Let’s have a flashback to November 21st 1987, in this article by Reuters archived by the New York Times.
LEAD: Malaysia’s money-losing national auto manufacturer, Proton, signed an accord today to distribute its Proton Saga car in the United States. Proton America Inc., headed by Malcolm Bricklin of Bricklin Industries, will import the car. ”Production of the models bound for the United States will begin in October 1988, once modifications to meet U.S.
Malaysia’s money-losing national auto manufacturer, Proton, signed an accord today to distribute its Proton Saga car in the United States. Proton America Inc., headed by Malcolm Bricklin of Bricklin Industries, will import the car. ”Production of the models bound for the United States will begin in October 1988, once modifications to meet U.S. requirements are completed,” a Proton executive vice president, Dan Prior, told reporters.
It’d be interesting to note that this Malcolm Bricklin is the very same person who is trying to bring Chery into the US through his Visionary Vehicles venture, which has gone through some hiccups lately. He was also responsible for the introduction of other marques into the US market like Subaru, Fiat (rebadged Bertone) and Yugo.
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But until now there have been no Protons in America, right? Guess Proton did not make "modifications to meet U.S. requirements". Or any other quality, safety standards for that matter.
guess proton is still trying to meet their requirements…its juzt tat by the time proton is done meeting their requirements, US requirements shoot up leaving proton cars bhind..i guess….possible for proton to get to US now?
So they DID try..
"Malaysia’s money-losing national auto manufacturer, Proton"??(How can New York Times called it like tat)
Good try by P1! carry on & work harder!
P1 boleeeeeeeeeh!
not with the current cars in the garage they wont get into US.. oh no.. US wants big arse cc cars… mini blocks like ours are bound to be screwed left and right… also proton does not have a notable after market modification arm like Toyota has TRD… Honda has Mugen.. Nissan has Nismo… Mitsubishi has MMC and RallyArt.. Subaru has STi…
our 3R is dead since mahaleel step down… Pert goes into oblivion.. i wonder whats next under the current management… MRT? (merdeka race tech)..
At least there is an effort back then. But at that time we just want to promote Malaysian name for the sake of the rakyat. Proton better be independent by now. Just look at Cherry. How old is Cherry?
Yeah, very optimistic of them to start off the report with that type of description of Proton. I wonder what standards do they need to enter US. Hyundai managed to kick off in US with its Pony, then Excel with its super cheap price tag of just US$5000 back then.
I know Proton did manufacture left hand drive Wiras for Philippines market, but I heard that sales are so bad that they have to exit. How to compete in the Philippines when Mitsubishi Lancer is about the same price?
Proton is already money-losing in 1987?
at that time 19y ago, wow looog time already,
ive a friend in the usa wrote to me saying he saw what he saw 'original SAGA' was there, with bigger and rubber wrapped bumper, chrome grille, name 'premier' ,
well at that time i suppose chrylser already rebadge mitsubishi even in mid seventy, probally by dodge or plymouth name,
well proton want to go there, while the same car even batter, when proton with such quality and regulation, and competition (mitsubishi vs proton) well….
Proton Saga in the US. Did I hear that right. They will be headed straight to the junk yard after leaving the port.
I think after Saga, the only thing that sells only Satria GTI and Lotus cars only… Haiz.. And normally student drives these car as starter car..
I think its like LAT cartoon, if try to bring proton in US> too small:P
No go lar Malcolm also a big boaster, till now most of his plans failed. Proton can go us? Later will be parodied in film, the crappy malaysian wannabe car. What's the name again? Protong? Foton?,,,nah who cares
Proton safety standard tak cukup, so finanlly did not make it to USA :)
proton saga in us? not unless it's got a v8, it won't sell
*Pengsan*
Angan-angan tak sudah!
haha.. coz d proton engineers duno how to convert to left hand drive kua..
this shows how incompetent msian company is… wakakaka
Hehehe..proton…even india and china also cannot sell…let alone US. It's about time proton to close down. I just came back from Japan …guess what…Honda civic 2.0 in japan only 1.4 million yen = RM 40168.59….damn I love japan..
