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Friday, July 25, 2008

Mercedes versus Proton/ 马赛地与普腾将相

Some Malaysians may be nationalistic in the wrong way. We are proud of the production of the Proton but pride should not blind us to the fact where quality is concerned, Proton can never measure up to Mercedes. While the initial outlay may be more expensive to purchase Mercedes as compared to Proton Perdana (differences of about RM70, 000), the reality of it is that high cost of maintenance of Proton Perdana Executive is a well known to any members of administration, who uses Proton Perdana Executive.

These I speak with personal experience. My Proton Perdana Executive is 4 years old while my personal car, Mercedes 240E old modal is 6 years old but it gave me less problem than my official car Proton Perdana Executive. Because of lower body in Proton Perdana Executive, I used to have a lot of problems when traveling on rural roads. For long distance travel, it is safer and more comfortable to travel in Mercedes than Proton Perdana Executive. It is a question of value for money. Since there is substantial savings in maintenance between a Mercedes and Proton Perdana Executive in the long term over a period of 5-6 years, it is wiser to purchase a Mercedes. It’s a question of value for money plus safety. To me, it is as simple as that. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. We can be patriotic in many other ways.

有些马来西亚人可能爱国的方式是错的。我们虽然对普腾感到骄傲,但不应就此盲目看待事实,尤其是与品质有关联的。普腾将相的品质远比不上马赛地。虽然马赛地的价格比普腾将相来得高,但事实是普腾将相昂高的维修费是任何使用此官车的行政人员都知道的。

根据我本身的经验,我用普腾将相4年了,而我的私人马赛地240E则6年。跟普腾将相比较,马赛地甚少给我带来麻烦。由于车身较低,我用官车普腾将相在乡间路上行驶时常遇上很多麻烦。若长途行驶,马赛地是比较舒适和安全的。这是一分钱一分货的道理。

既然5-6年长期的时间使用马赛地能比普腾将相值得及省钱,购买马赛地确实是比较明智的。对我来说,我们必须从价值与安全作为考量。我们可在其他很多方面表现爱国。




41 comments:

Unknown said...

Even if this is true, Dr Chua, surely acting on their own accord without first bringing the matter to the attention of the Federal Government not right? This cannot thus justify them breaching a ruling long established.

Unknown said...

Dr. Chua,

I believe that you have some true argument points. But my curiosity is on the high cost of maintenance of proton perdana executive v6. Why is it the cost too high?

It is just the representatives of government should set examples to the public and the world by using national cars which reflect our nationality and pride. If we Malaysian ourselves did not encourage this practice, who else will?

zackdanial said...

But Sir you dont have to worry about Proton perdana since you are not in the government .

Unknown said...

hello there Datuk Seri,

one of the latest issue now is the car issue.

i generally dont really agree in time like this they dare to buy new Mercedes cars.in time where the rakyat being asked to "jimat cermat" but Datuk Ahmad Said defended his action by saying total amount of maintenance is just too "high".

i can see that Proton quality aint as good as Mercedes.but why not buy other brand of cars such as Toyota,Ford or Hyundai?

but i also see this as a slap to the face for Proton.from now on they have to work harder and smarter to bring back the faith of people about Proton.there just so much complaints over Proton and therefore they have to be proactive to resolve all that complaints.

fuiming said...

May I suggest the government to make public the perks/benefits/salaries/allowance etc that a YB entitle to? Put a reasonable cap on the price of all "tools" required for a YB to do his/her job.
Thanks!

BlindingLight said...

Dear All,

I don't think PROTON is the main issue. I believe our ex-PM knows this too that the main problem is that there are some low quality local suppliers to PROTON.

Otherwise why would Volkswagen (German) discontinue the Joint-Venture with PROTON ? These low quality local suppliers should be kicked out a long time ago.

If we put a low quality part in a car, you can bring 1000 Japanese-trained engineers, and 1000 German-trained engineers, that low quality part will still behave as a low quality part.

So why are we so kesian with these suppliers ? If you observe these same suppliers will supply high-quality parts to Thailand. But to PROTON they will supply low-quality parts. Why ?

To put things right, PROTON should not give so much manja to these suppliers. Now siapa yang susah?. Now without Government help, PROTON will go down the drain.

Have a nice weekend.

dak ajih said...

