Two gti's, golf vs satria

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I had a Satria Gti for almost 2 years and have put closed to 20,000kms on the clock. I now have a MkV Golf Gti (dsg) and I will base my comments with the Golf as a frame of reference. I know this sounds unfair for the proton, considering a golf can buy 1.5 satria gti’s here in australia, but please bear with me.

Road behaviour wise, the satria is good, and in some respects even better than the golf gti! There is plenty of feedback and you can’t avoid feeling connected to the road. The satria feels very planted and secure. Compared with the MkV golf gti, the satria feels more old school, a bit more raw, real, possibly even more granular and quite forgiving. The Golf Gti has sharper handling and requires more driver involvement as a result. I feel that the Satria Gti actually feels more secure going around corners and at high speeds, it does feel quite safe because of the more forgiving (and less precise) handling. The golf gti saps a little more of my concentration at high speeds but it rewards by giving “fun” and the “ever wanting to push it harder” feeling which the satria lacks. If you do push the proton, it runs out of power, there feels like there is a hole in the power delivery.

What makes the golf gti so much fun is the powerplant, drivetrain and the gearbox. It blows the satria gti out of the water on this and we have to understand that its like comparing thomas edison’s bulb with a neon lamp. We are comparing cars from different generations. Basically the satria with stock engine runs out of steam easily, doesn’t rev as nicely and needs too much coaxing to get going. The gearbox is a little notchy and has trouble engaging 1st easily. The satria feels lethargic. But having said this , for everyday urban driving, the satria gti has more than enough power to swing in and out of corners with glee ;-)

+ points where the proton is striking distance of the golf

1. seats, the recaros are not too bad, but it still feels pretty cheap ( i can see the foam !)

2. rims , not half bad! enkei 16"'s. but they chip easily

and nothing else. it feels cheap.

In summary, you get what you pay for and the satria is quite a lot for what you shell out, although that seems to be diminishing (especially here in Australia with strong competition like the renaultsport clios and price slashing by Peugeot for its cute little 206gti).

I miss some aspects of the satria gti, namely the rawness, but given an opportunity to make a similar decision in this segment of the car market, ill look at something else, given the poor quality of the proton as the main consideration eg. headrests cloth coming apart after 2 weeks, even the gear knob coming off from the shift in a week!!, water seepage, and I could go on.