Step Up...

Assalamu'alaikum! Alhamdulillah I have two perfect hands!..

Let's talk about cars. With all the hype about getting rid of import duty for international cars, Proton really needs to up their game.

Even with the duty doubling, if not, tripling the price of imported cars, people are still willing to pay for cars that are not Proton.

I think it pretty obvious from my perspective that Proton is just hanging by a thread. Their not really bringing anything new. Toys like rain sensor, automatic headlamps activation, or built-in GPS are nothing impressive. I have GPS in my Nokia and I'm well aware when it's night time or raining. I don't know who would fall for such cheap advert tricks. What kind of innovation has Proton brought in their new car? Underneath all that tech is still old metal found in a car like my old Ford Laser.

I've heard people comparing the price of a Proton with a Volkswagen, and concluded that Proton is way better value for money because the Proton offers leather seats, nice tech like the GPS, rain detector, night detector while  Volkswagen doesn't. I'm afraid you are mistaken. Despite the import duty, for the  Volkswagen , you are paying for the engineering, the reliability of the assembly, safety features, the electronic stability control, even the software that programs the stability control. Would you pass all that for some lousy cheap GPS system on poorly assembled pieces of metal?

I'm not anti-Proton, no. I would really like to see Proton match brands like Honda, Toyota, Ford, Fiat, Mazda and so on. However, I'd like to them to compete on fair terms. If abolishing import duty will jeopardize Proton's sales, than it's time to step the game. Really get in the race. Don't sell well because of price, but sell well because your really that good. Typically Malaysians will say, 'Oh no, we need to defend our national car at all cost!'. That's why Proton hasn't really grown.