Proton - A New Saga?

Proton, as we all know, is the Malaysian carmaker established in 1983. A collaboration with Mitsubishi and government protection by applying excise duties on foreign cars helped this company to grow slowly and managed to control approximately 73% of the market share five years after it came into business.

Later, performance of Proton dropped, letting Perodua become the largest national carmaker with 42% of market share, while Proton's market share dropped from 40% in 2005 to 32% in 2006.

Things got worse for Proton, and as some people described it, "Proton is bleeding".

But early this year, Proton launches it's latest model, an enhanced Proton Saga, codenamed Proton BLM during it's design and development process.

From my observation, this latest model is by far the most successful model that Proton has designed. Comments on existing blogs are mainly positive and a lot of people seem to really like this car with 23000 orders placed for this model within just a few weeks of its launch. I personally think that the car looks good, at least for the fact that it is an economical B-Class car.










Source: http://proton-edar.com.my


Is this a new beginning for Proton?

It seems like one, and I surely hope so. It is reported that this new design is a really different design compared to the previous models in every aspect, which could be the base of designing better enhanced models in the future.

With historically unsatisfactory customer service and losses that it has experienced, Proton cannot afford to be any less efficient than it's current state. Proton needs to move forward no matter what. And moving forward doesn't mean moving forward alone. Proton desperately needs positive changes in QC, as well as customer service.

If Proton fails again in the future (and yet still want to save the 100 000 jobs created from the company and its vendors), I think it'd be best if Proton gets a talented foreign CEO by selling its shares to some non-Malaysian companies just like how Nissan sold 37% of its stakes to French's Renault in 1999 and started to generate profit afterwards. Now, Renault owns 45% of Nissan's shares.

I am not a Proton basher, neither do I think it produces the best cars in the world. I do think government's protection is a must for Proton to help the company grow at first but at the same time this has caused the situation to be somewhat like rent seeking, so protection can't continue forever or Proton will die once it is exposed to the real competition.

I am just like any other Malaysian, hoping to see that someday Proton will make it to be one of the world's biggest players in the car business. So, if Proton has the same vision as this, it better get serious in the business. It is a tough business, so it's only now or never again. If Proton ever screws up again and expect Petronas to cover the consequences like what happened before, that'll be the end of it. I will never ever hope for anything better from Proton other than this one time.

To Proton, good luck in making this brand new saga a reality. May this company bring the pride and benefits Malaysians are supposed to get from it.