Joke of the day…maybe we can sell proton saga to US…
Btw, US is whole different market, must be best in price, quality, service, brand recognition, and proton has none of these, proton can dream on…
That's why we don't see proton in US…
Aloo, orang baru 'ere. Issues PROTON name already trademark in US (electronics co.) That Mat Salleh caught the "Rasuah" virus from Malaysia, promised the world to Mahathir and try to "grease" the US people.
Malaysia hopeful for "miracle" of "Malaysia Boleh" with minimum modification to safety AND most of all don't have the money or real understanding of American distribution, warranty, money back, discounts policy and sales and service network.
The Koreans, and Chinese (taiwan) have exposure to this kind of things selling electronics stuff there and they used that experience for their foray into US.
I had experience setting up malaysian TV distribution network there and had to learn financing, warranty, claims, discounting policies and warehousing systems through an American Chinese in the business there for 32 years.
The trick is NOT money for this, money for that like in Malaysia. Anyway, many many "mat salleh" conman around. Once you signed the contract, to extract yourself is a BIG deal in US.
Anyway, trying to sell SAGA in 1988 which was the outdated LANCER F was NOT a good entry. "Makan minyak" hitam and US was looking forward to the GALANT first model variant of the existing PERDANA already.
LANCER F received a very bad review in US (junk) at that time to compound the problem. All Mitsubishi was thumbs down, SUBARU was popular.
dat mat salleh can see d future wit asian cars…
cheap to produce.
wasnt he d same guy who wanna bring chinese SUVs into US?
but ran into problem due to its safety weakness
som1 lied to him about proton..
guess he's not dat smart….
proton saga is one of the best car produced by proton (zaman2 saga mule dibuat). they passed many test at Europe…better than others car on that year..event the model from mitsubishi…
Talk and abandone the planned to export to US for the last 19 years! Sigh, by 2020, someone may quote again the crap talk taken place for the last few year for P1 to find foreign partner!
Anyway still not "too late" by P1 standard since the sotne age Saga (Iswara) selling at RM 26,999.00 still available in the market. Maybe still have another 20 years to implement this plan export to the US if the Saga still selling in the market for another 20 years! Yeah, Bolehland truely Bolehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh …………….
Mitsubishi always had a presence in the US, and in Canada, where Mitsubishi doesn;t have dealers, they sell mitsu cars as Eagles, Plymouth and Dodge.
My E38 Galant 2.0 DOHC was originally badged as a Dodge 2000GTX, and Eagle versions of the Galant came with AWD.
There is little chance of selling Proton there when Mitsu already has a presence. However, I cen see some reasoning behind them, as the established Mitsu dealership networks may be able to service (or buy parts from) the car.
Not sure why so many are down on Proton. I've had experience with them in the UK. Gen2 and the Impian. Actually really enjoyed both models. Though a 2,0L motor would have been nicer then what they had in there. Quality, I felt it fine. No worse then some of the crap that is sold here in the US, which believe me, it's god awful, especially if it comes from General Motors(thankfully Saturns will become rebadged Opels/Vauxhalls). If Protons were sold here today, I'd LOVE to go get a Gen2 as my second car, since what I do have myself right now, it's a bit tough to live with daily, especially here in NY with our roads, Evos on coilovers, not fun. Maybe I guess the export models are better then the domestic, but Protons were damn fine cars. Even talking to the service department manager at the dealer(which also sold Daihatsu) said they had about on par with the Daihatsus in terms of warranty claims. Shame to see so many down on Proton, they're good cars, good bargains, and are more fun and better looking then many Toyotas, Kias, Hyundais, GM, Ford(our Focus is rubbish), NIssans, etc. I hope to see them succeed, preferably without VW, since VW does take things and bland them out a bit. Even so called fun stuff like Seat, and the quality of them, it isn't that special. Oh and in the US, VW/Audi, they're not the most of reliable models, be they the German or Mexican built variants.
