Proton Working With Jaguar For D Segment Luxury Sedan?

Automotive

Published on July 10th, 2014 | by Daniel Sherman Fernandez

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Proton Working With Jaguar For D Segment Luxury Sedan?

Jaguar-XF_3

Strong rumours have been circulating for a number of months now stating that Proton will be launching a D segment luxury sedan in a year. This new luxury sedan will come in many ways from Jaguar. The use of a Jaguar platform and drivetrain seems very true as Jaguar regional company representatives have been seen in Klang Valley visiting certain industry heads and only making a cordial visit to local Jaguar Land Rover franchises offices to say hello.

There is no information as yet on the Jaguar platform or engine that will be used but we think it might be the current XF sedan as the all new Jaguar XE platform will be going into production with a new range of cars real soon.

Jaguar-XF_1

What is really surprising with all this information is the next bit of rumour. This new Proton D segment sedan will not be built at the Proton Tanjung Malim or Proton Shah Alam plants and instead it will be outsourced to a 3rd party builder. With so many highly trained Proton engineers and with access capacity at Tanjung Malim why is it that a 3rd party is being used? Could there be a hidden reason?

Well our sources tell us that the 3rd party builder is Bufori Cars. This small niche car builder has already been awarded a large sum of money to expand their operations and have equipment ready for this new ProtonJaguar luxury sedan. Sources say the Proton has paid Bufori cars a princely sum of RM16 Million to get started.

If the ProtonJaguar sedan is to be built, why can’t it be built in Tanjung Malim? Why is a small rather niche car builder like Bufori Cars being awarded a large project like this when they obviously do not have the equipment and facilities to undertake this project.

Does Proton need to play in the highly competitive D segment when they are still working very hard to fend off competition in the other segments that they are slowly losing market share in? We feel just like many others, Proton should work more on their current segments and take on the AFTA imported cars with emphasis on improving sales in neighbouring markets to increase sales and market share.

Still, we are not in the business of building and selling cars and so we must wait and see what and how this ProtonJaguar project will work out. Meanwhile, we will keep digging for more information and have it ready for you to digest as it come to our attention.

Goodyear eagle 650x85(DSF)


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