New Proton Saga MC3 set to launch Q4 this year

In what appears to be a Proton presentation slide posted to Facebook, the national carmaker looks set to launch the latest iteration of the Saga. This would be what’s likely to be the MC3 facelift, however the presentation slide shows that Proton calls the car “all-new”, and thus considers this to be a new-generation model.

That said, the Malaysian carmaker also calls the upcoming X50 an all-new model, even though it is a facelift. As for the Saga, this is placed in the fourth quarter of this year on the carmaker’s timeline, after the soon-to-launch X50 facelift, but before the X70 MC and S70 MC.

The last sighting of the Saga MC3 on public roads was of a development car that had its headlamps partly concealed, suggesting that there are revisions in that area forthcoming. Previous development cars have been sighted with halogen reflector headlamps, and if the Saga MC3 could arrive with LED headlamps, it could be for the top variant(s).

In terms of powertrain, the upcoming Saga update has been rumoured to bring a naturally-aspirated version of the turbocharged four-cylinder that will power the S70 MC and X70 MC, and this will go on to be the new heart of Proton cars moving forward, so to speak, like the CamPro engines of the past have done.

A significant addition to its equipment list is a driving assistance suite, as indicated by the presence of an ADAS camera located high on its windscreen. This would hopefully aid the Saga in catching up to the Perodua Bezza in the ADAS stakes, which has had autonomous emergency braking, front departure alert and pedal misapplication control since 2020.

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Learn more: Proton Saga MC3