The Malaysian automotive industry has faced its fair share of obvious difficulties in 2015. The implementation of the GST tax and weakening ringgit were among the contributing factors to a relatively slow-moving year. However, official data still shows that we’ve still had our best year yet, with the highest ever Total Industry Volume (TIV) recorded.
As reported yesterday, a total of of 666,674 vehicles across all brands were sold in 2015. It was a marginal 0.03% (187 units) improvement over the previous year’s figures. It was also pointed out yesterday that 2015’s TIV figures were in fact rescued by a late sales surge in the year.
Undeniably, the GST implementation had some buyers spooked into stranger and more reserved buying habits. Several auto brands were forced to dig deep and dish out major discounts and promotions as they progressed through the year.
That said, it is also clear that some brands have worked with the conditions better than others. With careful planning, some, such as Mercedes-Benz Malaysia, flourished beyond expectations. Others, not so much – Peugeot, Kia, Hyundai and Mitsubishi, for example, slumped significantly in 2015.
The year’s biggest winners are, without question, Perodua and Honda. Already on a high in 2014 (195,579 units sold), with its Axia and Myvi doing as well as ever, Perodua managed to overcome the odds and achieve a 9.1% (17,728 units) improvement in 2015.
Likewise, Honda achieved its goals of becoming the top-performing non-national brand in the country with a 22.5% (17,407) sales increase against 2014’s results. Not surprisingly, the Honda HR-V, City and Jazz led the company’s charge to topple arch-rivals Toyota.
Despite the introduction of its tax-exempted Camry Hybrid and its refreshed Camry line-up, Toyota’s figures stooped by 8.1%, moving 8,275 units less than it did the year before. The Japanese car maker’s total figures for 2015 showed that it was just 1,142 vehicles behind third-placed Honda, which sold 93,760 vehicles.
Mazda was another major winner in 2015, marking a 25.9% improvement against the year before. It racked up a total of 14,325 units sold last year, largely thanks to the new Mazda 2 and reigning CX-5.
Still, Bermaz couldn’t do enough to worry Nissan, which despite having a relatively quiet 2015, still managed to improve on its previous year’s figures by 1.9 % (883 units). Thanks to a charged led by its new X-Trail and updated Serena S-Hybrid, ETCM racked up a total of 47,235 units sold in the year.
Needless to say, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia ruled the premium segment in 2015, selling a total of 11,034 units in the year, and marking a 54.7% improvement against its performance in 2014. BMW managed to move a total of 7,515 units in 2015 (-3.8%), while Lexus and Audi’s combined figures (2,101 + 1,592 = 3,693) amounted to not even half of the Bavarian brand’s sum.
The year also saw a lot of brands nose dive to poorer performances against their previous year’s figures. Volkswagen, for example, endured a 28.2% performance slump to sell just 6,405 units in the year, despite its considerable discounts and promotional strategies.
Kia was another big loser, moving less than half of what it managed to in 2014, with just 4,674 units sold in 2015. Mitsubishi, despite the arrival of its new Triton, took a 22.7% performance hit and was almost overthrown by Mercedes-Benz in the overall rankings – just 42 units separate the Japanese brand from the German automaker. Chevrolet and Peugeot also took hard hits in the year, facing 46.9% and 45.7% slumps.
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I hope DonkeyKong and John don’t come here and post their Pro Proton posts. We are not interested from the views of a BN Cybertrooper
See below and you will know why Proton has lost so much market share. We have given enough support to Proton for 30 years now. Every family has at least bought a Proton in their life to support Proton.
We supported the company so much from 1985. Now it is doing badly because their workers are MALAS.
Japanese workers :
“We must work hard. We must focus in our work. We take pride in our products and must deliver excellent quality. Only then, we can enjoy our remuneration for the hard work done. We must aim to be more hardworking than our other Japanese car plants”
Proton Malaysia workers:
“Rilak lah bang, buat apa nak keje ni. rilak lah, nanti boleh buat. Letih lah ni, mari meh tido sekejap kat bilik stor, boss takde ni. Eh tengok awek kilang cun tu, bezz lah dapat kongkek dia. Syiok. Jom lah, mari pegi kantin minum teh dan makan kuih lapis. Tak payah keje kuat ni, kerajaan nanti tolong. Buat apa keje kuat ni?”
