An audit has revealed there may be traces of bribery between Proton and the media when it comes to reviewing Proton cars.
Apparently Proton had been very generous with the time spans it allows a journalist to keep the review car, and had handed out more than 70 cars so far – with 30 allocated to the media.
There has been cases where NSTP motoring journalists have been assigned Gen.2 and Savvy cars and were told to keep it for an unlimited period. They were told to report back on any problems over long-term use. To me, this sounds like a plausible reason. I frankly do not know what the fuss is about.
The normal review period for a car is usually between 3 days to a week. The Gen2 was returned after 8 months, and the Savvy after 2 months.
Investigations are still underway.
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This issue had been reported on my blog too!! Paul, you are little bit late!!
YAU MOU GAU….CHOR!!! CheerS!
JIA LAT LORR..!!
no wonder we have been reading review of cars, and proton car always very very good. And always no problem with the car.
THEN we always complain the car's quality no good but no media will followup.
NOW I have dough when I read Paul's review on Proton cars, I wonder SRM, PRM and Lotus car….. are Paul's review just to mislead us to wait for what that will NEVER arrive ?? or arrive very very VERY late, ?? or was NOT as good as compared to what was written ??
:D :)
Long term reviews are not uncommon in the UK and US (Autocar, Road Track, etc). Bribes are, well, very common here in KL for an assortment of sectors/ industries. Are motoring journalists above such practices? I dont know but what i do know is no one's paid like a Jeremy Clarkson here… so it wouldnt surprise me if $$$ talks.
Anyway, it s sad because its precisely the sort of 'start' that journalism cannot afford. You should be built on integrity, and would then stand to be rewarded in the future. I do hope that the report comes out negative in every sense (and not just the non-disclosure, covered by another bribe type things)
t
Chris Yap the automotive journalist had respond to this matter in the Berita Harian, readers column.
Perhaps a report from the journalist who use and trash the vehicle for a 3 to 5 months is much more credible than only one day track usage or 2 days driving to East and West Coast. A reader want to know more about the personal experience of the journalist and sometime their review can influence the reader to buy a car.
However the problem is that they are no guidelines or benchmark that states how many days or months appropriate enough to know and feel of the cars.
So with a clear guidance and rules, this will not be an issue and should not hinder the reader to read the latest review of the car in automags.
Long-term review is not uncommon.
Long term tests are not uncommon.
But we as a general public should also take any review with a grain of salt.
Do you really think that Proton assignes the SAME "off the production line" car as the ones we buy off the showroom floor? Pretty much unlikely. If I were plotong, I would do the same thing. Those review models would probably be through a fine tooth comb to make sure they are as perfect as possible.
I would give Auto Journalist the benefit of a doubt.
Although we are all aware how much "kopi money" gets you around these days…
I would prefer blogs like these/user groups than any review because of the larger sampling size. Anyone who has dont any statistical work will be able to tell you just how important a large sample size it.
I'm just wondering, while long-term reviews are not uncommon, when was the ladt time you read a long-term review in the papers? I wasn't even aware our local journalists was doing long-term testing. I mean, if they were, why only Proton cars and not Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc.?
And why the big knee-jerk reaction till it is front-paged in the newspapers if it was a common practice? I think in this case, while the excuse was that it was meant for long-term, they weren't actually planning to do any long-term reviews because we all know Proton cars can't stand the test of time (months instead of years) and it was meant for the journalists to have a "free" ride instead.
That's why it was placed in such a bad light.
i have never trusted or believed any of the reviews of proton cars in any of the automotive magazines or newspaper articles..as i have read a few and have found that proton cars are perfect in thier perspective…no flaws…and they drive and feel just as good as thier competitors…all useless junk…
if u want to read reviews..read the british magazines who have reviewed the import version of savvy, gen2 and waja..then u really know the real proton..
the right way to car journalism is to find the "good" and the "bad" about a car…compare it to other cars in the same class and price range…something what jeremy clarkson does..
jeremy clarkson who???? a TV show joker??? wtf…..your idol? hahahahahaha…..
Mebbe it does take some time for extended reviews. Don't think it is a blatant bribe for keeping the car. I think the proper bribes would easily involve hard cash.
One thing for sure, the quality control in proton is quite poor. If you're really lucky, you get a great car.. If you just having neutral luck, probably get a car with something wrong. One good thing is that cars can be fixed. But if something crucial goes wrong and one ends up in trouble, feel free to sue proton, cuz thats the only way they will improve.
Has proton been sued before?
ha ha ha
when that journalist sit on sawi… on the front dash board there is a big hole enuf to put some hard cash there… LOL
ya , this is a commendable move actually…i also cant see y the fuss ….usually cars are given for few hrs of review n have to give it back…perhaps proton doing that in order to tel cuctomers relaibility is stil thr as well….probably this issue have been raised by either anti proton jerk or some P2 freak! its very possible…
you mean like 'under table' money……under the dashboard? if put on the dash board it might fly away while smoking in the sawii….if the power window still functioning laa…..hahhaah
countol said,
November 17, 2005 @ 12:03 pm
jeremy clarkson who???? a TV show joker??? wtf…..your idol? hahahahahaha…..
maybe u havent read any of the TOPGEAR magazines as well..or maybe any of the other international magaziines like autocar…
or maybe u shuld have a more open mind..
So what's the big commotion here..
It's no big deal
Ohh, I forgot, it's Proton.
I have followed Jeremy Clarkson for many years now. Since I first picked up a copy of Performance Cars (now known as Evo) back in 1993, I was introduced to Jeremy Clarkson and his brand of humour. He was always critical about the cars he drove and he always tried to sound funny. But not all his choices and opinions are the Gospel truth. He has made some poor choices before, in an effort to try to go against the grain.