What Proton can do is to propose to government to increase tax of other makes so that the extra money can be used to subsidise Proton sales in USA. That is the only Proton advantage I see. We have to re-define the meaning of "democracy" in this country :)
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mits27 said,
April 27, 2007 @ 10:30 pm
Joke of the day…maybe we can sell proton saga to US…
Btw, US is whole different market, must be best in price, quality, service, brand recognition, and proton has none of these, proton can dream on…
To TomBoiNY:
I understand what you are trying to say about proton. In overseas, proton cars are very high in quality and reliability, yet in Malaysia we received lower quality ones. Faulty power windows are just one of the problems. Some models don't have even an airbag especially models back in 80's and 90's. We Malaysians simply lost our confidence towards proton and even till today, no matter how improved proton cars are, we are still having doubts that proton is really improve itself.
TomBoiNY,
Your experience is "norm" for Proton export model. But for our Malaysian domestic market, Proton car can be sum up as: –
"Low quality, unsafe car and relatively price higher (i.e. in relation to open market) "Milo tin on the wheel" that endanger the driver and other road users life on the road, couple with the most embarrasing "super-duper" power window failure that need to open door when pay toll".
Proton have bad biz model and lack of corporate social responsibility by asking for protection in the form of utilize tax payer money and suck local consumer dry by "force" them to buy Proton crap products under "capture market" prohibitive tax-based NAP that make imported car beyond affordability for many of the consumers. Yet create a very "condusive" breeding ground to enrich AP King and cronies.
Proton bad biz can be sum up as: –
Selling crap low quality yet high price to local consumers.
Selling good quality yet at competitive price for export market like UK or Australia.
So, this bad biz model demontrate P1 is lack of corporate social responsibilty toward tax payers and local consumer yet try to portray in the local market as "national car", "national icon", "patriotic", etc ………..
I can understand why the government would like to protect local industry, the US did it in years past, the UK has done it, Japan has done it, Oz has done it, etc. What I do not get is why not have the same quality for local market vehicles as compared to the export models. It is actually a losing proposition, especially in a protected market. It breeds contempt. Even more so when the prices are artificially high. The power window failure is something that can and does happen to tons of other manufacturers. A few years ago, BMW was having engine failures left right and centre on all the I6 models thanks to either poorly designed rings or pistons(can't remember), and they often refused to cover the problems under warranty. Honda recently has been having transmission troubles in just about every V6 model they sell. Again, in many cases, they're not covering it under warranty. There was something with VWs and their coil packs on teh 1.8T motors, and they were having issues with the windows dropping every time you armed the factory alarm on your car. Anyhow. Not sure why they still make the Saga when they could just use the Wira to completely replace it, lower the price and all to fill the void left by the Saga. The Mitsi it is based on, sold relatively well here in the US, it was sold as a Dodge or Plymouth Colt, Eagle, and a Mitsubishi Mirage or Tredia(can't rembmer). They were solid and reliable cars. Cheap as chips to buy and maintain. Better then the POS K-Cars which were sold out of the same showrooms as the Dodge and Plymouth models.
TomBoiNY said,
April 29, 2007 @ 5:10 am
I can understand why the government would like to protect local industry, the US did it in years past, the UK has done it, Japan has done it, Oz has done it, etc.
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Protectnism breed inefficiency in the long term. Yes they protect it previously until today as government of the past and present involve actively in the economic activities.
Among policy adopted after WW II up to oil crisis in 1974 by them is Keynesian Approach that "save the economy (especially financial institution during financial crisis) without abandoning capitalist system. In economic crisis, the government need to spend eventhough there is no money and the remedy is borrow in bad time and repay back when the economy is in growth cycle again. This approach to a certain extent, still applicable during Asian Financial crisis in 1997 for countires like Thai, Korea and Indon but not Malaysia that adopt peg currency.