Boring la this. It stinks of racism. I whack Proton kao2 but i don’t make comments like this.
The truth hurts & don’t divert attention
blaming others for your downfall.
Selling more Perodua only means Malaysians are getting poorer every year. Try selling Perodua in Singapore
There is a fine line between being anti-P1/ anti-BN and being racist. This is being crossed all the time like the border at Golok
UMNO members will be restricted to buying national makes to support local goods.
Why is that racist?he/she only mention about Japanese attitude vs Malaysian attitude
Exactly. It’s nation vs nation, not race vs race. It’s only like saying German working culture different from American working culture. In this case, Japanese vs Malaysian culture.
That’s why we should learn from developed countries until we can become one.
This also need to explain ke. See the language. He’s referring to only one race. Only if you blind you will not see. Stop justifying racist comments la. If its insulting to another human being, if you have a decent conscience, you will not defend this. I am not even Malay but I can see the racism in his comment.
Proton must be classified as halal car, exclusively for Bumiputras n muslims. To grow sales
Where is Najib’s promise to reduce car prices? Has he cheated Malaysians again? Now 3 years have passed from the day he made his fake promise to the rakyat that he will reduce car prices?
If a small promise Najib cannot keep, what more big promises? Come on Najib, why are you making your rakyat suffer whilst you enjoy a luxurious life and buy half billion dollar jets and spending millions on your credit card.
Pls Najib, feel for your people. You can buy RM500k Birkin handbags for your wife but your people are suffering with high cost of living namely their monthly payments for their cars.
No matter what industries you involve. Either you are in automotive, electronic, construction, oil and gass etc. you still Msia worker. This attitude is not represent all Msian. Maybe its only cover you and your college.
Bravo MBM!
PDRM must buy more Protons. LOL
Why isn’t car prices going down? Very simple. It is because of Songlapping.
In Malaysia, nearly all car companies are Government owned. Either directly or indirectly. And because of Songlapping, the Government needs to hantam the rakyat puas puas to get revenue. Otherwise, Government got no money to run the country.
One man can songlap RM2.6 billion is just one news we know. What about the other times he songlap that we don’t know about? I think it runs to hundreds of billions.
Taib songlap US$20 billion (RM84 billion) also nothing happen to him. Infact he was rewarded for his songlap and made Governor and given a Tunship. In Malaysia, you are rewarded for songlapping.
What about the songlaps by the other Menteri and Government officials?
It all runs to hundreds of billions per annum the Songlap.
This is why we get higher car prices, higher tolls and higher fuel prices every year. Our guardians are more interested in Songlapping than fighting for the rakyat to get lower car prices, lower petrol prices and low toll charges.
2016 will see car sales drop even further. And we can thank Songlapping for the fall in ringgit.
Why? It is a democratic world…all of us can post our thinking and opinion here as long as we do it with respect and under the spirit of knowledge exchange.
Remember this golden rule here now:
If u bash Najib/ UMNO/ Rosmah/ BN/ Melei, its fair comment.
If u bash Party Hard/ Dear Leader/ Tokong/ PuaKa its racist and u will be condemn kau-kau.
Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi..siapa makan cili dia rasa pedas..tepuk dada tanya selera mr john..
OMG…we can notice more H.city than Preve + Iriz on the road. It shown ppl wiling to spend more on better car. P1…puihh…u buy u regret.
I see more Iriz than keli vios on hiway. So what does it mean?
It means that you are definitely not on the highway
Funny how most of the brands under Naza is sinking.
IDK WHY THERE HAVE NO CITROEN, GREATWALL IN THE LIST
the official excuse is they are not MAA member. so they don’t provide sale data to MAA. which means their sale cannot be reported by MAA.
which means that MAA sales data don’t represent the market 100% as some brands sales are not included.
but this non-member brands usually consists of brands which a having very low sale number.
Peugeot and Chevrolet.. understandable why. Bad or unattractive products.
Kia perhaps due to product cyclic issue and perhaps their pricing strategy. Kia isn’t as ‘cheap’ as before anymore. The products itself is not bad, unlike the above two.
Yeah, poor QC, aftersales is not good, and the service centre charges are so expensive.
This is like MAS. Every single Government department is told to fly by MAS and using mainly Business Class. And yet MAS can go bankrupt.
Proton is the same. Every single Government department is told to buy Proton. Spanco alone buys berpuluh puluh ribu cars per year to lease back to the Government at a super high price.
