Terato.com has posted a series of spyshots of the upcoming Proton MPV, due by March 2009. For more pics, go over to terato.com. Note the different wheels (alloys vs wheel caps) and tire sizes on the two cars. The black car should be a lower priced M-line or Base-line model.
There is another picture of the Proton MPV in undisguised form that is making rounds on the Internet. But Proton has some really ridiculous history of threatening legal actions against a distinguished local journalist who posted a spyshot of their new model. But that was decades ago, I am not sure if the same bunch of PR monkeys are still in Proton today. Anyway, the undisguised Proton MPV photo was posted by somebody else on an imageshack server, here. So don't bother coming after this blogger.As speculated earlier, the MPV is not exactly a clone of the Wish. Spyshots of development mules spotted with a Toyota Wish body are only used for powertrain and component validation purposes only. Proton does however draw inspirations from the product concept of many passenger car based MPVs. Unlike the Wish, Proton's MPV will not feature a sloping roofline which looks good but seriously compromises rear headroom space. Toyota's Wish is a 5+2 seater (which is suitable in developed markets with smaller nuclear family sizes) while Proton's MPV is a bona fide 7 seater (developing markets generally have larger family sizes). The Proton MPV should be based on Proton's modular GX platform (cannot be confirmed at this point of time) which has already spawned models like Waja (Impian in UK), Gen2 and Persona sedan. Any similarities with other car-based MPVs are due to engineering constraints of such type of vehicles and the common market needs. It's not a case of who copies who. By the way, info on 2009 Toyota Wish can be found hereWhen launched in March 2009, the Proton MPV will face-off with local favourites in the Midi MPV segment - Toyota's Avanza (best-selling non-national car in Malaysia) and Nissan's Grand Livina. Protected by the local government's protectionist policies, the Proton MPV will soon have the crown of Malaysia's best selling MPV almost handed to Proton on a silverplate. However, until and only the car achieves commercial success in Indonesia (ASEAN region's largest MPV market), it will be nothing more than another jaguh kampung (village champion) from Proton.