Happy 37th Birthday Proton Saga!

On July 9 of this year, Proton Holdings Bhd commemorated the Proton Saga's 37th birthday as Malaysia's first automobile. Launched on July 9, 1985, Proton is credited with having been founded by former Malaysian prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

For the record, the Saga name was chosen from 102,823 entries in the "Name the National Car Contest."

"While Saga is taken from the hard red seed of the Saga tree, it was also an acronym for safety, achievement, greatness, and ability," – Proton

The automaker has sold 1.95 million vehicles since 1985, making it the most popular vehicle in Malaysian automotive history. The network formed by the 1.95 million Proton Saga vehicles delivered to date would stretch more than 8,000 kilometres.

Saga has reportedly been exported to a total of 28 nations globally, according to Proton. In 1986, Bangladesh was the first export market, and the United Kingdom came next in 1989.

"The Proton Saga is Proton's most popular export model with over 59,000 units sold," it said. 

Since 1988, The Saga has won more than 22 accolades from various media outlets. Soon after it was introduced, it was involved in motorsports as well. Its most recent achievement was placing second in the 2019 Sepang 1,000 km race, which was also conducted by R3, Proton's racing branch and was won by the Proton Iriz.

The first official car to cross the Penang Bridge was a red Proton Saga. Tun Mahathir was the car's driver.