For example, I remember an issue of Performance Car one year where they have an annual Performance Car of The Year (PCOTY) shootout towards the latter part of the year and each and every contributor/sub-editor would bring the car they favoured the most. Some brought Mercedes, BMW's, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and even the Impreza WRX and Evo was featured. Guess what our friend Jeremy Clarkson brought? A Suzuki Cappucino!
By his own admission, the car was too small for him to fit in. I don't know if you've ever seen it but it is a car the size of a Kancil with a 660cc engine. A good choice? Well, at the end of the day, it didn't even make the final selection. No surprise there.
There was one blogger who told me in another post that Jeremy Clarkson is THE authority on driving. What a load of bollocks! He is a good television presenter and nothing more. He is definitely not THE authority on driving and I don't think anyone can ever lay claim to such a thing.
Marmitecrab is right…the local journalists are given cars with by Proton, perhaps with an understanding that they will view the long-term loan as a long-term test. But I don't believe Proton ever stipulates that they need to keep writing regularly about the car for it to be a long term test. What the lazier buggers do is, just keep the car and do nothing. After all, a second car is nice, right? Can give to the spouse. Long-term tests are real work, you have to make sure you keep track of fuel economy, how the car behaves, keep a close watch for problems etc. Many local auto journos, being the lazy perks-driven people, just don't bother.
So many companies send journos on pointless trips that have little or nothing to do with cars (Proton is not alone in this unethical behaviour), just so they can ply the journos with some free drinks, free food, nice hotels and hope to get positive write-ups after that. Journalists should staunchly avoid or repulse any efforts to butter them up, but in Malaysia with our lovely benefits-based morality system, they just don't bother a lot of the time. When out doing their jobs, the journos are responsible to readers first and themselves second.
You guys,
It's not the Proton that matters here. It's really not so much on the motoring journalists. It's about Kalimullah (NSTP Group Editor-in-Chief) who has an agenda to KETUK Tengku Mahaleel. It's a known fact that Kali has never relinquish his post as the director of ECM Libra, which in recent time has done its own whacking of Proton. Guess who else in the director's wage of ECM Libra? I give you a hint, his initial is KJ.
And this two characters is THE people playing their best roles to own everything in this country. Luckily one of them didn't get to be a COO of Khazanah.
Go figure!
oi see fu u don't go to work ka. all topics got u'r name. or skang u tanam anggur?. or curi tulang?
This idea from POTONG is good, apparently all the comment given by the BLOGGER or Internet might be wrong!!! or only 50 -50 reliable. By giving cars to Journalists, those ppl can feed back the right info. to POTONG hopefully no KOPI or NASI LEMAK compensation given by POTONG staffs. They will give POTONG the feed back on problems areas or defects ….in other words POTONG get FREE testers from public.
I think it is a very POSITIVE move for POTONG. If you wanna to improve the quality you must understand the problems areas first!!
YAU MOU GAU…..CHOR!!
alo Kali…
wat R U toking about here on Kali, KJ & TM?
There's politics going on here, for sure, but it doesn't change the fact that there's a problem here with ethical journalism, and the blame for it lies largely with the journalists.
nothing wrong to hold a long term test drive by journalist; Proton need to have independent source to provide useful opinion & feedback.
Cheh…those journalist writing nonsense 1 lah…..
call paul testing better…at least we still can trust him lol
I read somewhere on our local publishing that Autocar UK get to keep some of the car for the whole year for them to do the re-view. And guess what car did they get to keep (for the long term review)? If I remember correctly, the Range Rover, the 550 Maranello, the F355 Spider, a Lambo Diablo and some other top notch cars.
In my view, they did thrash the car around. They did some outstanding and fair reviews. But sometimes, a Brits always a Brits, if you know what I mean.
Ahhhh….yes. It's the photojournalist fella from Autocar Asean.
i never said that jeremy clarkson is the gospel about making the right choices…u are right by saying he has made poor choices..i am pointing the fact that he does not hold back what he thinks about a car..no matter who the car manufacturer is… i just gave it as an example…tiff needle..is another man ..
my point being is that…when a car is given to u …u have to scrutinize…the good and the bad…
I cannot agree with you more. The one thing I hate about the local car reviewers is that everything is always good about the cars they test. Whereas the foreign ones will look at the good and the bad as well.
But Jeremy Clarkson is not only looking at reviewing cars as a motoring journalist, he also needs to entertain his viewers/readers, hence, his rather radical/extreme views and comments all the time.
I also wasn't saying you said it but it was said in another previous post by someone (I can't remember who) who argued that Jeremy Clarkson is an authority. Now that, I can't agree to.
car reviews are a very subjective thing, the only thing i look for in car magazines are probably some pictures, specs or maybe a little insight on how the reviewer is satisfied with the car..of course these do not form my final opinion but give me the first impression instead.
this is true with any car make, not just proton (how often does a new model come out anyway?). rule of thumb: dont say shit until you experience it!
If you are a auto journalist and you write a bad review of a car, chances are, here in Malaysia, its the end of your career. Who else will send you another car to review. Most local publications are garbage.
What do you expect?
Even in our own workplaces, we have to deal with politics all the time. Almost impossible to act and work profesionally. Every job description looks for people with Strong working ethics. Unfortunately, Malaysia can't deal with strong working ethics.
Malaysian society just hasn't grasp quite enough ethics.
For journalists in M'sia to review a local car (more specifically, Proton), I guess their writings have to be 'politically correct'. I mean afterall, national car what.
But this bribery practice is like planting a timebomb in your own backyard.
so now they smell rats dont they? Any issue abt tt? No ofcos its national car what…