Proton Satria Neo
£7,995
Miles per gallon: 39.7
Seats: 5
Good for: Flash gits
Bad for: Old gits
I'm having lunch at Scott's - a posh seafood restaurant in Mayfair where, legend has it, the author Ian Fleming discovered the dry martini so beloved by 007. A glance at the prices, however, will leave you both shaken and stirred. It's the kind of place where a diner with the thimble-sized appetite of Keira Knightley can swallow £100 of grub with ease. And yet it shows you the depth of ambition for its new product that Proton has that they've invited a group of hard-to-please motoring journalists to an oyster bar in Mayfair rather than, say, Garfunkel's in Swindon for the launch of their car.
The Satria Neo is a sub-£8,000 three-door supermini. The supermini class is the most competitive of all motoring sectors, with more than 50 models to choose from. And of those 50, just five account for 40 per cent of sales. These are the Vauxhall Corsa, Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 207, VW Polo and Renault Clio.
At the moment, your typical Proton driver is male, loyal, in his seventies and puts value for money above concerns such as trendiness. You are unlikely to hear a Proton driver say: 'I was happy to pay over the odds for a prestige badge...' But clearly, having a bunch of ageing cheapskates as your core market is hardly going to get cash-hungry private-equity partners licking their lips, so to appeal to younger, more savvy drivers, Proton has formed an unlikely marriage with Lotus. And by linking the performance sportscar specialist with the trundling Malaysian state manufacturer, Lotus and Proton have become the Nancy and Sven of the motoring world. Why did Lotus choose to get into bed with Proton? Might have had something to do with the fact Proton cannily bought 63 per cent of Lotus for £38 million a decade ago. The lotus flower thrives in Malaysia - maybe that's what took the government company's fancy...
The input from Lotus is obvious from the outset. The Satria Neo's look is bold and stylish. The car crouches on wide-set wheels, a sculpted hood flowing back from its mesh grille and sporty 'tiger-eye' projector headlamps to a tapered rear and a single, central exhaust pipe. The biggest surprise is the engine. Fire it up, and the note is throaty and energetic - it could do a passable Bonnie Tyler impression. It's definitely not something that will appeal to the usual Proton pensioners. Both a 1.3- and a 1.6-litre version are available, and petrol consumption is over 40 miles to the gallon. On top of that, the Satria Neo comes with a juicy helping of the kind of extras which normally push the price of a car through the 10-grand barrier. There's aircon, a decent stereo, airbags and even a pollen-filter system.
Any crosses on the checklist? Two, I'm afraid: the plasticy dashboard (it's the one piece of a car you spend every journey looking at, so making it from what looks like a B&Q rain gutter is a mistake), and the very poor head clearance (you either have to tilt your head or drive in a lying down position)... So, the Satria Neo: perfect for short-backed young men on a budget with an interest in sporty cars - and a taste for oysters.