Then every Ministry, Kementerian, Bomba, Telekom, JKR, Syabas, Tentera, TUDM, TLDM,PDRM, LDHDN, KDRM, Askar… and hundreds more departments are told yearly to strictly buy mainly Proton.
With all this paksaan also, Proton sales can drop. How is this so?? Every department is told to buy Proton. Every single Government department buys loads of cars per year. And yet, sales are so bad.
What is happening to Proton?
Every sane person in this world knows proton is the biggest loser. Potong n perutdua.. for the love of god just close shop la! U will do justice to all malaysians! Btw congrats honda! Just shows that malaysians are intelligent in their choices.. what for u wana choose that inferior vios to city? Only those avid blin toyota fans will buy vios.. ask any vios driver on why they chose it over city and most will say ‘toyota is reliable ma… honda easily spoilt.. honda got touchscreen aircond.. easy spoil hor! Toyota use mechanical can last 20 years’… i cant brain this
Proton is just not a focussed company. Proton and Hyundai started about the same time. Hyundai car manufacturing (not Hyundai as a whole) maybe started about 8 years earlier. Just see where both companies are.
Hyundai is a global player. They sell about 7 million cars per year globally. They are No 4 in world rankings for car sales. Toyota is No 1.
Proton, which stated about the same time, with MITI 100% protecting them and forcing 30 million rakyat to buy their cars, all Government departments strictly told to buy only Proton every year, PDRM also strictly told to buy Proton every year, Bomba, Telekom Malaysia and all GLC also told to buy Proton every year and yet, it can go into financial difficulty and about to be bankrupt.
Every year also Spanco buys berpuluh puluh ribu Protons to lease to the government.
How can Hyundai and Proton be so different. Both started about the same time. Korean government also initially protected the local auto industry but later allowed free market forces. How can they do so well Globally?
Something is wrong with Proton. It needs to be shut down. Given so much of help and still also now sucking the Government big time.
Even in private DRB hands also, every year, Proton quietly sucks billions from our LHDN in the disguise of R&D just to keep the company afloat.
I din know P1 started during Merdeka era. Which history book u read this from?
Y?.. u wanna start history lesson 4 everyone?
Nope but if u wanna make an accusation u must have proof. Of course thats not needed if u Party Hard friendly and mindlessly wanna bash Gov. no sirree. Just go right ahead and make ur accusation
When did hyundai motors come into existence? Was it the merdeka era? You also salah history book
BN cyberstooges everywhere .. Jib n mah trying very hard to convince d rakyat. Keep trying ..
Proton sales are so bad. 100k figure is false. In actual fact, 90% of sales went to Spanco, Bomba, Tentera, TUDM TLDM, PDRM, JKR, every kementerian in Putrajaya etc etc. Spanco alone buys berpuluh ribu to lease back to the Government. With all this help, still Proton cannot survive.
Most Malaysians can enjoy cheap and reasonable cars but because of Proton, all the other car prices have been raised up tremendously to protect Proton. Malaysians have already suffered so much. For 30 years, 30 million people suffer so much. We struggle paying for our high car prices all because of dying Proton to live. Proton sucks billions of our LHDN money, money which could be used to build more schools and hospitals.
If we did not have Proton sucking money from LHDN, each state can have an addition 10 fully fledged government hospitals and 10 fully fledged government schools every 10 years being built. But all our LHDN money go to the failing Proton. Every year government gives hundreds of million to Proton as form of grants. Every other year, Proton ask RM billions in help. Recently, even under private hands also (DRB) Proton asked the government to give them free few RM billions from LHDN.
Proton also cost us hundreds of billions in ringgit in investments from car companies who moved to Thailand and Indonesia. Car companies got fed up with Malaysia’s MITI for protecting Proton and telling other companies what to price their cars. They got sick and tired of the AP system and how genuine brands cannot get enough APs to import their cars in (like Mercedes, BMW and Honda).
They thought that if they set up their brands and plants in Malaysia, they knew they had to give 30% of their hard earned company free away as well as being told by MITI what to price their cars. They all moved their operations to Thailand making it the AutoCity of the world.
Recently GM announced that they rolled out already 1 million cars from Thailand. Imagine if GM was in Malaysia and we taxed GM RM10,000 per car. Calculate that with 1 million cars. Just from GM alone, we lost Billions in USD. Imagine what will the amount be from other car companies if they had set up in Malaysia?
