True Account of a Proton Iswara user
Posted by develangel on the Autoworld forums.
I was in a taxi, two days ago, at night. The taxi was from Sunlight with ID No. 12XX (in case you think I fabricated this). The taxi driver was a Indian/Malay man.
We got to talking about the traffic, which route to take and etc. There is a rather annoying sound coming from the car, a whirring and revving sound far louder than normal. I saw that his speedometer is not moving. He proceeded to explain “Hey, sorry ah sir. My car is very noisy. This “eng, eng, eng whrrrr” is very irritating one. The cable for the speedometer lah. It is broken already.” The speedometer cable attached to the car is broken. It is still spinning but the speedo indicator is stationary.
And he went on to say, he drove a cab for 11 years already. Then I asked, “Is Proton a good car?” He replied “Proton is cheap to maintain.” The speedometer cable, is RM10.00 for one, and installation is RM8.00. He asked me, “Do you know how many times I have to change the cable for the last 5 years?” I said I don’t know. He said “10 times!!” Oh my goodness.
He was driving a Toyota Corrola as his taxi before the damn Govt changed its policy and made it compulsory for all cabs to be the national junk. He said, he drove the Corrola for 6 years and he said, he didn’t have to change the cable at all. But, he did it once, because at the end of the 6 years, the cable was a little thin, so he changed it voluntarily. Cost, RM30.00. Then he said “Proton cheap ah? 5 years change 10 times. 10 times RM18.00 is how much already? The Toyota need to change 1 time only! And the cable, not even broken! I change because it is Halus already!” Man, what the ***** is proton doing?
He said that people keep buying protons because most people have no choice. If you look at a normal guy, earning around RM2000.00 a month, he cannot afford a Toyota, Honda when the monthly instalment payment is RM1000.00 per month. He is forced to buy a Proton because the monthly instalment is only RM500.00 or so a month, be it a Wira, Iswara or whatever. If he buys a Toyota, he cannot survive with RM1000.00 per month considering his wife, girlfriend or whatever. He concluded, if he has money, he will NEVER buy a Proton, not even a Gen.2. I just listened.
As I got nearer to my house, he continued to talk about Proton. 5 years ago, 2 weeks after he got delivery of his taxi, Proton Iswara from EON, the gear would not shift into 2nd (manual car). He got bloody pissed and went back to EON SC. The guys there changed his gearbox oil and serviced the gearbox. Gave him a bill for RM50.00. He screwed the ***** at the SC and said “OI! You gilakah? I baru ambil kereta 2 minggu, bukan dalam warranti kah???!!! You bagi bill kepada saya punya boss. I tak akan bayar!” Warranty was for 3 years, apparently does not cover gearbox oil replacement due to gearbox problem caused by manufacturer fault. “I told the people there, give the bill to my boss, I won’t pay! What warranty? All bohong punya. Government bluff people only.”
Well, I got to my house. I paid him some tips and got off.
As you can read, this IS a true account of a real everday malaysian, using a Proton Iswara. A man, making ends meet with his taxi, live or die with his taxi. Makes you wana ditch that piece of shite called Proton and walk right?
Proton owners, anything to say? I am sure your loyalty is undying and completely bomb proof. Kinda silly ain’t it?
September 29, 2004 @ 3:18 pm
yeah, that uncle taxi was right on Proton.
if you can afford, just take honda or toyota. though the one time service is kinda expensive, but least, it’s realiable
just my 2 cent
peace!
February 2, 2005 @ 7:28 am
Yeah we all know how Proton’s like. Anyways like you guys said, when there’s enough money don’t buy Proton.
Seen the way they treat customer’s cars in EON in Glen Marie, saw two mechanics taking it for a spin and almost had a head on collision. I’m like “WTF?!?!” The manager had the nerve to say it’s normal!!
March 24, 2005 @ 2:30 pm
We all should burn down both the proton factories in Tangjung Malim & Shah Alam as well. I just can’t see the Mahaleel keparat face. A face that you want to slap right away.
May 11, 2005 @ 1:02 pm
hahahahaahahah..
oh proton 20 years already past….. quality zerooo.
Proton cars…the quality is cheaper than its price…..
May 16, 2005 @ 11:47 pm
I drive a proton wira myself. 2 years down the road, all sorts of farking sound is coming out from the engine. And it’s getting louder everyday. Would definitely sell off and get an imported brand in a year or so. Proton……. you damn loosers lah. Sponsoring Norwich city konon.
