasure to drive
• The front seats are designed for Asian sized bodies, and probably smaller than European standards
• Petrol consumption over the entire 3,450 kms averages out at 11.2 l/100km. This is 8.92 km/l . This works out to 25.2 mpg (imperial) (21.0 mpg (US))
• This was a mix of urban silly KL traffic, a few trips to klia and a few outstation trips on tollways
• I would estimate a 20% to 25% higher mileage on highway compared to city driving. This compares with the Volvos where highway mileage is about double city mileage.
• A detailed summary is here
• The car quickly became a family favourite, convincing even my boss, who was, initially, not very interested in a proton.
• The adaptive cruise control (ACC) works well.
• The controls are simple and intuitive
• The dashboard indications and graphical warnings are good
• Being used to the XC60 ACC, there is one major difference.
• In slow traffic, when the speed gets to about 5 km/h the ACC asks you to take over. It then passes control back to you.
• In the XC60, the ACC stops in traffic jams and starts again when the car in front moves.
• Assuming it worked the same, we quite shocked when the ACC quits.
• As we suffer interminable traffic jams in KL, it would be nice if the ACC could adopt the XC60 handling of stop start traffic.
• If you have never used ACC, this will not mean much to you.
• The ACC on the highway and moving traffic works fine
• The handbrake comes on automatically. Releasing it is touch of a switch. Cool
• Lane departure warning is nice. It is annoying sometimes but it shows how we tend to swerve around the road. It will produce better drivers.
• The sunroof is huge. The sunscreen is bigger. The controls are easily accessible. This is the best command to impress guests to show how “hi proton” , works
• The car has its own SIM card and 1GB per month data. We get this for 5 years, I presume after that a monthly fee will be payable. So the car can produce its own WiFi hot-spot. It can also use your own WiFi as an alternative. By having connectivity, the car has traffic information in the inbuilt Baidu GPS navigation system and seeks YouTube when searching for songs
• In the first few days drives , there seemed to be a lull or slow pick up at slow speeds. If you slow down to turn a corner, it is as if the transmission only went down to third gear and not second or first. If you came to a complete stop , this did not occur. However later this problem seems to have gone.
• There is no CD player
• The aircon works well. There is an ioniser but i am not sure how it works or whether it really makes any difference.
• The back tail gate is manual. No automatic up and down. After rain, water tends to collect in certain parts and splashes slightly when you open the tailgate.
• There is a tyre pressure management system that tells the temperature and current air pressure of each tyre.
• The digital console is touchscreen. Fat fingers can be a small problem. It smudges with our dirty and greasy fingers. Need a small spectacle or phone cloth to clean regularly.
• There is an auto hold function that works only once you wear your seatbelt. At any stop, while still in D, the car has a hold so you do not need to keep your feet on the brake. This takes some getting used to. A useful feature.
• The inbuilt Baidu navigation system is useful. If you like waze, you will probably default back to it. The routes can be quite different sometimes. The navigation tends to say too much.
• In the back seat there is an armrest that comes down. It only has two small cup holders. It seems to have been designed for cool aesthetics, nice to look at, but has no ability to store other stuff. The Volvos do better.
• There ia an app that you can install on your phone
• You can see the location of the car
• You can see the status of doors and boot and control like a remote control
• It records the route of every single journey
• The bluetooth to mobile phone was loud and clear and stable
• The reverse 360 camera is very high resolution
• It also comes on when you are near to an object or a motorcycle or car comes too close
• The Blind spot information BLIS indicator is small. It works but you don’t get much of a warning
• The safety AEB and FCW have not been tested, thankfully
• There is a very cool feature when you open the two front doors in the dark. There is an illuminated Proton logo projected onto the ground. Cool for guests.
• There is a window ventilation mode. Upon locking the car, it will lower all 4 windows a few cm to allow for air ventilation. This lets in mosquitoes and bugs if left overnight. I am not sure if it closes automatically, if there is rain.
• There are boss controls so that the driver or rear passenger can move the front passenger seat. Neat
• The media can save online songs as favourites, but they disappeared after an OS update
• There was one over the air OTA software update
• This was done during driving and seemed to look after itself
• New and changed options and features appeared after the update
• So one does not need visits to the car doctor to upgrade
• Favourited songs were lost
• On Fri 8 Feb, we could not open the doors remotely. Using key entry, the battery was completely dead.
• A call to the sales person who delivered the car said not to jumpstart, as it required a battery starter some thing or other
• We called the phone number on the sticker on the screen.
• Proton people turned up at the house within thirty minutes
• They restarted with their battery rescue pack
• They said that it was due to loose cables
• They left without payment
• This happened at 3,430kms.
• The car had been idle and not started for about 60 hours during the New year break
• There were several technicians that called
• We must have been one of the first X70 to get a flat battery
• Congratulations on the efficient, prompt and attentive free rescue.
• We arranged a loan from Maybank for 100k for 3 years
• This was done very fast and efficiently
• Well done, Maybank
• Summary
• It is a nice car
• It is great value
• It is a fun ride

• You can follow the progress here

Fuel Summary