Because of Proton, we lost hundreds of billion of ringgit in investment and trillions of ringgit from jobs lost. If Malaysia was the autocity of Asia, hundreds of thousands of jobs would have been created for Malaysians. We lost all that. Trillions of Ringgit and hundreds of thousands of jobs. Now, Thailand is benefiting from this trillions lost.
Car companies are flocking to invest hundreds of billions in Thailand despite Thailand being an unstable government, unstable economy and full of bomb blastings and terror.
Yet, global car companies still prefer Thailand.
Which is better? 300,000 jobs created by car companies setting up plants in Malaysia or to sustain the existing 30,000 Proton employees that have been living off us the past 30 years?
Excellent. Good to see more and more people are seeing the big picture about Proton. It goes beyond ‘power windows’ and poor build quality. Its the overwhelmingly negative impact on the economy, the country’s finances and the taxpayer, as well as road safety due to poor quality cars. To put it mildly, the amount of tangible and intangible losses brought by Proton on consumer spending, road deaths and negative externalities far exceed the RM42 billion debt of 1MDB. One needs an understanding of economics to see both the tangible and intangible impacts. Far, far worse than broken power windows.
You go thai oso accord still 180k lol
Proton = parasite
Missed opportunity, could have went into deeper detail and a granular view by model and market segmentation.
Most importantly, commercial vehicles should be stripped out, we as visitors to PaulTan are interested in passenger vehicles only. Toyota figures should be deflated by 30,000 units taking out commercial sales.
Also, government agency sales including for police and civil servants need to be accounted for for Proton. Only count retail sales for a clear picture. Within reason, they might have sold just 50,000 cars to consumers.
P2conquer Malaysian market wit just two main models….while Potong failed despite so many new models Preve Supima Iriz UPCOMING Perdana and rebadged Susuki..there is totally no focus…yet the Potong CEO and management still sitting in their airkon offices!!
is proton even serious to improve the situation?
their model are not well accepted in Malaysian(the home ground)
1) Sedan,preve(the boot like it cover half way)
2) Hatchback,suprima S(ugly butt)
3) Small hatch, iriz(this is actually not bad but still not selling well)
4) MPV,exora(not bad looking too)
the best selling car in Malaysia is still sedan. so pls proton pls do smthg about it
so, the jaguar wins?
Even though Jaguar sold a mere 36 units of cars last year, even a net profit margin of 30k is good enough for them. A healthy million ringgit in the bank account. Now with 90 units of cars will bring the figure to roughly 3 mil.
At a glance Toyota, KIA, Peugeot and VW are the biggest losers.
we can see car brand with decent and affordable SUV tops the chart
soon Honda will overtake Proton…soon
Not surprising at all. KIA and Hyundai cars are so lousy. Specced high but drives horribly. Nobody is gonna buy a piece of junk. They are nowhr near Honda and Toyota in terms of the drive. Miles behind!
Peugeot cars are too unreliable and SC is the most pathetic i have seen.
Mercedes had an amazing year. Kudos. We fight on another year.
Congrats Jaguar and Renault. In spite of GST, market sentiment and weakened ringgit to post highest percentage increase in sales.
Toyota is doing badly… it is time to throw that junk Vios and give us 6 airbag, abs, ebd…
Times up for UMW Toyota…shape up or ship out..
Aero the loudest Proton goon is missing from his usual TLDR comments.
Why why why ???
Dam, why are Hyundai sales dropping?
Need more to buy them new to prime the 12 month old used car market
Ha ha Toyota Malaysia
Congrats Jaguar almost doubled the sales!
After all, the Malaysian still the big loser, i believed it is the majority that work so hard for years just to pay their ‘transportation depts’ that turn into liability.
What happen to Hyundai and Kia ?
Consumers are beginning to understand the truth about hyundai/kia ownership. At first they were persuaded by the supposed high tech kits and gadgetry offered but after a couple of years people then understood the reasons why they cars were relatively cheap.
Haha toyota 2nd biggest loser in number of sales. If you look at the passenger cars only, even nissan is catching up soon. Close shop la UMW. Go open coffin shop better
I wonder what will be the total volume if it is included AP vehicle.
Kesian Proton…so sad another poor sales record. Failure after failure.
