Quite a popular car, isn’t it? Proton has announced that the naturally-aspirated version of the S70 – part of the upcoming MC2 facelift lineup – has racked up 10,000 booking in exactly two weeks since it was announced earlier this month.
According to the national carmaker, this works out to one order every two minutes. While certainly impressive, it will take a while before those bookings are fulfilled, given that Proton’s sales are currently held back by production bottlenecks; the company doubtlessly wants to prioritise getting more units of the Saga into customers’ hands.
Jut one more day to go before the car is launched, with the event set to be livestreamed tomorrow, September 22 at 8pm. You’ll be able to watch the stream on Proton’s socials on Facebook and TikTok, just like we will be.
To recap, the NA S70 will extend the erstwhile turbo-only lineup downwards, essentially forming an indirect replacement for the soon-to-be-discontinued Persona. Proton promises a starting price of under RM60,000, which is very competitive indeed.
A total of two variants will be offered, these being the Lite and Prime. While exact pricing has yet to be revealed, a leaked internal presentation slide suggests that the former will be priced between RM55,000 to RM59,000 (jut a few thousand ringgit more than the top-spec Saga Premium), while the latter is expected to retail at between RM65,000 to RM69,000.
Both will be powered by the Saga MC3’s 120 PS/150 Nm 1.5 litre BHE15-CFN i-GT four-cylinder engine and a new torque converter CVT, likely the same WLY unit used in the S70’s Chinese-market twin, the Geely Emgrand. It’s expected to offer that car’s simulated eight-speed mode, albeit operated through the S70 Turbo’s exclusive electronic gearlever.
On the outside, the NA version is differentiated through the full gloss black grille. The specs are largely similar to the Executive turbo’s, except the Lite gets halogen headlights – something it makes up for with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, auto up/down windows and a reverse camera.
The Prime adds back LED headlights and introduces auto air con, faux leather and 17-inch alloy wheels (up from 16s), the latter previously reserved for the Flagship. One downside of choosing these two models is that neither can be had with advanced driver assists, not even autonomous emergency braking – something even the Saga Premium has for less money.
GALLERY: 2026 Proton S70 1.5 i-GT Lite
GALLERY: 2026 Proton S70 1.5 i-GT Prime
The post 2026 Proton S70 MC2 NA gets 10k bookings in 2 weeks – Lite and Prime fr below RM60k, launching Sept 22, 8pm appeared first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
