Having revealed the car in camouflaged form as part of the ASEAN Summit over the weekend, Proton has now pulled the covers off the new Saga ahead of the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade signing ceremony. The entry-level sedan, shown in full Ruby Red, debuts alongside the eMas 5 that has also made its debut here.
UPDATE: The Proton Saga MC3 is now on display at the Centre of Excellence (COE) showroom in Shah Alam. A closer look indicates the presence of six airbags, along with ADAS.
The images only show the front of the car, but it does give us the best look at the heavy facelift, including the all-new front fascia with a large full-width grille and an Ethereal Bow chrome bar. The latter is linked to the daytime running lights in the projector LED headlights – a first for the Saga.
We have at least seen the rest of the car, which features new segmented full-width LED taillights bearing the Proton script, a black plastic rear valance and an i-GT badge referencing the new engine, which we’ll get to later. Despite the revamp, the car is still recognisably a Saga, retaining the general shape, upright glasshouse and doors.
The comprehensive redesign continues on the inside, with only the door handles being carried over. There’s a cleaner horizontal dashboard design with pill-shaped air vents, a wave texture on the door cards and a slim centre console with a new gearlever from the Iriz and Persona.
Dominating proceedings is a widescreen display panel housing an infotainment touchscreen and a digital instrument display, another Saga first. The screens are in a rather square aspect ratio, leading to sizeable black bezels. To go with the new instrumentation, there’s a flat-bottomed steering wheel lifted from the X50.
As previously reported, the Saga is set to receive a new 1.5 litre naturally-aspirated four-cylinder engine – a version of the facelifted X50’s engine but with the turbo and direct injection removed. This replaces the long-serving 1.3 litre VVT mill from the CamPro family, which makes 95 PS and 120 Nm of torque; expect useful increases with the shift to the new powertrain.
Leaked details reveal that the car is set to be offered with both a conventional automatic transmission (likely the current four-speed unit) on the Standard and Executive and a CVT on the Premium, meaning that this is the first Saga to be launched without a manual gearbox option.
The camera at the top of the windscreen means that the Saga will offer a suite of driver assists, including autonomous emergency braking. However, it will not come with Level 2 semi-autonomous driving features such as adaptive cruise control and lane centring assist, given that the left spoke of the steering wheel – which normally houses the cruise control and distance buttons – is blanked out. Expect these features to be limited to top-spec models, and here’s hoping an upgrade to six airbags is also on the cards.
Clearly, we won’t have to wait long for the official details, including pricing for the Perodua Bezza rival. Proton does have its arms full at the moment, however, with the launch of the eMas 5 happening in just two days.
GALLERY: 2026 Proton Saga MC3 camouflaged at Proton COE
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they could have made it look nice and steal the market from the Bezza and even the axia. But no, this new Saga has very weird proportions. The front overhand is ridiculously long, and couple with those tiny wheels. Look like a toy from Temu. The front grille doesn’t help.
Say what you want, it would still selling well.
Its only gonna sell well because its a malaysian car and people own Sagas’ from the 1st gen till the 3rd. Sell this to anyone else in the world and they’ll throw it away like garbage; because it is.
Perhaps swap with a bigger rim after came out show room?
Saga once had a 1.6L engine mounted inside. it was meant to serve Taxi fleet and later made available alongside first gen FLX. Seems that the outline is more of facelift with interesting tweaks to make it look new. The fact that chassis development is expensive and a drain on Proton cashflow, it is better to upgrade in stages. The engine and transmission upgrade using Geely platform is wise considering it avoided major development cost. i hope proton supply chain take advantage of this common engine parts to be part of Geely supply chain. that’s how proton will benefit in long run.
on the other hand, i hope proton will consider integrating a hybrid version using Geely vast technology options. Saga being mass volume model for proton, it is good idea to have a premium version with this hybrid powertrain. it will elevate Saga to face next generation in transition into BEV era.
with that headlights = Axia sedan
360p able noted that the headlight is quite different from the Axia’s. Your observation 480p is incorrect; it is 48p only.
Did they extend the front overhangs even more?
They didn’t. Almost all car have similarly long front overhang. It has to be there for pedestrian safety according to regulations (EU). Clever designs hide those overhangs very well. You have to be at certain angle to have to notice those overhangs such as the placement of this camera perpendicular to the front wheel and low at the level of car shoulder.