Even PT rave review on Iriz failed to increase its low sales and instead Proton choose to blame low bank loan approvals.
Wonder how big Proton’s loss for financial year? Luckily being taken private means no need to disclose profit/loss for the public.
Peugeot have almost done the full circle. Before Nasim era, yearly sales was sub-1000 units. When Nasim took over, start to increase to 1000+, 2000+ and top at 5000+ (i think). Then problems with most sold units started to spread like wild fire.
Sales turn south, until now only 2000+ (almost 3k).
2016 might go south in a big way yet again. My guess.. 1000+ only, if the sentiment remain unchanged or worsen. So far Nasim is not proactive or doing enough in repairing the ‘damage’. With the economy on the brink, the future couldnt be more bleaker.
The article does not even mention the name of a jaguh kampung brand, shows just how insignificant it is.
Since a lot of people (you know who you are) keep demanding for my comment/ opinion of Proton’s worsening sales in 2015, I have summarised them below. I did not initially wish to say anything, because I had nothing to say (about Proton’s falling sales), but please, don’t confuse that as a sign of cowardice or blind ignorance of reality. I am fully aware of Proton’s dire situation and believe me when I say, Proton’s worsening sales in 2015 pales in comparison to some of their ‘other problems’.
First thing’s first, 2015 has been one of Proton’s worst years ever, and their fourth continued year of sales decline in terms of sales volume and thirteenth consecutive in terms of market share decline. Personally, I was hoping that they would at least not dip below the symbolic 100k units mark this year, and so they didn’t. The last time Proton’s sales dropped below the 100k mark was in 1998, during the Asian financial crisis. Their best year was 2002, with 214k units sold.
I’m assuming that you want me to explain why Proton couldn’t improve their sales this year. And to be honest, I am not entirely sure either. Only Proton can tell you why… and of course they won’t. But I can hypothesise and speculate with the benefit of hindsight as to why 2015 was not the ‘game changing’ year for Proton.
First, Proton failed to launch a new car this year as promised. It was supposed to be the Iriz-based sedan (new Persona replacement). They didn’t even bring out a Prevé facelift. Instead, they discontinued production of the Satria Neo and Inspira and almost the old Persona as well. It was only later did Proton realize that discontinuing the Persona’s production was a catastrophic mistake, and they promptly restarted production in mid-2015.
I’m guessing, Proton wanted to get rid of the old Persona because it was eating into the sales of the newer Iriz. The cheaper Iriz models cost the same as the old Persona currently. What Proton didn’t expect is that many Malaysians still wanted the old Persona because it’s a popular, proven model… just like the Viva, Saga FLX and Myvi. There is no ‘anxiousness’ with the Persona, unlike the Iriz… because the Iriz is not yet proven, in terms of reliability and popularity.
Most low and middle-income Malaysians don’t want to risk buying an unconventional, unreliable or off-the-beaten-road car because they cannot risk any unnecessary expenditure on car repairs and for some, resale value is also important. The Persona’s reliability is generally more proven than the Prevé, Suprima and Iriz, it’s been used as taxis for many years now. The Mitsubishi 4AT gearbox in the Persona is simple, reliable and proven, unlike the questionable Punch CVT in the newer Proton cars. The Persona is a safe investment choice for those who just want a ‘worry free’ car that will move them from A to B. It may be lacking in fuel efficiency, but at least it’s still stylish and timeless in design. Let’s not forget, some people prefer sedans over hatchbacks, so the Persona is the default choice.
All of these factors made the Persona more attractive than the Iriz to some. Even though the Iriz is newer, safer, more fuel efficient, more ergonomic and all-round better for roughly the same money, it is still a HUGE question mark. Most Malaysians know that Proton is best at making sedan cars… not small hatchbacks, for that is the domain of Perodua. For decades, most Malaysians have come to think of Proton as a sedan car company and Perodua as the hatchback/ small car company. So for Proton to suddenly introduce a Myvi-competitor, is like when Mercedes-Benz made their small car (that is, the original A-Class). Most people did not warm up to the idea of a small Mercedes hatchback… and the same could be said for Proton making the Iriz. Previously, Proton’s hatchback models (Tiara and Savvy) have both failed in more ways than one. This only adds to the negative preconceptions surrounding the Iriz.
Of course, in a few years time, the Iriz too may (or may not) became a proven Proton car, just like the Persona and Saga today, but for now, most Malaysians would rather not risk investing in a potentially ‘unstable’ investment, and instead buy the proven Myvi over the unproven Iriz. No doubt, the Iriz is (on paper), better than the Myvi in almost every way… but in the subjective areas (perception of quality and reliability, brand image, etc.) and auxiliary support services (aftersales, spare parts etc.), the Myvi is far ahead.
As someone who has driven both the Iriz 1.6 Premium and the Myvi 1.5 Advance… I can see why many people would still choose the Myvi instead. I am not daft, I will admit, the Myvi gives off a strong ‘Japanese aura’ in terms of design and ergonomics… which will greatly appeal to its buying demographic, many of which desperately want a Japanese car. The Myvi then (and the Axia and Alza), is the closest any Malaysian can get to a new Japanese car… as I’m sure we all know, it is very much Japanese in mechanics (engine, gearbox, chassis, frame all unchanged from the donor Daihatsu/ Toyota models).
Perodua actively expresses their support for high quality and stringent production standards. Perodua’s manufacturing division is owned and headed in great part by Japanese engineers (since the mid-2000s), directly from the Toyota Group. Perodua actively shows their commitment to match their Japanese principal’s assembly plants in terms of build quality and low defect rates.
Proton meanwhile, they have only claimed that their newer cars are now being scrutinised more during production for faults and defects. They have inadvertently admitted that just a year or two back (Prevé launch), their production standards and quality control were less stringent. Dr. Mahathir himself admitted that the early units (2012 batch) of the Prevé were shockingly unreliable due to rushed production. This is all extremely bad for Proton’s brand image, and only reaffirms what sceptics and bigots have long deduced about Proton cars; that Proton doesn’t care about quality as much as Perodua; that Proton uses their customers as ‘lab rats’.
And for that matter of quality control alone, many will much rather pick the kosong spec, no ABS, no ESC, no HPF Myvi. And there’s also the matter of aftersales… which Perodua has been actively improving over the years. There may be more aspects that I’ve missed, I’m still learning, so do forgive me if I’ve missed anything else that should have been discussed.
So that’s the Iriz vs. Myvi story sorted. The next is the Axia story… and this is extremely simple; Proton simply does not have a budget A-segment model to boost their market share. The Axia came at the right time, just when the Viva was on its last breath and when our Malaysian economy was teetering on the edge… what with the GST and ringgit depreciation among others. More and more people are starting to downgrade to smaller cars… and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Today’s small cars are not like in the old days, they are quite nice and well-equipped. Some are very safe and some feel, fit and drive like bigger cars, despite being small. Indeed, in many developed countries (especially in Europe), downsizing with smart, efficient and ergonomic design has been the trend for some time now. Smart people know that buying a large or expensive car represents a net loss in the long term… as while it’s true that you get more car, prestige, and attention… you are losing money daily on depreciation. Property investments are by far the wiser, more sensible approach in showing and preserving one’s level of prosperity. Personally, I’d rather have a nice house/ neighbourhood, but a ‘bad’ car… than a nice car, but in a bad house/ neighbourhood. In 20 years time, when one is too old to work, the car will be worthless, but the house/ property/ land could be worth many millions. Couple that with EPF/ KWSP savings, and other smart investments (yes, children count as ‘investments’ too)… and you should be ‘safe’.
So I went a bit off-topic there, I apologise. But anyway, like I mentioned earlier, there is NOTHING wrong with buying a small car today… one should not let his/her ego get the best of them.
Proton has been slowly ‘pushing down’ the Saga into Axia territory since 2013/2014. They first brought out the Saga SV, then later the Saga Plus, which was simplified to a single 1.3 variant. Previous models like the 1.6 SE were deleted, as they would steal sales from the newer Iriz. The Saga today is cheaper than ever, and despite being a B-segment model, it has A-segment pricing. Over the years, newer B-segment models have become bigger and more spacious, and thus the older Saga is now more realistically an A-segmenter rather than a B-segmenter. Proton refers to the Saga as their A+ segment model. The same is true for the old Persona, which was a C-segment model in 2007, but is now a B-segment model in terms of pricing and size. If Proton did not push the Saga down into Axia territory, they would have lost far, FAR more sales as the Iriz, Persona and Saga would altogether compete among themselves.
