Proton Holdings Bhd is setting up a special unit to fully capitalise on it’s UK subsidiary Group Lotus, part of Group Lotus’ five-year turnaround plan. The unit, to be comprised of people from both Lotus and Proton is in it’s final planning stages.
Part of Group Lotus’ plan to turn around in 5 years include [...]

Professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers was commissioned to do an audit report on Proton in September last year by Proton chairman Datuk Mohamed Azlan Hashim, and it’s report revealed poor corporate governance by the previous management of Proton. Key points include:

Lotus purchase deal was signed on October 16 1996, but only presented to Proton board [...]

Other than giving us the Proton Satria R3, Race Rally Research has been doing alot for the local grassroots motorsports community with their Street Shoot Out series and other activities. 9 amateur racing drivers went through the R3 Merdeka Millenium Endurance Driver Selection Program on the 20th July 2006, held in conjunction with R3’s [...]

Team Proton missing a member: Datuk Kisai right-most.
Proton’s executive director of engineering and manufacturing Datuk Kisai Rahmat has resigned and his resignation has been accepted by Proton’s board of directors effective July 31st 2006. News of his resignation first surfaced on blogs like Screenshots and Rocky’s Bru on July 17th. Approval and announcement was [...]

The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) has revised it’s forecast for vehicle sales this year, lowering it to 520,000 units instead of the previous 565,000 units figure. The new forecost would mean a 6% drop from last year’s 551,042 cars sold instead of a 2.5% increase with the previous figure. It’s not just Malaysia who [...]

This is unrelated to cars, but is important for the future of any online media here in Malaysia, such as this site you are reading now. The government is going to study if the 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act should be amended to include electronic and Internet media. These new forms of media [...]

Graphics designer Theophilus Chin impressed us earlier this week with his take on how a small-sized sedan based on the Proton Savvy would look like. Here’s another piece of his work, a four-door sedan based on the latest car from Proton’s stables - the Proton Satria Neo. Click the image to view a larger [...]

Geely will be introducing it’s Geely BL sports car into the European market soon, with a targetted launch date set sometime in 2008. It will be banking on low cost as one of the attraction points - anyone looking for a cheap sporty ride to buy the car but does not mind the fact [...]

Customised financing packages seem to be the in thing with car manufacturers these days. Sime Darby Auto Italia Sdn Bhd is the latest to join the bandwagon with a financing plan for the sporty Alfa 147 hatchback which starts at a monthly repayment of RM788 for the first year. The repayment amount increases by [...]

The 2006 Kia Rio/Rio5 clinched the top position for the US market J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Initial Quality Study SM (IQS) in the sub-compact category. The Rio/Rio5 tied together with the Suzuki Aerio for the top position of the survey which measures 217 vehicle attributes over 8 categories including driving experience, engine and [...]