“Inspira was modelled after the Mitsubishi Lancer in collaboration of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) Japan with Proton Holdings Bhd. Exported to Malaysia and distributed by Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia (MMM), the Lancer is a completely built-up (CBU) unit, in which all parts and assembly standards have met Mitsubishi Motors’ stringent global quality standards”, says MMM Ceo Tetsuya Oda.

“Based on the originally started out as a joint development project between the national car maker and Mitsubishi Motors Corp (MMC) some three years ago. Rather than to restart the project from scratch, Proton decided to use the Lancer as a new start point while adding value to an already good design”. Inspira’s project manager Zulkifli Bidin explain.

“Mitsubishi was willing to allow Proton to rebadge the Lancer as the Inspira without changing any key features. We felt that our engineers who had trained under our subsidiary Lotus Engineering were able to improve the driving dynamics and handling of the Lancer”, he said.

“After convincing Mitsubishi that Proton could improve on Lancer’s driving performance, Mitsubishi gave the green light to the suspension tweaking. Among the improvements were revised suspension rating and bushings for a more comfortable ride and the incorporation of thicker anti-roll bars for better cornering stability. Others improvement work include closer body gaps of 2.5mm compared with 3mm in the Lancer, and reduced levels of noise, vibration and harshness. At our Shah Alam factory production lines, Mitsubishi have stationed its engineers to ensure that the Inspira were produced in accordance to Mitsubishi’s quality standards”.

“Even Mitsubishi Motors Corp’s top management team, consisting of its head of research and development, DCGM of Asean and master vehicle evaluator who came to Shah Alam to test the Inspira, have praised Proton for work done on returning the suspension system for better comfort and handling. They told us that Inspira offered better ride handling characteristics and noise, vibration and harshness isolation compared with the Mitsubishi Lancer”, says Zulkifli.

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