Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, or Ku Li bashes Proton in this unmarked video interview on 9th July 2005.
He says that Malaysia has no capacity to make cars. This is one case where dreams cannot fuel reality. He mentions UK’s failure with Rover and Australia’s supposed failure with Holden. I disagree. Holden was always part of General Motors from the very beginning. Just that it once made its own cars, but now just mostly does badge reengineering to achieve economies of scale.
He mentions Fiat is also having trouble. Huh? Fiat just celebrated it’s 106th birthday on 11th June. They look fine to me.
Ku Li attributes Proton’s failure to the car market being determined by the giant cartels of the automotive industry. The huge Japanese, American and German car companies total control of the market makes it hard for anyone new to break in.
He gives some history on how Proton came about. I am not sure if its true. Apparently Mitsubishi approached Taiwan to propose to a company be setup there, doing Mitsubishi badge re-engineering. They rejected, so they came to Dr. Mahathir and he accepted the idea.
However, “Proton tak terdaya maju“, he says.
In Rawang, Kuantan, Klang, tens of thousands of unsold Protons are left to rot in stockyards. More and more finance companies are giving 100% loans to Protons. 9 year durations. By the end of 9 years, he comments, the financed Proton would be worth nothing.
He mentioned something which he himself admits is unconfirmed though. He says in foreign markets, Protons are hard or expensive to insure because of it’s crappy safety features. Really? I thought the Waja scored a 3 in European NCAP crash tests? Hmm…
Most of his bashing is to do with the Mitsubishi era of Proton. Nothing about the new batch of cars. Hmm…
Anyway, watch the video yourselves. I have posted it up here for viewing.
Video: Ku Li: “Proton Tak Terdaya Maju”
Edit: I found that the video was posted here before me, so I assume that’s the source of the video. If otherwise, please leave a comment to correct me and I will edit my post to credit the proper source.
For those who don’t know who Tengku Razaleigh is, Google or Wikipedia is your best friend.
Quite an interesting interview with a lot of political undertones….but, the star of the video must be the pretty lady in the background.
yet another Bad mouth kind of minister.
let me say back to him = "KuLi tak berdaya Maju!" ..
why? because gua musang same as 30years ago!..
30 tahun punya pembangunan macam tak ada langsung.
"the Kuli never be Tokey"..
Nice new blog-look.
Forget about this Ku-Li as a person, but listen to the substance of what is being said.
'Proton tak berdaya maju' is indeed true in all senses!
Major overhaul needed, as well as the whole automotive industry in Malaysia, the whole works.
While imported cars' prices are prohibitive, local-made cars are much too expensive in Malaysia, full-stop!
video file takes too long to download….got any text or not
here's a little blog entry i found which best describes the evolution of proton over the years, paul.
http://netcentral.cc/audi/archives/000217.html
soowm: you noticed? heheh… i noticed too :P
actually holden does design and engineer its own cars. the aussie specialise in large sedans. the commodore and the statesman were aussie-designed and engineered. holden manufactures them in australia and exports them to the mid east, us and europe
yeah napps. even toyota made a model based on the holden commodore once.
yeah. the toyota lexcen….and what a bomb it was! even toyota screwed up some of the time….
now toyota has lexus for it's huge sedans hehe
today.. proton share in bskl = down again..
then proton gonna sell out.. no more national car dream.. :D
and then.. we still can proud with asian car, toyota, honda, mazda etc
in the next other 10 years later.. proton juts a history.
easy huh..
nevermind..
every successfully person/company, had their own badtime, dark time, downtime..
then they comeback like a shining star of heaven .. :p
maybe someone those millionaire in malaysia want to buy the Proton? is it possible?. Syed mokhtar al bukhori?, Tony Fernadez?. YTL corp? dato' Lim Goh Tong?..
if i'm millionaire.. i think i gonna buy it.. make it work on my way.. :p
// already have staff, factory, tech bla bla.. easy than start from zero.. huhu
if i am a millionaire i will buy lotus and make supercars!
anyway.. holden r&d is understated but quite impressive. and now GM realises it! some of the GM engines are in fact developed by Holden in Australia under their global platform sharing plans. Imagine those are engine used in Opel/Saab/Alfa premium brand cars!
And Fiat is in fact in some sort of trouble. At least the motorcar division is. However it will not close because it is the BIGGEST company in Italy. In fact, its value is more than the Italian government. Also it owns Ferrari/Maserati/Alfa, which are somewhat profitable. Now that the inner conflict within Fiat has settled, and they cut off link with GM, they are promising better cars. And with the kinda money and expertise they have… I am quite sure Fiat will survive..
bumboy: Was Fiat ever under GM? This is new to me.
so what is new…. proton proton proton…sigh
but my joy today, collected my MyVi today at noon. Yet to drive around as I need to return to office to work.
will write again when I drive for the next couple of days.