As for the bigger Protons, the Prevé, Suprima S and Exora; there’s not much to say… the Prevé was supposed to get a facelift in 2015 as it has become outdated… but that didn’t happen. There’s no doubt that PDRM’s purchase of Prevé police cars helped keep the model afloat. The Suprima failed to catch on… as expected. It was supposed to be an export-oriented model, and indeed, export sales of the Suprima accounted for a larger percentage of overall sales, but still lower than domestic sales. The Exora MC2 didn’t do so well either, and I honestly don’t know why. Maybe the alleged ‘Exora catching fire’ viral posts are to blame.
As for Proton, I hope they will continue to persevere despite everything that’s happened. They should not let their worsening sales demotivate and weaken their resolve. Rome was not built in a day.
Don’t mistake my occasional ‘negative’ comments about Proton as a sign of weakening support; I (constructively) criticise Proton because I want them to improve, not because I hate them. However, I strongly oppose blind support and I caution all blind supporters of Proton to reassess their stances. Blind support is no better than blind hatred. But constructive criticism is what leads to and constitutes constructive support.
There is nothing wrong with giving credit to someone when and where it’s due. It is our typical Malaysian mentality not to outwardly praise something ‘Made in Malaysia’ that is actually good (except Malaysian food… we all love our food)… but it is perfectly fine to criticise and bash anything and everything ‘Made in Malaysia’. However, if you do not recognise and reward success, there will be a reduced incentive for others to strive for success… the mentality would then be “What’s the point of working hard, when nobody seems to appreciate it ?”. This is what’s happening today… especially among the younger generations.
Overall, I’d say the reasons behind Proton’s continued slide in sales and market share for 2015 can be summarised as follows;
1. They didn’t launch the new Persona in 2015. The low pricing of the new Persona and Proton’s proven knack for making affordable sedans would have made it a best-seller. Meanwhile, Proton discontinued two models in 2015, the Satria Neo and Inspira.
2. They failed to market the Iriz properly enough and focus on dispelling doubt and uncertainty behind the Iriz’s reliability and quality control. They never presented any solid evidence to prove that the Iriz was indeed more reliable than past Proton models. Although the CVT was much improved, it was simply not good enough.
3. Proton Edar (aftersales) failed to improve their services enough and continued to drag their feet at the expense of Proton.
4. Malaysians decided to stick with proven brands in 2015 and preferred to minimise risks as a result of tightening living costs brought on by a weakened economy, GST, low oil prices, Jibby & Gang etc..
5. Banks tightened their HP loan requirements, making it harder for Proton’s buying demographic to purchase a car, even when they wanted to. I’ve heard that it’s easier to obtain a loan for a Perodua than a Proton (bigger models aside), but I can’t verify this statement.
6. I’m sure there’s more, but these are the few solid reasons I can recall for the moment. If you want to add your opinion below, you’re welcome to do so, but in an appropriate, constructive and courteous manner. Else, don’t expect me to reply back, I don’t have time to waste on internet trolls and bigots. I always welcome a healthy debate. If I take too long to reply, I apologize in advance as I have several Engineering exams and assignments pending.
U only got 1 thing wrong about P2. Their cars only got jepunis skeleton. The tissue, muscles, organs are made in malaysia which makes its not on par with its jepunis donor. Not to mention near non-existent safety spec. Thats why I say Malaysians wud rather proudly die in their moving coffins than shamefully survive in Proton.
Hah ha ha stupid joke..long live proton coffin..
in fact, Any car driven by people like John is coffin.
Fast & Furious god death in his coffin Porsche langgar pokok..
Myvi 4 star. Iriz 5 star Ancap. Go figure.
Engineers are people with logic and straight mind.
If an engineer keep on hoping and supporting hopeless entity then he is simply illogic and insane.
Its like praying or meditation into intangible belief for nothing. Pure futily and waste of time.
Either you an engineer or a monk. Choose one only.
You need some tissue, pal? Tsk tsk tsk :-(
You should know better what is concept of Karma.
What is happening to Proton now is Karma. When going is tough, the tough keep on going. That is payback for screwing rakyat 30 years.
Nothing can save Proton now no matter what new engine new Suzuki rebadge new this that etc. Rakyat now enjoy the Karma unfolding itself. Justice done for rakyat finally.
My first car was a Proton and I told my kid not to buy Proton if they have choice.
