KUALA LUMPUR: Proton Holdings Bhd has celebrated the 37th birthday of Malaysia's first car, the Proton Saga, on July 9 this year.
Launched on July 9, 1985, the date coincided with the birthday of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also credited as the founder of Proton.
Proton said the Saga name was selected from a contest (Name the National Car Contest), which received 102,823 entries.
"While Saga is taken from the hard red seed of the Saga tree, it was also an acronym for safety, achievement, greatness, and ability," it said.
According to Proton, 1.95 million units of the Saga had been sold since 1985, making it the best-selling car in Malaysian automotive history.
"If you lined up the 1.95 million units of Proton Saga ever sold end to end, the chain would cover a distance of over 8,000km.
"Equivalent to the distance between Malaysia and Ukraine," it said.
Meanwhile, Proton said Saga had been exported to a total of 28 countries worldwide.
Bangladesh was the first export market in 1986 and this was followed by the United Kingdom in 1989.
"The Proton Saga is Proton's most popular export model with over 59,000 units sold," it said.
The Saga has bagged over 22 awards from various media channels since 1988.
It was also involved in motorsports soon after it was launched.
Its most recent success was finishing second in the 2019 Sepang 1,000km race that was won by the Proton Iriz that was also run by R3, Proton's racing division.
A red Proton Saga was the first official car to be driven over the Penang Bridge. The driver of the car was Tun Mahathir.