But this bribery practice is like planting a timebomb in your own backyard.

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.

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!

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.

my point being is that…when a car is given to u …u have to scrutinize…the good and the bad…

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.

call paul testing better…at least we still can trust him lol

wat R U toking about here on Kali, KJ & TM?

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!!

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!

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.

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.

It's no big deal

Ohh, I forgot, it's Proton.

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..

when that journalist sit on sawi… on the front dash board there is a big hole enuf to put some hard cash there… LOL

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?

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..

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.

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.

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.

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

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 ??