Nope, front wheel drive cars are pretty much like that. Because of the engine and transmission layout, that’s where the engineering limitations allow for the drive shaft locations.
ICE cars like most BMW models are not worried of this issue thus the front wheels could be pushed further towards the front.
Almost all FWD cars suffer from this design aspect.
Okay. Let’s be factual. There is only so much you can do to a weirdly proportioned shape. When it was first launched, I thought it looked Mr Bean’s 3-wheel car. In my opinion, they have overdone it, and it certainly looked out of style instead of making it more modern. Anyway, you can be sure this will fly off the sales chart and take sales away from the Perodua Bezza and Axia.
the shape of the car looked like proton forcefully (secara paksa) make the car as long as possible, eventhough the wheelbase is narrow and short. The result is a weird proportion car where the front and rear overhang is super long. Very weird looking. but grab drivers will like this car because of big boot trunk. not a looker.
It’s nice to see that Proton just can’t design cars to save their company from bankruptcy. Only Geely facelifts are the good-looking ones.
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Lol Why that they extend the grill under the headlights. Really miss the opportunity to make the headlights look slimmer and modern.
I thought 3 rear headrests are required to pass occupant crash test for the rear passengers (read whiplash impact, injuring the neck and spine bone.
e.Mas 5 also don’t have rear center head rest and the side ones are fixed as well. Should be marketed as 4 seater car instead of 5. I’m sure they will say kids can sit there ma. Kids goes on the child seat or booster seat, period.
Yeah, yeah I agree.. well this in most crash tests won’t affect the total scoring (the equivalent Geely model scores 5 stars in euro ncap and australanesia ncap) however the rule does admit that may affect the fifth occupant in case of a rear impact collision.
Looks nice but sayang sekali cabin size still the same. Hopefully same setup will be on persona next. Or s70 with non turbo 4 cylinder timing chain engine and not that creepy touch screen control aircond.
It will only launch when current model stocks left not much, while the timing belt persona and s70 also going to suffer if this new saga finally came with timing chain.
In need to know how new 1.5L NA S4 iGt ICE perform on consumer roads. Wonder if P1 even giving this engine a name.
Design wise still prefer MC2 with petals (five spoke) wheels, but Proton has been updating Saga more often among it’s product range.
its not proton car… its just proton logo lol
Its on Proton’s AMA platform, which was designed way before Geely entered the picture.
Terrible B40 mindset product planning. They should have merged the Saga/Persona/Iriz product lines by giving the new gen Saga the Persona wheelbase and the bodystyle as seen in the old Wagon mule from 2016. Go after the Alza market and give the rakyat more space!
What are you smoking, man?
Terrible B40 B1 mindset comment. The AMA platform has been studied for hatchback, compact SUV, compact MPV.
Only facelift
1.5 engine still facelift
the front looks empty with that black plastic at the bumper , hopefully got aftermarket put foglamp there to look better
I’m a heavy proton fan guy. Love the proton-lotus era to be specific and why this Saga looks like a model came out from pakistan/india manufacturer. This design is what Tata designer would like to create . Nevertheless, interior seems attractive considering the Saga is entry level sedan. Will be looking forward in the future to see their another bigger sedan model. Interior should be more interesting
Yeah exactly. Looks like the Honda Amaze in India. But then again, Tata/Mahindra new design language for the EV’s are better.
Honestly, the malaysian people love getting their ass scammed with facelifted cars assuming that its something “new”. (news flash: its not). Just buy an old saga and it’ll outlive you and your children.
sadly, it isn’t that “Malaysians love getting scammed” but it is a result of affordability. Bezza, Saga has repeatedly taking the “best selling car in Malaysia” title and you really think it is because Malaysians loved these 2 models so much? We have been cheated of our buying power. Cars are a necessity, and thus should not be priced so high. At least not higher than their actual prices intended by the original manufacturer.
So dissapointed. This car will still use PUNCH CVT. This is why no mention of the transmission anywhere….a new Punch assembly line has been setup in Tanjung Malim…obviously producing Punch CVTs. This is so stupid, they have all the opportunity to use Geely’s gearbox yet they remain to use Malaysia’s most hated PUNCH CVT!
I really hope to see Proton to make its own engine again, fully developed by local engineers. After that, maybe gearbox. Its the know how that will have a spill over to other industries and inculcate innovations