Proton: a love story

 

Most of us would have owned a Proton car at some point.

And we would invariably have our own set of complaints about the car.

I had one, too, complete with all the glitches. It was as if the car came with the bugs thrown in as a free accessory.

I bought my Wira brand new in Kuching. The day after I drove the car out of the showroom, I heard a low scratchy sound coming from somewhere in the undercarriage.

I called the sales agent to complain and was directed to a Proton service centre.

The mechanics acknowledged that there was a problem but just could not tell where it was, so whatever was making that noise eventually became a constant companion on the road.

It must have been a year later when I realised that I had not heard it for a while. Perhaps my buddy had hopped into a newer Proton.

My problem must have seemed small compared with those that others had.

Proton was notorious for its power window … more specifically its failure to work every time it started to rain and you had to wind up quickly.

It was the standing joke for many years. Even a former CEO of the automaker once made a crack about it.

The first Proton Saga rolled off the assembly line on July 9, 1985.

It was the culmination of six years of research initiated by Dr Mahathir Mohamad to determine the feasibility of producing a Malaysian car.

At that time when he made the proposal, he was still serving as deputy prime minister and trade and industry minister.

It was also around the same time when the North-South Expressway project was conceived and construction began.

Many had wondered then if one of the two projects was to justify the other.

Perhaps the idea was that since we were going to build this massive highway, we needed more cars.

Or was it because we needed a highway since we were going to be making all these cheap cars?

At RM17,575 for the 1.3L model and RM19,000 for the 1.5L, it was a steal compared with the foreign marques. For the record, the first Sagas were essentially Mitsubishi Lancers with minor alterations and slapped with a Proton logo.

At that price, it also meant that Proton was losing thousands of ringgit (one estimate put it as nearly RM20,000) for every car sold.

At the corporate level, Proton’s performance had been anything but impressive.

Years of losses led to attempts to find a foreign partner. At one time, Germany’s Volksvagen was all set to take a stake and share its technology but the deal was scuttled at the highest level.

Earlier, a short affair with the French led to the birth of the Tiara. Well, given that it was essentially a Citroën AX by another name it was more like an adoption.

This was also the first Proton car that was not based on Japanese design or technology.

The fact that nothing more came from the French after the Tiara saga says a lot about the lack of compatibility in the partnership between the two carmakers.

Perodua, Malaysia’s second car manufacturer, has done better. It was launched in 1993 and has outsold Proton every year since 2005.

Perhaps it has benefited, or learned, from the errors of Proton.

To give it credit, Proton is doing a lot better now thanks in no small part to China’s Geely, which bought a 49.9% stake in the Malaysian carmaker in 2017.

Its new models have gained wide popularity in the market … the X70 and X50 are a common sight on Malaysian roads.

Just last month, Proton introduced the e.MAS, the branding for its electric vehicles project. e.MAS is the acronym for “Electrifying Malaysia”.

Will we be dazzled or shocked? We will know soon enough. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT