Proton Saga Celebrates 37th Birthday

On the 9th of July, the Proton Saga celebrated its 37th birthday. As Malaysia’s first car, the Saga holds a special place in the country’s history and with its people. For many, it was the first car they owned, whether in new or used form.

With such a long history, here are some facts about the Proton Saga that you may or may not know:

The Proton Saga was launched on 9th July 1985. But not many know the date was chosen so that it coincided with the birthday of the then Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who is also credited as the founder of PROTON.
The name Saga was selected from a contest. The “Name the National Car Contest” received 102,823 entries. While Saga is taken from the hard red seed of the Saga tree, it was also an acronym for Safety, Achievement, Greatness, and Ability.
36 prototypes were developed before the first Proton Saga was approved by both Proton and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) in 1984.
1.95 million units of the Proton Saga has been sold since 1985, making it the best-selling car in Malaysian automotive history.
If you lined up the 1.95 million units of Proton Saga ever sold end to end, the chain of cars would cover a distance of over 8,000km. This is equivalent to the distance between Malaysia and Ukraine.
The Proton Saga has been exported to a total of 28 countries. Bangladesh was the first export market in 1986. This was followed by the United Kingdom in 1989.
The Proton Saga is PROTON’s most popular export model with over 59,000 units sold.
The Proton Saga has bagged over 22 awards from various media channels since 1988. It was also involved in motorsports soon after it was launched. Its most recent success was finishing second in the 2019 Sepang 1000km race. This race was won by the Proton Iriz that was also run by R3, Proton’s racing division.
A red Proton Saga was the first official car to be driven over the Penang Bridge. The driver of the car was then Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.