1998 Proton Wira review from Malaysia

Front wheel out of alignment after a few years. Not really a problem from the car, but from the driver actually. I drive fast and take bumps and pot-holes aggressively, so it's expected to be unaligned.

This car handles like it should when I first got it. Not too fast and moderate acceleration, but expected of this car.

I have had several accidents with this car, and sent it for repairs. Not too bad prices for repairs though. Funny thing is, it drives more smoothly and comfortably after the accidents.

I didn't make any upgrades or added any extra booster like a bigger exhaust pipe or air intake. I just changed the engine oil to using synthetic from the normal one and this car EXCELS superbly when using the synthetic oil. The acceleration of course is much faster and at a straight line speed, I can reach up to 176km/h max. Its max indicator by the way is 180km/h, I only reached that one time when I was already driving fast and then going downhill.

To accommodate this sudden increase of power, I changed the brake oil to DOT 4. This of course causes the brake oil to withstand more heat and sometimes you can smell something burning. Later when I sent it for servicing that I found out that my brake pads were worn out faster than usual. Nothing drastic or endangering, but that's where the burning smell came from. So I had the brake pad changed. Kind of cheap to boot.

After all this, at around 140km/h, the side view mirror starts to shake, but not if you hold the steering wheel steadily though. This I think is a defect that came from my various accidents and not a general fault with this car's model.

What can I say? This car not only filled its promise, but I can even change some stuff like the engine and brake oil only, and its increase in acceleration and comfort is AMAZING.

Even greater considering the fact I don't send the car for fine-tuning, boosting and adding 'extras'.

If you intend to own this car, I suggest you change the engine oil to synthetic and always rev up your engine to keep it 'healthy'.

I treat mine like it's my baby, and it treats me like a king.