For subsidy, even Airbus and Boeing also got subsidy till today is to generate local economy, protect jobs, make them competitve on open market BUT NEVER ATTEMPT TO MAKE IT CLOSE MARKET at a level as what we can found in Malaysia auto industry under NAP. Subsidy is mean to assist deserving sector/industry to make them survive and flourish in the national/international interest, e.g. help poor rice farmer as well as for national food security.
Do Boeing or Airbus use US or EU citizen tax-payer money heavily yet sale their product at say US 1 billion a piece for A380 (currently price tag around USD 300 million) and pass a legislation to "force" their national carrier to purchase it at this price?
In NAP protective policy, Proton use heavily tax-payer monies, tax heavily imported car, yet "force" local consumers to buy low quality and unsafe car at relatively high price (e.g. Waja at Peninsular sale at RM 64 K vs. RM 38K at Langkawi/Labuan). Subsidy is to support the local industry selling at open market price, but not sale it at artificially high price. It is a mismanagement of economy and bad policy making that implement economically not viable project.
And that there is one of the big issues I can see with the NAP. Fair enough protect, but the artificially high prices of the locally made product, it's just wrong. And yes, Airbus actually is subsidised by the various EU governments. Hard to say if their prices are truely open market sine both them and Boeing are really the only two major commercial aircraft makers. Sure there is Bombardier, and Embrarer, but both don't really make anything bigger then Regional Jets. And Embrarer is another heavily subsidised company, although they do offer lower prices because of that. Maybe Proton should take a page out of their book? Learn to listen to their local customers as well. Shame they also never used that Petronas engine instead of CamPro
Seriously, Proton is an extremely slow learner. They simply don't learn from their previous mistakes and continuously doing the same mistakes again, again, and again. Who do they think they are? They have this mentality that as long there is someone or somebody to give them help financially, they don't have strive a lot to improve their products.
It's a shame Proton require their direct suppliers to have TS16949 management system, whereas they dont really know what they are buying and what the crap engineering means…memalukan bangsa.
the man said,
April 27, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
Hehehe..proton…even india and china also cannot sell…let alone US. It’s about time proton to close down. I just came back from Japan …guess what…Honda civic 2.0 in japan only 1.4 million yen = RM 40168.59….damn I love japan..
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yes..its true car in japan cheaper..but pls calculate the parking, insurance etc charges versus year..almost same price here..n also the market price when u r going to resell that car…ppl there very updated takan u nak pakai that old civic for 7-8 years in japan? so shame ..
i agree with infinitt………u can;t judge the car by the price only but on the road expenses also……
Sorry, a bit off topic……..
Pretty much every sports car enthusiast would like to own a Lotus at some time in their life, and it seems that car manufacturers feel the same.
Dutch supercar firm Spyker is the latest firm rumoured to be interested in buying Norfolk-based Lotus, having already recently acquired the former Midland F1 team.
Lotus has already previously been owned by GM and a one-time Bugatti boss, and is currently owned by Proton. Spyker owner Victor Muller is also said to have held early talks with Proton.
Matters are confused further because Volkswagen is in lengthy discussions with the Malaysian government to buy Proton. And while it was previously thought that VW wanted to keep Lotus, recent management changes at the German car maker mean it may not be so interested any more.
That would be good news for Spyker, which would be able to benefit from Lotus’s extensive engineering know-how and manufacturing facilities if it bought the firm. Indeed Spyker is planning an SUV (the oddly named D12 Peking-to-Paris, ) which could well be built at Lotus’s Hethel plant.
However, as it’s just spent around £50m on Midland F1, we’re not sure if Spyker has the cash to buy Lotus as well. Assuming it’s for sale, of course.
Will US ppl buy proton? Outdate engines with small Hp….N soft chassis….
you really are of topic hameed yoyakuti !………..but great info…
Well even if proton cars had been sold in US it would not be different today.