May 26, 2005 @ 3:21 pm
yeah!i fully agree of what the taxi driver said and all the comments posted by all fellows frens. I just bought a satria special edition 1.3M, the first day i took the car from the show room, very unlucky i found that the car audio cant function properly, and some more my car steering senget a bit (camber problem kua….or may b alignment).i asked the eon sales person about the audio problem, do u know wat the F**King sales representative told me?he asked me to change the audio system at the normal accesorries shop as he said:”just change the thing lar, if u want the good quality one, just buy imported car lah!” what the f**K!how dare he talked like this to customer, especially those local made car supporter like me!!! in addition, talking about my steering, that f**king sales man asked me to go to eon sc to fix it.just imagine that how u r gonna to drive a new car where the steering is senget one!!!!f**k!!the worst thing is, when i drove my car to eon sc, they help me to fix it, but they charged me for RM100 for camber adjustment!!!in my opinion, dont care eon or proton edar, all the same!!low quality in service, low efficiency, but high price!!!!what i want to summarize here is that i am deeply disapointed with malaysia local made car dealer/ sc, malaysia boleh?konon!!! f**k!!!
June 13, 2005 @ 2:36 am
i 200% agree with all of above, proton car and perodua very low quality my brother last time want to buy kancil but the salesman is very good one (bcause he is myfather good friend) told we wait for 3rd or 4th bacth, you know mah when new car buy a new one 24hr masuk kilang balik…
same thing when change to V6 must wait for later bacth but still have little problem.
August 24, 2005 @ 12:08 pm
Came out of the Seremban Commuter Train. Got into an Iswara Teksi. The taxi driver said, this is a good car, very robust, good space, large booth. I have used it for a year and has travel to as far as Johor Bahru and Kedah (now almost 90,000 km). No problems at all. The price of Iswara is cheaper for teksi owners to buy. This is my own car. Moral side of story… sometimes you get bad apple. I told the teksi driver I use to own an Iswara for 7 years… trouble free… only change engine oil and filter…. not even the gear oil.
October 6, 2005 @ 12:49 pm
I have owned 3 Proton cars consecutively over a period of twenty years, surprisingly the one that gave the least problem was the 1st one, that was a proton saga 1.3S, as Proton grows into adulthood (20 yr old) the quality gets worse..
My last Proton car was an Iswara 1.3 Aeroback full Spec. 2004 model. I just sold it off cheap (losing RM 12K) one week ago, the reason ? I cannot stand it anymore !!! because I have to send the car back to Proton Edar for fixing defective part many times .. lost count how many times already.
Among the problems:
Squeeking noise
Plastic trimming dropped off
Dash board vibrating when idle.
Power windows died
Air con switch died
Hand brake lever died.
Battery Died
Alternator died
To rub salt into injury, the Mechanics at the Proton Edar service center said to me “BIASA LAH INI PROTON !!”
Each time I sent my car bak to Proton Edar to fix the problem, they said “Sekarang tak ada spare part lah, ini kena order” and I have to send the car back a few days later to fix the problem.
I do not know about the quality of other Proton models, to those of you who is interested in Proton Iswara, BEWARE !!! You buy at the risk of having mental torture of having to deal with the stupid problems.
//seebau
October 12, 2005 @ 4:04 pm
I own a wira 1.5 auto year 2002. It is my first proton. So far no problem. Maybe it is just luck.
November 24, 2005 @ 6:30 pm
I drive a 13 year old Proton Saga… extremely reliable, never had any sort of problems… except for the alarm system, so we disabled it… maybe my usage is very low compared to City Taxi.
January 6, 2006 @ 9:19 am
I just bought Savvy 2 months ago.Recently the air-cond is not functioning. Dont tell me a new car can give aircond problem.I think proton have to improve, then only we can say ‘malaysia boleh’.Sorry for malaysia cars
January 7, 2006 @ 5:12 am
i,ve being driving iswara 1.3 manual for 6 years now.it’s O.K. low fuel consumption and low price spareparts( don,t go to proton servicelah).
Happy driving..bye
February 13, 2006 @ 5:01 pm
Find some of your comments rather amusing. I’ve been driving a 20-year-old Proton Saga 1.5 for almost two years now. I detest the car at first coz’ it is a manual car and does not have power steering but gradually learns to love it. It’s beginning to give me problems and everyone is asking me to sell it. I wanted to but I find the current Proton models rather unsightly. Someone mentioned earlier that without enough dough, one would be forced to get a locally made car. Unfortunately, I fall in the same category. Any suggestions on what car to buy?
May 27, 2006 @ 10:01 pm
Saya pernah bawa teksi Iswara. Memang speedometer nya senang putus sebab cable speedometer kereta Iswara ini tak tahan kalau kita reverse jauh2 sikit. Setiap kali saya hantar passenger yang rumahnya terletak dalam lorong yang agak sempit, saya kena reverse keluar balik, masa tu lah cable nya akan putus. Percaya tak, saya pernah ganti 3 cable dalam masa 2 minggu. Mula2 suruh mekanik, lama2 saya pandai buat sendiri.
