Indonesian dream part 1:Maleo

An Ambitous Indonesian project that got canceled

2y ago
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Back in the 90s,One of the golden era of Indonesia,The Indonesian goverment made so many strategical program. One of which is the National Car program. In 1995,The Maleo program was started. At first,Maleo.Just like most of the car manufacturer,Started their business by rebadging cars. The car that was choosen by Maleo to get rebadged is the Rover 100 because at that moment,Rover was in a worse condition

The only Maleo Hatchback that survives. Credit:@mroscarmay (Instagram)

The only Maleo Hatchback that survives. Credit:@mroscarmay (Instagram)

But eventually,The plan got replaced by another car. They made a sedan concept that has the same dimension as the Kia Rio. The body design is as similar the Dodge Neon,The interior design is quite similar to the Hyundai Accent,And it would be in the same class as the Suzuki Esteem and Daihatsu Classy. The car was designed in Australia. At first,It was planned to use the 1.2L 3 Cylinder 2 stroke engine that was developed by Orbital Australia. But canceled because the engine isn’t compatible for daily usage. So it uses an unknown 4 Cylinder engine.

There was 5 planned trims of Maleo Sedan. The highest trim has Body Colored Bumpers,Audio System,Cloth Seat Material,Alloy Wheels,And Two Tone Dashboard. While the lowest trim will be used as taxi

Untortunately,The Maleo program got failed because Timor has already completed earlier (Even though the Maleo program got started earlier). The Indonesian goverment got more interested in Timor program. And when the Timor has already won the contract with the Indonesian goverment and started to get produced,The Maleo program got stopped and has no chance on beating Timor

The one of the only two Maleo sedan that survives. The another one is in the USA and the rest of 3 prototype got scrapped

The one of the only two Maleo sedan that survives. The another one is in the USA and the rest of 3 prototype got scrapped

After the Maleo program got canceled,A Russian business man bought the Maleo program and planned to continue the Maleo program. But eventually also got canceled. Now,Only 2 Maleo Sedans that survives. 1 Belongs to the Russia,1 Belongs to the American (Probably Peterson because the love weird cars),And the rest of the prototypes (3 From 5) got scrapped. There's also a Maleo Hatchback prototype that survives

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Comments (1)

  • Which car is which variant in the video? I'd like a color coded answer eg : Yellow- taxi, Purple- base etc.

      8 months ago
1