Thinks about this. If proton is not supported by the "hefty taxes on foreign cars", you think their "sales volume, high share price, blue chip status, etc etc" can be sustained?

I worked in Aussie, UK, US, Norway before. And owned cars in Aussie and US.

In aussie, Honda Jazz cost about the same as Proton Savvy.

It is cheaper than Gen2.

In aussie, Honda Civic cost only about RM 60k. ( AUD20,000 )

And we haven`t started comparing per-capita earnings vs car prices mate!!

Malaysia per capita earning is around USD 8k per year, with cheapest affordable safe car prices in USD 15k range. ( > 1 year annual salary )

Aussie per capita earning is around AUD 60k per year, with cheapest affordable safe car prices in the AUD 15k range. ( 1/4 annual salary )

Please note i mentioned safe. Safe here means with airbags, and ABS plus should i say, reasonable quality construction. Hence Kancil, Myvi, Iswara, Saga is out of the discussion. I`m not comparing with german luxury marque, just your usual everyday car made by different car companies.

Unless someone want to tell us Malaysians that Malaysians don`t deserve safe and reasonably constructed cars just to be patriotic and to support our national car brand.

Anyone want to make that statement?

I love my country very much. I wish Proton can improve their quality to make my country proud. Unfortunately at this stage, Proton is a laughing stock in the international arena sad to say. That wasn`t a sweeping statement. Spend some time shopping for cars overseas, and you will know.

November 12, 2005 @ 2:52 pm

Who would wants to buy a Lotus, which is associated with failure (Proton).

=========================================

FAilure of what?… their car still have high sales volume (in Msia ahakss),

engine's working, Cos making profits,, share price r high Blue chip somemore.. FOREIGN Cos trying over to buy over…got to built its own Gen2 n Savvy.

Failure is the car is not accepted,, share prices RM1 n still going down, Losses big time, no developement.

Failure?????

So the former head of PROTON also wanted to kia-su la…

Tengku Mahaleel: PROTON is HIS bread and butter, Lotus is their niche and HIS claim to fame, and MV Augusta is HIS motorbike division.

So when the sworn enemy has something. I must have also lor…

Nuff said…

I wonder why, if the entire idea of purchasing Lotus was to tap their resources, isn't Proton making full use of their expertise? I mean, Lotus engineers can virtually design a complete range of cars for Proton in a snap. And call it Lotus Design for real! And people will believe it. Instead of the Savvy, we could have had beautiful cars coming out from Proton all these years. Can you imagine, cars that look great, handled well and with lasting qualities. I saw a 12 year old Esprit the other day and it still looked great.

We could have had all that and more but instead, we still get the Wira, Waja, Gen.2 and now, Savvy. I really wanted a Lotus but if it looks like the Savvy, then forget it.

http://www.grouplotus.com/mediactr/pr_download.ph… as of 20th dec 2004 20,000 elise roll off production line.

We’re talking about the new esprit here…the new one is scheduled for S.O.P in 2008. Damn nice car.

UNQUOTE

Hey speed junkie…. shh… no leaking of P&C info

I think NONE of the AUTOMAKER in the world will GUARANTEE 3 years POWER wdo for you. Why?? Simple only, how can you guarantee back to POTONG you will not PLAY-PLAY on the system. I means Damage it with purpose.

I guess even BMW and Merz also cannot give you such kind of GUARANTEE. They can only give you a WARRANTY with CONDITIONs.

As far as I know in Auto design, JUST AN EXAMPLE (SHOUT very loud so that someone can not ARGUE it): Power wdo spec (Japanese spec) is about 15k to 20k cycles (Up and down is consider 1 cycle) which means if you use it 5 cycles/times a day means 1 year (365 days) is 1825 cycles so you can use it until 8.22 years in Theory.

So if you use it 20 cycles a day = Only last for 2 years!! (This calculation is based on estimation of daily usage but NOT consider Humidity and Temperature change and human Factors)

So, How often you use it??? 30cycles per day??? Calculate it by Yourself first before asking POTONG to warrantee your WAJA Okay?

YAU MOU GAU….CHOR!!! (* with Evil smile and Gangster shout*)

*if Proton can guarantee me 3 years usage of the power windows(defect free) I will go book a Waja immediately in 24 hours :p:p

*evil smile*

are there proton in taiwan? i can't search any info on the net.

only in africa, uk, turky, au, sg that known to me.

anyway, i support proton. with or without lotus.

tata build better cars .tata is great

the world will be real great without PROTON!

everyone will be cheered!

Yeah! hurrah!! BRAVO! Omedetou gozaimasu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why??

First, the car components are not 100% made in Malaysia and maybe less than 1% I guess. (could be only tyres and glasses he…he..he )

Second, most of the Lotus cars are not selling well in Malaysia or Asean. (the sales volume is rather small compare to Europe or North America, no points) Although the original plan is target in Malaysia. Some ppl thought …By assemble it in Malaysia it can bring down the car price (only tax not components cost) and also POTONG wish to try to test the new markets……but since the car was selling around RM200k and above, sales is rather bad. I would said it is not highly demanded by Malaysian or even in Asean on such kinds of small size sports car. Most ppl still prefer to buy Merz or BMW instead….theThird world mentality larger is always better…..apparently Merz or BMW is more confortable drive….luxury feels too. I had drove Lotus Elise before…..fun car but too noisy and you can't hear your CD.

Third, Transporting is the BIGGEST problem I believed. Transfering the cars from Asia back to Europe and the USA is already Damn expensive nowadays. Don't forget the High Oil price can KILL many Auto maker now. POTONG really lost the competitive if they keep on shipping the car from one Point to another recently.

I think in any cases, business is business. Company should find the best alternative to make PROFIT. Change of plant location is normal rights??

Lotus company is a none profitable compay since before and after POTONG bought it over. If LOTUS is Money printing machine do you think POTONG had chance to buy it, I think no even to touch it!!

YAU MOU GAU….CHOR!!!

Anyway, Good luck to POTONG!! I love LOTUS and POTONG too!!! please don't Berpisah!! Find a good solution first before say GOOD BYE!!

He say his boss in the talks with Proton now… also mentioned something like very tempting to put the pink lotus logo as the new Lotus car badge!

MOU KAU CHOR!

Wonder How the Proton Ultima will be like? (The name sound cheezy though)

QA is a very complexed thing but i really don't understand why it cannot be achieved with proper discipline.

And then suddenly they can manage it better than Proton and all of us will be driving a Lotus Malaysian made car at cheaper price than a Gen2! w00t!

Mamak, teh Lotus special lagi satu! :p