| Malaysian car manufacturer Proton is poised to swoop into the bottom end of the Australian car market with the lowest-priced sedan drivers can buy. Based on the Saga sedan sold in its home market, the as-yet-unnamed new Proton model for Australia will have a new spec and is rumoured to be priced at less than the 1.2-litre Savvy five-door hatch, which is currently Australia’s cheapest new car, along with Hyundai’s 1.4 Getz S three-door, when it arrives in October of this year. The Saga-based sedan will arrive here with a 1.6-litre take on Proton’s Campro petrol engine and a five-speed manual gearbox, although an automatic transmission and an even cheaper version with a 1.3-litre petrol engine will be available from February 2010. Proton cites the demands of the market as the reason for the production of lower-spec – and lower priced – models and insists that no safety features will be stripped from the bottom-end models to save on costs. The Saga-based car will come with dual airbags, ABS brakes, and air-conditioning. |  |