Proton has come out to defend itself against allegations that the Proton Perdana V6 is too expensive to maintain to the point that the Terengganu state government decided to replace their 4-year old Proton Perdana V6 Executive cars with a fleet of 14 brand new Mercedes-Benz E200K cars.
Proton says a regular periodical service plus oil filter for the Perdana V6 typically costs around RM200, excluding any other incidental spare part costs. With proper care, original parts and good driving habits, there should not be any major problems with the Perdana V6’s gearbox, and that the recommended service schedule for the Perdana V6 is every 5,000km or every 3 months of usage, whichever comes first.
The big shocker is this: after digging through records, Proton found that there have never been any warranty claims made by the Terengganu state government since October 2004 for one of the cars that supposedly racked up over RM100,000 in repairs. The car was purchased in May 2004. In a previous story the state government claimed two of their Perdana V6 Executive cars incurred repair costs of RM175,229.97 and RM132,357.76 respectively since 2004.
When contacted, a Proton official mentioned that the Perdana V6 comes with a 2 year warranty. Who was maintaining and repairing these cars? Why didn’t the fleet manager claim warranty on defective parts from Proton? The answer could be one of two things:
a) the incidents which incurred repair costs only happened in the car’s third year of service onwards after the 2 year warranty period so no warranty claim could be made
b) this is another case of bocor.
Proton added that it would be seriously looking into this matter and will be contacting the Terengganu State Government to find out service history records for the affected cars and provide necessary assistance.
UPDATE: The DPM said government cars has to be national cars. The Terengganu state government justified its E200K purchase by saying Paragraph 6 (II) of the Treasury Circular No. 1 of 2008 allowed government cars that were national cars or locally assembled cars, and the E200Ks purchased are locally assembled models sourced from Mercedes-Benz Malaysia’s Pekan plant. Datuk Shahrir Samad commented on this, saying that the state government misunderstood the circular. The provision for the purchase of locally assembled cars instead of national cars was only for purchases of 4WD vehicles if necessary as Proton did not offer such vehicles in its model line-up.
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Terengganu will justify in detail E200K purchase
New Mercedes-Benz E200K cars for Terengganu exco
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Hah! What did I told ya…a bunch of daylight robbers is what they are!!
RM100,000 is a lot of money to spend on a Perdana, even if it’s a V6 Executive!
as i said b4….
somebody is filing up his pocket & his bank account on this matter…
huhu… wonder who’s d culprit… hehehe…
G oh G til when want uphold all the lies…
This is what will happen when ‘you’ too lazy to think of a better reason.
All that millions of ringgit…go and build a hospital or a bloody school lar!! What rights do all you “noble” politicians had to spend people’s money blindly hah? People of Terengganu vote you all to help them la…NOT TO HELP YOU TO HAVE A FANCY E200 MERC ON YOUR DRIVEWAY…FAHAM!!!
It’s actually quite interesting. If you remember, this Ahmad Said just recently took up the MB post… BN wanted Idris Jusoh to continue but the Sultan insisted on Ahmad Said. After some drama, BN gave in. It was mentioned before that this decision to buy the E200K was done months before… so we do not know if Ahmad Said was part of the deciding commitee or not. Once the E200K cars arrived, Ahmad Said did not touch a single one… he continues driving his old 18 year old car. Ahmad Said could actually be intentionally bringing all of this up to kick out some corrupted people and get his “own men” in.
previously people vs p1.. now G vs p1.. now we’ll just wait and see who’s gonna win. remember, the ganu G hv 2 very favourable factors on their side:
1. the Agong is on their side (remember that current ganu MB was handpicked by Agong?)
2. the current G can gain some political mileage by saying: this is not our fault, it was done under previous MB!
so my verdict is both parties will settle on the 2nd option, and play the blame game.
The total cost of repair is more than price of a new one, This cost seems unreasonable and inflated.I also have doubt on whether actual repair and maintained are been done for it.
Agong’s choice of MB also seems like no different from previous one when he approved this purchase of Merc. God save Terengganu.
Whatever, if what paul said it right. Soon or later, more news comes in from this state, drama ? To cover some hot stories on the newspaper before this incident?
If this is how they are going to maintain the car, you can be damn sure that maintaining the Merc would be much more higher. I won’t be surprise if they would claim Mercs are expensive later as they raked RM500K in repair bills.
