Tengku Mahaleel Critics Government Auto Policies

Jeff Ooi blogs Proton CEO Tengku Mahaleel’s criticisms and opinions on the national autombile industry as he was interviewed by Oriental Daily News today.

An interesting read. He bashes other national car makers like Inokom and Naza not helping the economy by not having any exports, thus only causing money to flow out of the country and not bringing any in and even suggests that the government should revoke their licenses for not complying with conditions to export vehicles.

Something interesting…

He says Malaysia is now moving towards an “automobile assembly” direction, which differs entirely from automobile manufacturing.

“Automobile assembly means you just need screw drivers, you don’t need die and mould and engine factory,” he says.

“If the government only needs the automobile assemblers, we can then grab a Mitsubishi car, fix it with a Proton emblem and say: ‘Nah, this a Proton car’,” says Tengku Mahaleel.

Okay, I don’t blame Proton for still slapping Proton badges on the Perdana, Iswara and Satria because they do not have replacements yet. But isn’t that what Proton is doing with the Wira is now? The Gen2 was supposed to be the Wira Replacement Model but instead it was slotted between the Wira and the Waja.

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Paul Tan

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

Comments

  • jonahdiary on Jun 28, 2005 at 2:46 am

    the world is not fair. idiot also can be king.

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  • bangau on Jun 28, 2005 at 6:51 am

    Well, the Wira is still selling. So why stop? basic economy, if there is demand, there'll better be supply.

    So Wira is an old car? Go to South Africa and VW ZA is still producing the rabbit. So, apa cerita?

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  • akari on Jun 28, 2005 at 9:51 am

    "Nah, this a Proton car" Savvy tell them what civilian needs, not what government need

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  • bangau: i'm merely comparing with what maheleel said… i'm not saying it's wrong to continue producing the wira :)

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  • akari on Jun 28, 2005 at 11:07 am

    continue producing the wira is no wrong, but atleast upgrade some of it ok? not by changing bumper, change rim or add/remove it's spoiler of aeroback ma, right?

    i rather they do what Mahaleel said and tell us "Nah, this is Proton car" insted of now what they did and tell us "Nah, this is Lotus car", shame you.

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  • Sometimes, I think, we had make a mistake by having a national car. Due to that, others can price were raised just to save guard our car. At the end of the day, we still use 10 years back car technology wherease we can afford to own modern and lates car. If I'm not mistake, (I read it somewhere but dont know where). Thailand have open their country for all car manufacturer e.g toyota, honda, GM. Every year they export 250000 unit of cars worldwide. Our national car, we only export 45000 car a year. So, which way can generate more income and work to their citizens?

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  • sekot on Jun 29, 2005 at 7:14 am

    Regarding on the wira issue, i guess most malaysian doesnt know that proton's contract with mitsu only allow them to change the bumper and headlamp/rr combi lamp. Blame the contract, i guess. And juara contract too

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  • bangau on Jul 01, 2005 at 5:08 am

    Wonder where are the Proton haters in this thread. What he says is true and it might swing back to him. true enough, they are having a board meeting to discuss his fate.

    Lotus? Well, they own it, might as well use it. If you have driven the elise, or any other Lotus, you know that Lotus cars are all about handling, the quality craps, in fact worse than proton cars.

    Unfortunately we still have malaysians who think all mat saleh things are better. Pathetic.

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  • maestro on Jul 01, 2005 at 6:38 pm

    bangau.. i think your right… first we think proton is shit… then we go overseas to get our education…. we see the citizens of other countries suporting their national cars like it was their own ugly kid… then we realize… we malaysians just love to bitch scream and punch, while the boat is sinking…

    we come back… and we change and we support the national car.. but sadly… some wankers still continue bitching… look at holdens… they make some of the shittiest cars… but aussies love it to death… they like it so much, i'm a convert too now.. i love the monaro…

    funny thing though, its usually the Aussie born ethnic asians or asian imigrants that bithc about holdens (national car of australia)… maybe its the asian attitude… bitching all the time…

    so please… … proton is not a BMW… but it doesn't cost 250k++ for a 2.0ltr car… and the bmw 3 series, which is seen by bmw itself as sadly, the i-just-barely-made-it-but-eating-maggi-mee-everyday car.. malaysians are still bending over backwards to buy it… its a rip off… tax or no tax structure.. its a freaking rip off….

    a car manufacturer like that is thumbing its nose at the general public with that snob attitude.. and its still selling.. its a concept only half assed like proton critics would comprehend…

    but hey… if we can't afford it… then we buy proton, because its affordable…

    so lets not be such retards and shoot at proton for giving us an option of not having to take the bus to Penang,.. johor for that long raya holiday… or the long chinese new year holiday .. with our kids and missus and the lot…

    its affordable.. so dont bitch.. the day proton start selling their cars at 250k… then it deserves to be shot down…

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  • kazanah malaysia n our Malaysians vision is spoil by this all crab people who still there!, who don't even know how to do a business!. there only know how to play our TEX money n give a subsidy to a foreigner when there export our car to other country is like Malaysians people r wipe other people butt. there r not in a standard to improve our proton car even R&D to improve anything about proton. my b our proton car test crash on a cat that cross road. that always a same old thing that Malaysians people eat used a Hand is like proton that never change!. is a fake that can see. stupid but dont like people to say there r stupit!but still do a all same stupid thing!

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  • December on Jul 12, 2005 at 11:44 pm

    Proton design their own cars, oh well, cars like Savvy, i suppose they hired a few guys who were working on amphibian cross hybrid technology of some sort, operation and research went wrong and tadaa, here we have our very own toad looking Savvy, i was dumbstrucked when i saw this car near the proton plan in shah alam as i was driving to work on one fine morning, i saw this toad on the road, and i was like WTF, this is it? what an ogre looking mofo,

    my comments above might sound shallow, but then, look inwards, malaysia is good with designs, logo designs for instance, we are one of the best in the world, but why cant they design a good looking car for once? Juara looks like geometricalized version of Dr M, look closely u can see him smiling, that was a major disappointment, my dad uses a 3 year old Proton Wira, he changed the door lever/handle/watsoeverucallit twice, power window controllers and eloctronic boards, twice as well, alarm works when it has the mood, climate dependent i suppose, engine sound…sad to say its noisy and yes my dad maintains the car like his wife..hmm like my mom. The speed meters arent working, the RPM on idle points at 4..yeah 4..wtf!, fuel metres…i will cry is i say more, power steering, proton has a new meaning to it, 'YOU NEED POWER TO STEER' hence there you have power steering, and coming to my car, i drive a 1992 Ford Telstar 1.8, a 13 years old car, my all 4 power windows works perfectly, speed metres..lights are dull, but hey its working,, car is smoother than Wira, and top speed i can kick any standard wira's ass anywhere, you may say its 1.8 but then, think..its 13 years old…something have to be done to this auto industry in malaysia, now sawi, kang kungs next? all cars are as soft as vegetables, they are probably signifying the agricultiral industry in malaysia once upon a time, given a choice or not, i will never buy a proton.

    not now, not ever.

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  • Monaro on Dec 08, 2005 at 7:57 am

    Maestro, if you are not smart please don't pretend to be smart. Holden used to manufcture shittest car in Oz but after the take over of GM (USA) they start to manufacturer quality cars. Now Holden cars are very high quality, the quality is even better than some of the toyota's car. The price of BMW is 250k++ is because of the protection policy that make the majority malaysian (like you) unaffordable and ONLY affordable on shit proton cars.

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