Confirmed! Proton, not Honda, is official car

Deputy Finance Minister confirms FMT's report that Proton will continue to deliver the government's official fleet. Official announcement will be made soon.

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan today confirmed that the government has ditched Honda Accord in favour of Proton as its official vehicles.

“The relevant ministry would make an announcement on this soon, we just wait and see.

“Maybe (Minister in the Prime Minister Department) Abdul Wahid Omar will take on this, but whatever said was true,” he said in replying to a question if the government has reverted to continue using Proton.

Ahmad however declined to answer when asked if the decision was made due to intense lobbying from Proton.

FMT on Sept 17 carried an exclusive article stating that the government has made a last-minute U-turn to allow the national carmaker to continue supplying official vehicles to the federal government.

Honda was initially picked following Proton’s inability to come up with a model to replace the out-of-production Proton Perdana Executive series.

Letters to that effect had also been sent out to all government agencies and ministers. In fact, Honda has been notified of the immediate purchase of 350 Accords – the 2013 models which were launched early this month.

However on Sept 9, Proton managed to convince Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to change his stance at a meeting between the firm’s senior officials and the National Economic Advisory Council.

According to the people-in-the-know, Proton informed the economic council and Najib that it was ready with a new model which could be used for the official government fleet, and that the delivery could be made as early as next January.

Industry sources doubted that Proton, which has failed to introduce a proper replacement model for the Perdana series in the past, would keep its promise to deliver a new model by next January.

Proton could not be reached for comment.