Blame a car is ridiculous and it is now getting clearer that they themselves do not take care of the car. Like someone else have mentioned, hardcore taxi drivers can survive with their Perdana as their income. Don’t tell us that exco use it more hardcore than taxi drivers. In this case, why not hire taxi drivers to drive the car for them and arrange maintenance for these exco perdana vehicles. Excuses excuses.
Seems like after March 8 all the dirt starts to surface…. Even the small ones which they think might slip thru went noticed, albeit accidentally~~ Hahaha…. karma maybe?
Proton should sue T’ganu govt for defamation.. Its the trend nowadays.. Hehe..
guys, you know what.. all the exco got interest in choosing the mercs over protons, offcourse they’ll enjoy the merc, but the most damning thing is that when their time is up i.e.the exco to retire, they’ll usually be given the right to purchase the cars at way below market prices, this is normal practise in the Gov and corporate world- GLCs… dont you think it all make sense now!
maybe the concern, should be more careful in choosing who to run the state next time……………………..
wonder where’s the support coming this time round ? rakyat or sultan ?
If the car is maintained properly along with good service records, such thing wouldn’t happen.
If PV6 is that problematic, the private owners of PV6 must be very rich in order to take care of their car.
Typical way of thinking of kampung newly elected leaders where one should drive a Merc or other prestigious car. Mat Said has been dreaming of this since the first day he won’t the state seat.
LIM GUAN ENG is still driving an old proton saga for f*ck sake!
Oh I forgot. Terengganu people have no position to be angry since it’s their fault who vote for them. lol. Served you right!
correction.. ‘won’ instead of ‘won’t’
Even the king saw through Idris Jusoh’s evil.
His perdana repairs cost the most. (around 200k++)
I wonder what could have cost rm200k to repair within a year??
Maybe there were 10 major road accidents…haha
RM5k for a single light bulb replacement. who knows?
thats right. hit’em hard, proton!
Huh, what a bulls#@t…when they want to buy rolls roys, then they will say the Merc cost RM1m to repair
sharir said on tv that only P1 cars are allowed for state excos etc. i wonder if this ruling covers Sarawak too. if u come to Sarawak, please and find out wat our cm is ridin in. oso check out the other ministers’ cars. i wonder if sharir knew that he jus got d ball rolling in damning these privileged Sarawak ministers. come check em out bros…
If what Paul Tan said is correct, we are seeing a new drama made in Terengganu. Real actions begin when they reveal who are the one involve in the maintaining and repairing the perdana. Now all the actors are playing Tai Chi and all the peoples are watching. I think this year we should have Best Political Award 2008. What you guys think?
Can buy new one already, no need to repair, and get another 2-year waranty. You can do whatever you want when you are the ‘kelapa’, eg killing a dog, and then write up you actually just kill an ant.
We have a bunch of jokers and actors to cheat rakyat’s money. WTF !
And the best part is.. even after we found out their faults, nothing will happen to them, all covering each other, big cover small, at the end, escaped.
haha… this would enlighten the things clearly… thanks Proton for providing such necessary info… so, mercs… still a necessity to save cost??? HAHAHAHA…
i think this is yet another example of cheating the rakyat’s money.
from my own experience, my dad owns a perdana v6 which he bought in 2001. it has been used for 7 years now and never has it cause any problems at all.no money were spent to repair it (only the normal service charges).
but his official G car had always caused problems.twice it was the gearbox,and 4 times it was the throttle body.we had never experienced any problem or complained anything about the car being faulty what so ever.but when the car is sent to a proton service centre, then the proton guy’s started to claim that the car was faulty, this and that.
so my guess is, they are just trying to fork out our money to make themself $$$$…..
Definitely the truth will prevail one day. Cannot cheat rakyat forever !!
Sepandai pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya jatuh ke tanah juga
kan sudah kena kantoi..
Ha! so what is what now. G supporting P1 and yet bashing P1 of high repair fees…. and now P1 bash back the G.
Wow, it’s like episode of Naruto the animation series or perhaps longer type of version.
I don’t care what they do, just don’t just use our money to play fool around.
Why should we be angry? We should be thankful that our Terengganu State leaders are willing to share their wealth of “cost effective” knowledge. I believe that after countless of mathematical and statistical formula being applied and reviewed by the State Economic Planning Unit, it would work. So if you’re looking for a reason to ditch your Perdana and save more in the long run, please buy the E200k. No more fiddling with your calculator and worrying about maintenance costs. It’s already proven!
i am expecting to see how Tengganu exco explain on this.
for me this is a very interesting Drama..
clearly there has a ‘fake claim’ among Exco…..4 repairing job….i see a lot of people fill up their fuel tank with small amount but asking receipt with higher number….to claim more….
woohoo!
somebody’s filling their pockets full…..with claims of 100k maintenence.
i wonder who……..