:) :) :) :)
Fiat was never under GM. They had a deal, part of it was something about GM paying 2bil to buy, or to give up all stakes in Fiat. Somewhat confusing, but basically there were clauses to protect Fiat in the deal and GM was dumb. haha…
The other part of the deal was to develop a global but european based platform. In fact long ago, Alfa 164 and Lancia Thema and Fiat Chroma and Saab 9000 shared similar but modified platform, if my memory serves me right. That was like.. 1990 or so. However it is still on going, that's why the current range of alfa 159 engines are in fact GM based, Holden design and developed, and Alfa tuned. Confusing huh?! hahaha.. but Alfa wont dilute it's namesake and announce that it is GM based engine.
The majority of Fiat shares are owned by the family, who also own many other businesses in Italy. Can't remember the family name, lazy to google, but essentially the family is as powerful as the government in Italy coz they are damn bloody rich.
My favourite Holden is the Monaro. 100% Aussie Bred.
My favourite Proton is…no model has yet to impress me yet.
So I still enjoy driving my small car.
proton how to get batter! even if 1 to do a good expensive car but used a bad quality material n if there 1 to do a medium ranking car but do a thing that like no financiel to do business n come out a car that not equal to the price, that is to expensive n make our Malaysians get no choice have to buy to! for that price range.
if proton 1 to improve there have to make people believe on there quality n brand to trust.
Proton not learn n finish there height school yet if like that only the chipper school there can go is learn from SINGER company at less batter than proton!
@dan – i don't understand you.
Please read thoroughly
Although "Ku Li" bashed Proton in the past and "some" of the information is inaccurate.I can say one thing though, although Proton may not be able to compete with the big boys (technically any other company is considered big boys) they have very poor sales.
Its proven that Hyundai Motors in current times are already exporting over a million vehicles annually and by 2010 is expected to reach global top 5.They have already sold 10 million cars overseas via exports.
The highest export figure for Proton is only 17,000 annually.You know what the most interesting thing is???? Both companies are only 20 years old.Hyundai may have been formed in the 1960s but only started exporting in the 80s.There should be no excuses for Proton this time
Another thing is pricing of the cars overseas.When i was in Australia, a Honda Jazz up to a Holden would be competitively priced from AUD 29,000-35,000.Cars at that price range would be very nice and lavish enough.
Imagine a Proton Wira that costed that much (the fact that is does AUD 26,000) who would wanna buy a Proton.The sales figures really made me laugh.Stop all the racing, research and rally efforts Proton and build better quality cars, not everybody wants to race you ding dongs.
The money is in comfort and quality not speed, use some real brains and if you "Dare To Change" accept this challenge.My parents and I have been driving Protons up till now, the only non Proton car we have now is a Kelisa and it changed my mind instantly.
This comment is not biased
Agree with cbljkkj hmm some strange name… anyway it's true, Proton should cut the crap on sponsoring on what ever they are sponsoring… concentrate on building good quality car.. Hate my Wira power window sound, its been 3 years now, & just came to sound about 2 week ago, not to mention the cheapy plastik for the interior, some of them have broke to peaces already… ARGHHH…
Yo Paul, just read a left wing Party Tabloid today & some guy wrote a letter to the editor about M'sia Car Price.. is it true we M'sian pay almost 600% more for average car?!
.. This guy said: CBU unit for 1.3 Getz upon arriving at Port Kelang just around 11k, but the OTR price is up to 63k.. he also wrote that Proton cars are very much expensive compare to Korean car within the same class. He does mention about the AP and all of the taxes bullshit.
he give some example;
Waja origenal price= 66,000×100/600=rm11k
Honda City ori price= 85,000×100/600=rm14,166
just wanna hear your comment.
forgot to leave a comment for KuLi..
hehe… just like Mitsu said, Kuli will never be tokey!!!
well mitsu you say was right.. about proton…..there cannot go on like that forever….. but they had to buy a material with high price.. from… manufacture… there had to… price no bincang-bincang…
2ndly if i got million dollar i buy proton and kick the 'tak apalah kecik punye problem" kind of person then re-organize yhe company….
In short, proton sucks… what is this comment by the tun, 'they have to protect the vendor, hence the high price'… so, if that is the case, stay out of the business and dont drag us all malaysians down into buying expensive cars with APs… imagine malaysia without ap, QUALITY CARS that doesnt give the shit proton gives all around the road, mercedes, bmw, toyota, all the sorts… cant afford that, hyundai then, better quality too… what are we to get for having our own national cars??? some protection given for the a handful to make money and the rest of the nation suffer… dear proton, with due respect, STAY OUT OF THE BUSINESS IF YOU'RE OUT OF THE LEAGUE!!! give us a breather… we're looking for something affordable at better quality… not some junks at premium price…
** Ignore the previous one, some typo error. Mention on proton, is gets me agitated, my excuse for the typo **
In short, proton sucks… what is this comment by the tun, ‘they have to protect the vendor, hence the high price’… so, if that is the case, stay out of the business and dont drag us all malaysians down into buying expensive cars with APs… imagine malaysia without ap, QUALITY CARS that doesnt give the shit that proton gives; can have cars like mercedes, bmw, toyota and all those sorts of great cars on the road… cant afford that, hyundai then, better quality than proton too… what are we to get for having our own national cars??? some protection given for a handful to make money and the rest of the nation suffer??? dear proton, with due respect, STAY OUT OF THE BUSINESS IF YOU’RE OUT OF THE LEAGUE!!! give us a breather… we’re looking for something affordable at better quality… not some junks at premium price…
MyVi is a great car. Overall I am very happy with the car. No problem.