30Mil people suffered because of one person ego.
The message will be passed on from generation to generation.
My 1st car was P1, and I tell my son for his 1st car, must be P1 with ESC, HPF and at least 2 airbags. If he show me myvi, I kick him out of haus. If he show me virus, I disown him from famili
Bravo comment, aero.
I have mentioned before proton’s achilles heel is its powertrain.
To the general people, Proton was best during its mitsubishi days. There were quality flaws, power window being most famous, but the bottom line was proton with Mitsubishi powertrain were bulletproof, ok fuel consumption, practical sedan/aeroback for family usage, affordable relative to market price, all factors sum together as one comprehensive package that’s unbeatable.
Then came the campro era, started by gen2. Horrible beige cheap plastic interior, no glove box (WHAT THE FARK), crap ergonomics, uncomfortable rear seating position, worst of all : campro. I said before campro was made as a manual, for spirited driving where higher rev is needed to exploit its powerband, weak low/mid torque.
It cemented proton’s image as bad family/workhorse tool, leaving affordable pricing its only saving grace.
Myvi hit the nail in the coffin, as it had the right interior comfort/space, easy to access powerband, fuel efficient, no power window stigma, and affordable pricing. I remember reading the top spec with 2 airbags + abs was very popular, signaling the market appreciates safety.
At that time, the only proton to have 2 airbags + abs were gen2, and savvy, which when considering all round packaging, were inferior to myvi’s packaging.
Savvy was DOA due to Renault powertrain, and legendary AMT failures completely killed it.
Then, DSZ came and restored hope, but sad to say, his entire tenure left a legacy that his best was damage control. He successfully improved qc perception, putting power window failure stigma to rest once and for all. He introduced more family oriented models with more sedans, n exora, but they were all campro powertrain, n interior ergonomic flaw was still evident in persona’s rear seats. IAFM, CPS, CFE, Punch CVT, VVT, while better than campro kosong, just couldn’t match up consumer’s expectation that puts myvi’s/vios’ powertrain as bare minimum Proton must leapfrog to regain the trust they once had during Mitsubishi era. That partially explained inspira’s kinda successful run.
The GDI/TGDI + Jatco cvt/getrag 6-speed mt is the most promising shot they have to make a breakthrough truly worthy to finally awaken perodua/toyota from its complacency. When media’s/owners’ reviews start to come of its smooth, good low/mid torque delivery, fuel efficient nature that truly beats perodua’s/toyota’s dinosaur powertrain, coupled with superior safety having ESC, HPF, (hopefully in the future, minimum) 6 airbags, good interior ergonomics n practicality (iriz already achieves this imho. Love its comfy, supportive headrest that’s second only to Volvo’s), with the right price, Proton can only then win the local market and have much more compelling offering in overseas market.
Quite possibly, they could’ve avoided all these had only they adopted Toyota’s powertrain, but the night is darkest just before dawn. The dawn is in Proton’s GDI/TGDI + Jatco CVT/Getrag 6-speed mt powertrain, so God please let it be the true saving grace i want to believe in. Only then can Proton earn forgiveness from Malaysians for the past lost decade of mediocrity. Let us believe in this possibility, Aero. Amen.
Tats wat i have been trying to say all along…instead of launcing new Petsona and Saga (their stongest seller and strentgh) it choose to dabble at the territory of the City God car wit the ugly Preve Supima, thN try to fight Mivi head on wit the anoter ugly butt Iriz…nw they decided to rebadge Susuki van (after Exora failed) and relaunch anoter rebadged Perdana…totally lack of focus…worst is the ceo, management and designers who designrd the ugly Preve Supims Iriz still in charge
You must be fan of fugly Almera Vios dugong designs lol
Org malaysia memang dah bodoh dari dulu lagi…ingatkan zaman dah maju ni org malaysia makin cerdik rupanya makin bodoh makan taik…kalau nak tau tgk la yg komen dlm poul tan ni…
Ya dulu memang bodoh tapi sekarang sudah bijak tidak lagi memilih Proton.
Moving coffin p2 toyoda. Musti piley!!!!
Ya memang sangat bijaksana. Diorang pilih untuk mati dengan bangga dalam keranda bergerak toyota/P2 dari segan hidup kerana terselamat dalam keta P1, kan?
The biggest loser is Sam Loo la.