ACA, go go go!
lol.
later cover up again.
Simple; the exco just want a new luxury car. plus, typical malay thinking..merc means everything to them. Its not abt high maintainence..it’s just about getting a new car…membazir duit rakyat~
The Warranty Direct Top 100 Most Reliable Used Cars Of The Past Decade
1 Honda Accord
72 Mercedes E-Class
See, how smart our leaders? OK to have CKD cars BUT be realistic. BTW the MB E200 Kompressor has good FC. And SPANCO contract should be review is the maintenance of government fleet like a bomb. Thank you MB. You already enlighten us.
1 Honda Accord 2 Subaru Forester 3 Mazda MX-5 4 Mitsubishi Carisma 5 Toyota Yaris 6 Honda Civic 7 Nissan Almera 8 Honda CR-V 9 Toyota RAV4 10 Nissan Micra 11 Lexus IS 200 12 Mazda 626 13 Jaguar X-Type 14 Toyota Landcruiser 15 Volvo S/V40 16 MINI (BMW) 17 Suzuki Vitara 18 Mazda 323 19 Toyota Carina E 20 Saab 9-5 21 Lexus LS400 22 Ford Ka 23 Rover 45 24 Hyundai Lantra 25 Mercedes SLK 26 Citroen Xsara 27 Ford Cougar 28 Subaru Impreza 29 Skoda Octavia 30 Audi A4 31 Nissan Primera 32 Toyota Avensis 33 Volvo 850 34 Vauxhall Corsa 35 Seat Toledo 36 Volkswagen Golf 37 Daewoo Lanos 38 Fiat Brava 39 Hyundai Coupe 40 Mitsubishi Shogun 41 Rover 25 42 Mercedes CLK 43 Fiat Marea 44 Ford Focus 45 Peugeot 106 46 MG MG TF 47 BMW Z3 48 Hyundai Accent 49 Volkswagen Polo 50 Fiat Punto 51 Vauxhall Zafira 52 Mercedes C-class 53 Volvo S60 54 Toyota MR2 55 Mazda Xedos 6 56 Ford Puma 57 Vauxhall Astra 58 Vauxhall Omega 59 Chrysler Neon 60 Audi A2 61 Ford Fiesta 62 Ford Mondeo 63 Vauxhall Corsa 64 Citroen Saxo 65 BMW 3 Series 66 Vauxhall Vectra 67 Isuzu Trooper 68 Mercedes M-Class 69 Subaru Legacy 70 Rover 400 71 Fiat Ulysse 72 Mercedes E-Class 73 Renault Clio 74 Toyota Celica 75 Peugeot 306 76 Peugeot 406 77 Volvo S70 78 Rover 75 79 Daewoo Matiz 80 Peugeot 206 81 Mazda MX-3 82 Vauxhall Tigra 83 Seat Ibiza 84 Peugeot 106 85 Renault Megane 86 Peugeot 406 87 Saab 9-3 88 Audi A3 89 BMW X5 90 Mercedes S-class 91 Toyota Corolla 92 Seat Alhambra 93 BMW 5-series 94 Daewoo Nubira 95 Alfa Romeo 145 96 Saab 900 97 Mazda MX-6 98 Jaguar S-Type 99 Daewoo Leganza 100 Porsche Boxster
i think this merc is a “Present” from said to his exco because he can be MB in Terengganu now. both idris and said is a liar la… All the man in G now is same lar.. liar and like to eat duit rakyat but claim otherwise. like to be good honest people in front rakyat but at the back, they suck our money. so damn la…
this ahmad said really a problem maker, if he is my staff, for sure i will scold him like hell, follow the instruction from the management, dont give the all non-cense, use the human brain to think, thinking and act without brain can cause sack from the superior, our PM, what r u waiting for? sack him now, now is a good time, i think for that one who recommended MB terenganu will also unhappy, just wasting our money. BPR should go to investigate what was happening? go to check, check, check & check. ask & ask, repreat to ask & check.
Walao…..although we all know THEY always suck our money but pls la……..come out a story which make sense. Dunno if THEY are stupid or THEY think we are stupid.
hahahah… K.A.N.T.O.I
Did they really think Proton would not retaliate?
