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The Korean Advantage

July 29, 2005 at 5:50 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Koreans, Thoughts

Hyundai builds 4 million vehicles annually today. By 2007, output is expected to be 5.5 million vehicles.

Proton? Production is now shy of 200,000 cars a year. 178,431 sounds about right. Perodua? 113,431 vehicles.

This is why Proton has no chance to give us good cars at fair prices. There is no economies of scale. How did Hyundai do it? They’ve been around since 1967. That’s 38 years. Proton? About 20 years. It was born in 1983. The first Proton Saga rolled off production lines in September 1985.

Even the local market share that Proton holds is dropping, can it compete internationally?
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Proton vs. MITI, Round 3

July 6, 2005 at 12:25 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Thoughts

Jeff Ooi already has a very detailed coverage on the latest updates on the Proton vs. MITI saga, so I’m not going to talk much about it. More time for me to write more howtos and more about nice shiny automobiles! But I’m sure all of you would want to know the latest in this Proton/AP controversy.

Basically, Dr. M reveals some basic statistics on the distribution of APs in Malaysia, of which a majority of 54400 went to 20 particular companies, out of 67,000. The remainder 12600 went to the remaining 82 AP awardees.

Let’s do some basic math here.

54400 / 20 = 2720

This is an average of 2720 APs per company. Based on the market rate of RM35,000 per AP, this is an instant profit of 95.2 million ringgit a year on top of everything else. In Singapore, COEs are sold instead of given away, and the money goes to the government. Here, it goes into the bumiputra businessman’s pocket. I want to be bumiputra too.

Next, Dr. M responds to Rafidah saying that it was his administration which decided the ruling on 40% local content to qualify as national car. He says it did not fall under his control/decision, etc etc, haih. The same with the Naza Ria’s status as a national car.

Details here at Screenshots.

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Petrol Price Hike a Hoax, but Inevitable?

July 1, 2005 at 12:55 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Thoughts

Went to survey the new petrol prices at Petronas ten minutes ago, at 12:40AM. Wanted to pump my car’s tank to a full tank with the new price as I was lazy to queue up with everyone else before midnight.

When I reached the Petronas near my place, I found that the prices was still the old prices. So I asked the petrol station attendants and they said that the price would only take effect at 7AM tomorrow. And they told me the hike is only 5 cents instead of the 20 cents which was rumoured.

When I got home, I discovered from SK that TV news reports had reported that it’s just a hoax. But I didn’t watch the TV reports myself so I can’t be 100% sure myself.

I’ll wait till tomorrow morning to confirm.

Anyway a petrol price hike is inevitable. Everyone better be prepared. Time to get a motorcycle!

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