I don't understand why people complain so much about Malaysia's national car - Proton. From my experience with Proton, it really isn't a bad car. Of course, it doesn't fly like a Honda (Honda is considered a small luxury in Malaysia) nor does it beam an upper status like a Mercedes. But for the many years that my parents did have a Proton, the car worked like a charm. All we needed was to get from point A to point B and the Proton did just that.
Today, everybody is complaining about how worthless the Proton is. In actuality, it really isn't that bad for its price. I've heard problems with the Proton ranging from its inability to close windows (faulty motor) to the air condition grill (what you move to direct the air towards you) being easily broken. Unfortunately, those problems didn't occur to me so I don't have first hand experience.
I do understand people getting pissed off that some governmental officers are raking in the big bucks from selling AP contracts. Now that, we must put an end to. I don't understand why like 90% of the AP contract money can't be channeled back into the automotive industry. Perhaps use that extra money to create more R&D for Proton? That's just free money for certain vendors that barely, if any, did anything besides kiss peoples asses to achieve that authority in selling APs in the first place.
Proton should still be protected. Because of Proton's inability to be of world class caliber since its inception in 1985 till today, sadly we must still struggle to protect it. However, we should give terms on this protection. For instance, if Proton fails to perform by say 2015, then we open up the market just a little bit (reduce the taxes on foreign cars) by a fixed percentage of how bad Proton has performed. Haha. Now that would be interesting.
5 comments:
i've a friend whose father works at the proton manufacturing plant in shah alam, and even he acknowledges the proton has so many faults.
personally i've liked the wira, which isn't in production any more. and perdana, but that's a bit pricey for something in the same league as a wira.
i'm pretty sure if malaysia opened up the market to allow equal competition between proton and continental cars, proton would go bankrupt. being the cheapskate i am who would buy the proton even if it were 200 ringgit cheaper than a continental car, i think that's pretty unbiased.
the main factors i've heard as to why this is:
1. safety - protons are shit for safety. i'll find the (over-dramaticised) top gear episode where jeremy clarkson smashes some cars up to simulate car crashes, and the proton's driver / passanger spaces are messed up.
2. pricing - protons have a pretty big profit margin considering it's a local car. i need to look this up because all i've got is hearsay :/
3. reliability - like you've mentioned, lots of people i know got rid of their protons because they kept breaking down and malfunctioning. that was a couple of years ago, though, and maybe things have changed.
i dunno, personally i'd rather they open the market bit by bit so there's less of a monopoly. pressure should put proton into gear (or put them out of business if they're full of fail and aids anyway). win for the consumer, win/lose for the local industry (and all its employees). i can understand the government trying to keep these things in check, but when it goes from caution to complacency, it's high time someone did something.
yeah here you go. not that top gear is the best source for this-and-that about cars, but it's respectable enough, and if every comment is so bad, well. :(
you've got a few choices to go for, so have fun:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=top+gear+proton&search_type=&aq=f
Dude, you hit the jackpot with the sentence "...when it goes from caution to complacency". That's how things are in Malaysia. Everyone is too "lepaked". It's like trying to push a mountain to make people work hard these days.
adam
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