Wah. This fellow Ahmad Said is ‘gedebe’ one. i think he has a motive behind this all. Buka pekung di dada BN sebelum ini. I wonder why don’t they have their fleet of V6 serviced at EON or Proton Edar Authorised service centre before. maybe they send it to Bengkel Jusoh and Anak-Beranak Enterprise for some quite time long, using all the ‘ehsan’ money without any ‘ehsan’. Time for BPR and auditor to take over this time. Still, I’m waiting for the e class ‘lelong’. All the tauke and laoban are waiting for this at terengganu. Another score for Pakatan rakyat actually.
wonder whose pocket the “over RM100k” slid into…
In my own opinion, Proton will offer the most quality model to the state government because they may want to avoid any incident said Proton isn’t a good quality automaker. Government is always support Proton and use proton car as a official ride for entire servents. But now Terengganu State Government said Perdana V6 isn’t a good ride as it has bad record of quality and HIGH maintenance cost.
As Terenggaru State Government said Perdana V6 Executive is involve high maintenance cost, why don’t they opt for Honda Accord or Toyota Camry etc. As the state government purchase the model without any tax, Accord and Camry 2.4cc litre is actually less than or around RM100k (pre-tax). These models have MUCH lower maintenance cost than MERC and MORE fuel efficiency too. The weakpoint is these Japanese cars aren’t elegant as MERC.
To enjoy they own life they claim to buy Merc when leave all citizen suffer for the OVERPRICE cars and unreasonable fuel price.
Perhaps Dato’ Shahrir or DPM can run a survey on what car the MB and Exco use as official car and the answer may not please the Proton management. I had seen Johor Exco ride on Volvo XC90….so the case are not isolated with Terengganu only. No need to bash them kaw-kaw..since every politician are knowing to be greed and with 5 years term, they will magically get new Merc, new bungalow worth million, land titles for uncle, auntie, daughter, and of course double the wifey.So it just human after all.
Nah! Eat that one out, I think it’s their cronies who maintain the cars and maybe they’re not thinking proton would keep such record.
No warranty was claimed because the cars were not serviced per recommended schedule!!
So when problem occurs, Proton simply says, warranty sudah void lah.. you tak servis kereta!.. how to claim warranty?!
That is most likely the reason. Somebody in the terengganu state govt going to pay for this for their tidak apa attitude. Somebody is going down!
mat said say.. pls refer to SPANCO…
do SPANCO do the maintenance..?
in any comments.. i tend to like mat said..
dare to tell the truth..
shameless kuntzzz
Now i only know those driving Perdana V6 are the RICH people rather than Merc 200K.
Jimbet make a good point as he quoted : “If PV6 is that problematic, the private owners of PV6 must be very rich in order to take care of their car.”
At first, I tought the MB wants to get his dream car but actually its his political move to shot dead the previous MB to get support from ganu’s rakyat. He might need this huge move to show what the last admin did with our money. But stil, he use our money for the wrong reason! Call up ACA, habis cerita. mengong punya MB
buttercity said,
July 23, 2008 @ 7:37 pm
Proton should sue T’ganu govt for defamation.. Its the trend nowadays.. Hehe..
—————————
if proton sue for defamation…T’ganu govt can make a statutory declaration that the repair cost is true… kekekek… it’s the trend also…
hahahahahhahahah….
This is just a bubble in the ocean. I’m terengganu folk. Very sad to see this thing happening. Mat Said, pls be more bother on hardcore poverty in Terengganu, rather than meeting here and there to justify your purchase of mercs. Paul, maybe he was not in the decision committee but he is supporting very strongly now..
theanswer said,
July 24, 2008 @ 12:20 am
Simple; the exco just want a new luxury car. plus, typical malay thinking..merc means everything to them. Its not abt high maintainence..it’s just about getting a new car…membazir duit rakyat~
============================================
Paul (blog owner),
You should refrain your “commenter” to put any remarks to race, religion, insensitive, etc..
Just my humble 2 cents..
If you have an office car, all paid for, toll, fuel, parking and what not, any irresponsible driver would drive it like hell. Who cares about maintenance and the cost, its not your money.
So, now, it’s back to square one. You have another opportunity but this time you are able to buy more expensive cars. Who cares about maintenance and the cost, its not your money, so they you go again. High cost is just to justify the purchase.
The issue is not the maintenance and the cost. It’s about an opportunity to get better cars.
That’s how you see it.
I wanna write a book –
Titled :-
“CARS & MONEY: Cheat (shitloads of) money thru Bullshitting”
Those who have friends in the auto service will know the collusion between them and fleet driver – ‘greasing’ on their palms that you get when the car are sent for repairs..Prices are marked up very high to cover the ‘extra’..
