A group of Proton X70 owners which took off to China on 26 February driving their new SUVs has completed their journey back home and is full of praises for the vehicle. The group reported no breakdowns during the trip which covered 13,000km over four countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and China), with much of the daily driving done over long distances.
“We were already impressed by the high levels of comfort and refinement the Proton X70 has and after spending 33 days driving over 13,000km on unpredictable roads, I am convinced this is one of the best choices in its class,” said Dato’ Wong Kean Hwee, a participant of the journey dubbed the ‘Amazing Trip 2019’.
A big contributor to the ease of journey are the many features new to Proton, particular those that assists the driver, such as the Advanced Driver Assistance (ADAS) found in the Proton X7- Premium variant. The journey from Pu’er to Shilin that consisted of long, straight highways was the best place to employ the use of adaptive cruise control for instance. The X70’s tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS), on the other hand, proved to be useful in making sure the tyres were always in the optimum pressure especially as the convoy drove further North and ambient temperatures went down. Having said that, the X70’s heaters turned out very useful too.
Most of the time was spent in China, namely Hangzhou which is also the planned point where the group turned around for the trip back Malaysia. At Hangzhou, they took the opportunity to Visit Geely headquarters and toured the Geely Experience Centre.
Some expected challenges faced by the group included the need to apply for a temporary driving license to legally drive in China, which everyone had to do at the Chinese border town of Mengla. There, the cars were inspected by the traffic police before road tax stickers were given
The only time during the trip which required technical assistance was to give the X70 its scheduled servicing, something not unexpected considering that it’s still a new car. For this, Proton provided technical assistance at convenient Proton service centres along the way. In China, any help was provided by Geely dealers who are all well-versed with the X70, which is based on the Geely Bo Yue.
Dr Ling Tung King, event director of the Malaysia-China Amazing Trip said: “Through this Amazing Trip 2019, we built strong bonds not only with the Proton X70 owners, but also with Proton. With this, I would like to thank Proton for their support as this shows that Proton really cares for its customers.”
Amazing Trip 2019 was organised by Borneo Automobile Leisure Touring and Kunming Scenery-Customer International Travel Co, and supported by Proton. Here’s something interesting – on Day 9 driving from Huangguoshu to Fenghuang (total: 510km), the drivers reported that fuel consumption of the Proton X70 averaged 7.4 – 7.8L/100km.