Jawa,
You forgot something about Korean car issue of underdeclaring the landing price so that they can market it cheaper than Japanese & other foreign makes…
And 'a bag of gold' (cepu emas) question…. which group(s) bring/import us the Korean cars?
Not too difficult to think of and only one or 2 giant M'sian corporate names come to all our minds…
I always feel this APs thingy unfair to us. I'm a Bumi and I'm ashamed of this. How can the selected few be given the APs and make them richer and richer. And I'm here stuck with low salary LOL
wow .. that gal on the video really looks pretty n looks cute to me… :) if she stand beside proton, mayb proton can survive la… he he he
other car company can success because have a good leader. not like in proton, they didnt choose a leader base on his/her leadership, but full with politic issue. if proton can give a opportunity to every one (to become a supplier or leader), may be the outcome will different.
the problem with proton is the firm is not being run as a business entity. there is a ‘social obligation’ baggage, same as companies like telekom and tenaga. u expect the firm to be profit-oriented, but u tie up with all the crap about social obligation. proton can’t source parts from other places freely, unlike perodua, which is now just daihatsu/toyota’s way of circumventing the national car requirement. than u have naza-kia and inokom. these companies should not even be given national car status. yet vested interests have seen them being given the status. the way i see it the way forward for proton is:
-let proton source components that minimises costs while maximising quality
-find an engineering maverick, ala carlos ghosn at nissan to run things (the current ceo is a car guy, but he lacks an engineering background, which is a must to run a carmaker)
-stop throwing national car status at every tom, dick and harry. kick naza and inokom from the list. force perodua to export a certain % of production.
-force daihatsu-perodua to establish comprehensive r&d facilities to design a car from scratch here
Dear RPH, accept the fast. You're in malaysia, everything is politically biased and on top of that, there are issues concerning racial issues which if i raise here might land me with the ISA then. Sad but true. If only you'd recall something about some article that the ex PM Tun mentioned something about some people that need the 'crutch' from government to keep themselves on par with others…
I think it was a big mistake to make our own car in Malaysia.
Who decide to make national car last time?
BECAUSE of the stupid idea, we are now very hard to own a really good quality car from the REAL car maker!
how can people in langkawi can buy Altis for just around 60k?HOW CAN PROTON SELL WAJA FOR 60k? if you ask me the differences between those two model,,its like chocolate and shitt
no point commenting to much! it will and will always be that way for another 15 years or, extent another 15 years more, or extent another 15 years more or… malaysia semua boleh!
What proton …? ohh the blood sucker , kill it before it kills you ……..
What 20years old , are u kidding me …. i thought 2 yars old , so in order for proton to become 20 years old to be matured we have to suffer another 180 yrs , ( which for proton equivalent to 18 yrs)
If i am rulling this country i will send proton to hell ……government is supposed to serve the people but in protron the people feed them for proton shitttttttttttttt
I think Proton can be a most popular then the other if their have an own style, good condition cars, own design…. but the important things is must give the condition cars is good performance to satisfy the malaysian people…like a power window…how can the same problem like that haved at all the Proton models?…..
Why do we have to subsidise the national car by paying 100-200% on tarifs? That's is just plain stupid. It's robbing at a grand scale . Proton technology is so outdated, how can it compete with the Koreans, when they are selling their cars dirt cheap overseas. The second wave is when the Chinese release their cheap junks into the market. Proton will be dead, sooner or later. Its will be a slow and painful death. They should sell 100% of Proton to VW before it's too late.
Couldn't agree more with Ku Li. Wake up Proton! You've been pampered waaayyy to long…
I totally agree. Bolehland law makers have to wake up.
Suka tak suka, thats the fact, Proton Sucks, Perodua Sucks.
"Kita boleh berangan angan nak buat itu nak buat ini tapi itu angan angan sahaja."
Bolehland cars suck. See the North South highway during a storm, most cars in an accident or causing an accident are the Bolehland crap cars.
See this:-
http://paultan.org/archives/2005/07/26/jeremy-cla…
and
http://paultan.org/archives/2005/12/19/jeremy-cla…
so wake up folks!!! Bolehland cars really really suck!!!