ACA are you there yet!!!
An unnoticed facet to this episode is that the whole EXCO had to come to KL to “explain” the Merc purchase to the Federal govt. They even had their weekly EXCO meeting in KL! I’m quite sure they all flew in to KL on first class tickets, and most probably had their family with them and spent a few more days at taxpayers’ expense in KL for a bit of shopping.
Ubah gaya hidup while cuti-cuti in KL. How Nice!!
As some of you have pointed out, the service and repair jobs is sub-contracted to SPANCO not PROTON or EON, that’s why there is no service records or warranty claims made to PROTON.
If they claim the parts warranty to PROTON, PROTON will send a technical team to verify the claims. Of course they don’t want to do this, so SPANCO can just change the parts or components even though it is repairable, because it is more ‘profitable’. Hence the ridiculously high maintenance cost.
from today’s The Star >> http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/24/nation/21909005&sec=nation
Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said said the government would stand by its decision to use the Mercedes as official cars for exco members and other state government officials.
he himself is crazy for a benz too… perhaps DYMM Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Dipertuan Agong might give him a piece of His thoughts?
They will never learn.
now i wonder who’s in SPANCO board of directors…..
total waste of state funds. i hope federal gov will pressure them to sell of the merc’s and get them new proton wira instead! haha
We were told that Spanco’s services were to be terminated many years ago because the govt was paying huge sums of money to Spanco and it was found that Spanco was making millions out of the govt.
Spanco is a creation of the previous minister of finance, Tun Daim. It is owned by his good friend, Robert Tan.
If the services of Spanco is still being used by the present administration, then Spanco has done well by cultivating a new (and profitable) relationship.
many years ago.. means maybe still in SPANCO provision :D
told ya there gonna be trouble..haha!!in todays paper,the ACA is already diving into this prob..hopefully they can come out with some interesting findings..mat said cannot cover already..letting go means admitting defeat to the feds..the way i see, hes an egoist..
Well that is true. The problem with V6 is if its a government car, do you expect people to “drive it carefully”. I don’t think so. Unless the car is assigned to a specific person-lets say retiring and will get the car, the car will be trashed. I have driven a University Perdana V6 4 years and its in terrible condition. So terrible to the point it is so dangerous to drive on the road. Above 60KM, the sterring wheel will twitch left and right. Rear door lock failed, cannot close rear door. Fuel consumption worse car ever. Accord 2.0 above has better fuel consumption. To top up insult, we could buy the car (after its usage period) for RM20k, but with the cost of bringing it back to immaculate condition, and having a Accord, I don’t think so. Luckily did not, 3 months down, heard drive shaft patah (literally) and gears out of order.
Tip: If you want to know a Perdana is 3 years or more, simple. Look directly below the front lights, there is a horizontal line one for each light, which is a joint between the body and the bumper. 3 years on, there will be a gap in the line, or in some cases metal bending from the twitching line. Almost all perdana will suffer from this.
Does proton want to make another record with this relic car? Want to beat saga record for longest car without new replacement.
proton bullshitting
COme on lah bro, you all just expecting too high from a PXG. Bodoh macam PXG.
NO IT NOT THE TUPAI PANDAI
BUT THE RAKYAT ARE PENDER!
PR OR BN THE SAME ………..
HAHAHAAHHA
I WANT TO BE A POLITICIAN
I PARTI BEBAS
VOTE ME
I BUY SUZUKI ONLY!
maybe they have unofficial barrier free license — can drive as fast as they like, as rackless as they like.
that’s why the perdana V6 so many problem
i think next time E200 better, the max speed increased, can drive like hamilton next time.
CITIZEN!!! WAKE UP!! WHY VOTE FOR THESE CRAPPY RUBBISH???
Ganu's G is extremely stupid… how can the 100k car need 175k for maintenance???? how can… not logic la wei…. if the engine rosak teruk sampai kena tukar enjin barupun… x mungkin lebih dari 100k… idiot nyer makhluk… PROTON IS THE BLACK SHEEP!!! GANU G PLEASE DUN LIE LA WOI…. rakyat is not that stupid la… Always support proton… i have 2 proton in my house…. both car is very saving la…. my neighbor also have perdana v6 since 2003.. i've talk with him about this issue and he said he dun believe it… the maintenance is just a bit higher than my satria and my father's waja.. perdana's owner also dun believe it… so… one more thing… my neighbour is a school teacher… his income is about 4k/month… if the car need so much money, i dun think he will keep the car till now…..