The Proton Waja [en.wikipedia.org] is a saloon car [en.wikipedia.org] manufactured by Malaysian [en.wikipedia.org] automotive company, Proton [en.wikipedia.org], first released in August 2000.

The name Waja , which means (strong as) steel in Malay [en.wikipedia.org] has both physical and abstract connotations. In the United Kingdom [en.wikipedia.org], it was sold as the Proton Impian , in which Impian was another derivative of the Malay language, meaning dream.

The Proton Waja is the first model designed in house by Proton [en.wikipedia.org]. However, the Waja's chassis was based on the first generation (1995–2004) Mitsubishi Carisma [en.wikipedia.org] models. The development of the Waja began at the end of the 1999, together with the Campro engine [en.wikipedia.org], however, the development of the Campro engine was still in progress at the time of its launch, and therefore Proton had to outsource various engines for the Waja between 2000 and 2006 such as the 4G18 engine for the Waja from Mitsubishi.

More than 292,556 Proton Wajas have been sold between 2000 and 2012, and of which, the variants powered by the 1.6 litre Mitsubishi 4G18 [en.wikipedia.org] engine made up for the bulk of total sales, followed by the 1.6 litre Proton CamPro S4PH / CPS [en.wikipedia.org] and lastly, the 1.8 litre Renault F4P [en.wikipedia.org].