July 13, 2006 @ 9:10 am
Bad apple? It’s a by-product of poor quality control. Period.
August 14, 2006 @ 6:30 am
I bought my Iswara Aeroback in April 1997, full speck 38K. Very low maintenance …. less than RM100 for normal service (lubrican shell helix, oil filter, air filter, spark plug, transmission oil). Spare parts easy to find engine very reliable, just follow service mantenance handbook. The alarm still work, but the power window out of order, wireing problem. Squeek noise from back seat can be eliminate using loy tape, just wrap the metal lock 2 or 3 times. Up hill pick-up not so good untill I install SURBO… well it cost me RM170 for extra RPM. Maybe it is just luck.
June 18, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
Proton????? what a pity, malaysian including me have to put up with a very poor quality cars. Now only they start to panic as they are losing more and more every year. they should have think about improving their product years ago. I’m as a malaysian is very disappointed and ashamed of Proton. People just get smarter and start to realise the price of buying cheap car like proton (not so cheap actually compare to the quality) and maintaining such a s**t car is the same of buying imported car. the government keep on capaining for us to buy malaysian product, jow can we support such low quality product. improve the quality and lower the price, and i believe malaysian will start supporting our product.
June 29, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
haiz to make a cheap and good quality car is not easy dont just simply say.you know research cost more then 500million then not all people pay the car monthly installment imagine the losest there.you think japanese make car is cheaper at japan you are truely wrong you want to know i suggest go read a book about buisness.
July 2, 2008 @ 10:10 pm
Actually the matter is not coming from the proton manufacturing, its coming from the vendor. If vendor supply a good quality parts, then matter will not be happen, so dont blame proton b4 u know the situation..
August 11, 2008 @ 1:35 pm
Develangle is talking about a TAXI and is using ONE taxi to make a generalised statement. Not vey good for statisticians.They are high milage and badly maintained, especially if the taxi is rented. The driver don’t care about the condition, as long as it is running he will use it for 10 hours or so and return the taxi. To be fair there are also many Saga taxi which is well maintained and in good condition.
April 2, 2009 @ 7:18 pm
my last Iswara engine last month, used for years from 1993 to 2009….now i used cyclone 12 valve engine (beli at kedai potong)
whatever is old engine much better than now cos the originality.
June 2, 2009 @ 3:40 pm
If vendor is not good,why Proton not search the other vendor?
June 6, 2009 @ 4:55 am
I drive a gen 2 in uk no problems at all cheap to run other people with Ford or German cars have more problems. Know of a taxi driver who had a Wira and did over 250,000miles no major probs. Under-rated I think.
June 11, 2009 @ 3:44 pm
saya baru buy proton iswara 1.3 dlam julai 2008 yang lalu..
2nd laa..dpt murah..engine bagus..senyap je..tapi dalam senyap 2,3 bulan lepas tu kipas aircond wat hal..rosak terus, kesan sini cari part kat kadai potong..nasib ada..kena pasang sendiri plaktu..mmm..pastu smpai skrg okla..xdepe masalh lg..xtau plak lpsni..satu je lagi maslah..knp minyak kuat? mmm..asik tuang minyak je keje..ape problem ek?
June 13, 2009 @ 12:57 pm
Just watch 5th gear 08JUN2009 episode, they review the Proton 1.5SE triplevalve, (Its Proton Saga 1.5I Megavalve here) and the presenter likes it. Maybe this blig host could place a link to that video?
June 14, 2009 @ 10:50 am
i’m driving proton iswara model 1993, bought 2nd hand.
on 2009 i do newly paint, change engine, new rims….now just do maintain some little problem…so far this car is good for….easy to handle. not much major problem…but cost i spend for this car in year 11 Jan 2008 to 11 Jun 2009 its RM8832.40 sen….wow!!!
June 26, 2009 @ 8:07 am
renegade said,
June 2, 2009 @ 3:40 pm
If vendor is not good,why Proton not search the other vendor?
———————–
we all know proton is forced to use these low quality vendors. syed zainal is having a hard time trying to reduce this. if only he has full authority to reject them.
July 23, 2009 @ 10:03 am
saya ada iswara 1.5 model tahun 1993(2nd),so far minyak jimat ,gearbox ok,tp power window pandai buat hal,meter minyak kadang ok kadang tidak,pintu driver dari dalam rosak…engin ok(engin mitsubishi),tp dalaman 2 tidak…sory proton bukan saya tak support tp mcmna..kualiti tak ada kalo ada niat nak beli kereta lain kali?i prefer buy import,tak kisah la 1st ka 2nd..janji berkualiti