Archive for Local News

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal announced that motorists purchasing petrol at stations with a credit card would have to pay more for their petrol. He said a new formula was being devised to balance out the credit card charges currently being born by the petrol stations.

Let’s hope it’s nothing more than the 1.25% commission charged by banks. In fact since the costs should be shared by the motorist and the station, it should be exactly half of that. It would be a blatant and obvious rip off if it wasn’t.

The new formula will be announced later today.

Update: formula announced!

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Source: Bernama, NST

Proton R3 Amprex’s Lotus Exige 300RR almost achieved victory in the G2 category of the Zhuhai FIA GT championship, but due to a fuel leak problem they lost the title to Belgian Racing.

The teams were close, but the Exige 300RR had fuel leak problems that forced the car to enter the pits four times instead of only one time as planned, according to Tengku Djan Ley. Oh well boys, better luck next time.

Related Posts:
Proton R3 Amprex to race at Zhuhai, China

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The Edge reports that Proton is looking into purchasing two Volkswagen platforms to produce it’s own versions for the local market under the Proton badge. After the purchase, design and development would take an additional year.

Volkswagen Sharan

Click here to read the rest of Proton to buy Passat and Sharan platforms

There are rumours going around that Bernama has issued a news flash informing the public that Monday October 24 2005 is a public holiday.

If you receive this rumour, please do not spread it further. Monday is not a public holiday. Bernama is lodging a police report in order to get down to looking who started the rumour.

Another MP has spoken up on the issue of Proton. Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said that Proton has to update it’s models more frequently as with accelerated product releases by other manufacturers these days, their products go out of fashion more quickly.

Click here to read the rest of Proton needs to update cars more frequently

Click here to read the rest of Datin Seri Endon passes away

Our Malaysian government has announced some of the details on the new National Automotive Policy today. Let’s have a look at what changes have been implemented, effective this Thursday (20/10/2005).

Click here to read the rest of New Malaysian National Automotive Policy

There are a lot of people who feel that we just shouldn’t have had an automotive industry in the first place. Since Proton’s birth in 1983, the normal rakyat with average income have been forced to buy Protons. This is because of government protection in the form of high taxes on foreign makes.

Click here to read the rest of National Automotive Policy draft tomorrow

Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mah Siew Keong has issued a response to Datuk Shahrir’s comment on local content in Proton cars.

The Government encourages Proton to use as much local content as possible to develop the parts and component industry. This is also vital to achieve and maintain quality in Protons range of cars and for competitive pricing. Our car industry must have quality. Where it wants to source its parts from, that is up to Proton, but we encourage the use of local content. It’s up to Proton to decide the proportion of local content in it’s cars.

Well then, since according to Datuk Mah it’s not a government imposed rule, let’s see if Proton takes this path in the future as part of it’s struggle to improve it’s competitiveness. Datuk Mah agreed with Shahrir that automotive vendors who could not be compettive after 20 years should increase quality and competitiveness or close down.

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Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, chairman of the Backbencher’s Club says if high local content is making Proton not competitive, local content should be reduced.

“If AFTA requires only 40 percent local content, there is no need for us to go up to 90 percent, unless it makes Proton cheaper and more competitive. We have to make a rational decision. If our cars are expensive due to high local content, we need to reduce the price by reducing the local content. They have already been operating for more than 20 years. If the quality of their products is still not up to standard and cannot be exported, they should close down. If they are still not efficient, they should not be in this industry.”

The problem with our locally manufactured components is likely lack of volume which drives component prices up. We also have the problem of incompenent component manufacturers making components without proper QC. I’m sure any Proton owner curses the car’s air cond vents.

If Proton is to be truly competitive, such social responsibility towards local vendors should not be imposed on them. They should be free to source for components anywhere in the world they want, as long as it makes sense. This should give the local components manufacturers a kick in the ass and hopefully they buck up.

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