Proton Australia has launched Australia's lowest priced new car with the arrival of the Proton S16 sedan. The S16 is a practical four-door sedan powered by a 1.6 litre CAMPRO twin cam engine with a full suite of standard equipment including AM/FM/CD audio system, power steering, air conditioning, remote central locking with immobiliser and alarm, driver-side only SRS airbag.

Over in Malaysia, the Proton S16 is known as Proton Saga in their homeground. Instead of 1.6 engine, the Malaysian version only limited to underpowered 1.3 engine. The rest of it is pretty similar. For the Malaysian, the price starts from RM 32,000.00 (approximately at AUD 10,667.00)

Proton Australia positioned the Proton S16 as an exceptional value for money entry level new car in Australia. Furthermore, Proton joined the party with China Automaker with cut-price vehicles to tempt second-hand buyers into budget new cars from China and Malaysia.

With the price of a new small car starting as low as $11,990 drive-away by Proton, some in the industry believe used-car buyers will start buying new it.

Unsure whether is it a good sign. According to the managing director of the Australian arm of budget Malaysian company Proton, John Startari, said the company had been caught short of stock of its cut-price S16 sedan since its launch late last year.

Next year, I am foreseeing the competition at the bottom end of the market is expected to step up a gear as two new Chinese companies, Geely and Chery enters Australian market.

Photo Gallery: Proton S16 (Proton Saga)