Why not use Waja? Low class right?

sean-the-man said...

I disagree.

It boggles the mind how the govt can spend hundreds of thousands (yes 5 zeros) over a few short years to 'maintain' a car that costs roughly the same.

My family and I have owned numerous Protons all my life. And I challenge the Terengganu govt to make public exactly how much was spent for what kind of maintenance for those Proton Perdanas.

And I would also like to know why hundreds of thousands was spent instead of simply sending the car back to Proton for repair under warranty.

In summary, I would like to know whether maintenance costs were the problem, or was it 'something else'.

Unknown said...

I think you can't understand what Rakyat think!
The question from Rakyat here is why must purchase Mercedes?
Why not Toyota Camry whereby the brand name and quality of Toyata is worldwide recognise and yet the price is cheaper than the Mercedes!
The Proton Perdana Executive is selling at RM170K and the Toyota Camry 2.4V(CKD) is also selling abt RM170K(not yet deduct the taxes)!
If the Trengganu govt drop Proton Perdana Executive and buy Toyota Camry, that one Rakyat can accept!
But now the Trengganu govt drop Proton Perdana Executive and buy Mercedes E200(RM240K free taxes) which the price is RM70K more expensive, that one Rakyat can't accept!
Rakyat are suffer yet the govt is enjoy!
If buy Toyota Camry, the govt can save almost RM 1 million.
Faham ke tak faham?!

iammi said...

Agree with you. So why can't the BN Government reduce the import tax etc. on the Mercedes Benz and other foreign cars to make it affordable to us the RAKYAT and let us the RAKYAT enjoy the benefits of the comfort and lower maintenance cost too? Isn't the interest of the RAKYAT what the Government should take care first, instead of the other way round? Now that will be PATRIOTIC of the Government leaders.

Golf kaki said...

i more concern about the quality of the car. It is really so bad??

Did proton know about the problems and take neccessary action to improve the quality of the car?

What did they do for the past 20years ???

Proton should prove the quality of the car or else consumer will lose confidence more and more..

Bangsa Cina Malaysia said...

leave terengganu aside.
ask ONG KA CHUAN TO APOLOGISED
AND RESIGN
NOW UMNO IS SECRETLY
COURTING PAS.
MCA IS OUT OF MALAYSIAN POLITICS.
FORGET ABOUT ITS INTERNAL ELECTION
NO CHINESE IS GOING TO VOTE MCA ANYWAY.

A.S said...

kalau susah sangat beli viva jimat petrol.lagi berbaloi... maintenance pun tak lah perlu fikir panjang....

1linegreetings said...

Hi,Datuk,

Do you know how the rakyat is suffering from fuel hike??

Prices of rice and other food items has increased.But ministers using "tax payers" money to purchase a merz when difficult time like this.Not only one but 14 units..... That money should be well spent for the development of the nation.

Regards,
www.exceldream50.blogspot.com

John said...

whatever happen to " Change your Lifestyle " slogan or advice made by the Minister to rakyat recently. You ask the rakyat to change lifestyle while the ministers goes on a Mercedes Benz buying spree. How disgusting! Rakyat suffer from fuel hike, minister buy Mercedes Benz for enjoyment and entertainment.

amoker said...

Terengganu should just investigate the service company and press them for discounts. That would solve some maintainence concern and enable rakyat to feel that the gov cares. Now, BN equals Barang Naik

I swear said...

Dr Chua,

Most people would agree Merz gives less problems than Proton Perdana. It is the maintenance cost that raised eye brows. Even a brain dead knows someone is profiteering from taxpayers' money.

Also, can Ahmad said guarantee that maintenance cost will be capped at RM3,000 per Merz per year for the next 4 years? Again even a brain dead knows it will not be the case. A few years down the road, Ahmad Said will tell people that maintenance is high because it's Merz.

We all know the profteering and abuse and did anyone do anything about it?

This morning, my wife had a good laugh when she knew ACA moved into investigate the high maintenance cost. It shows how much trust the rakyat has for the ACA and BN.

Francis said...

Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, since you also believe that to buy Proton at RM100k+ and after 4 years, repair cost also RM100k +, then mercedes is a best buy, I must also listen to you.

BTW, did you also spent RM100k+ on your Proton's maintenance during the 4 years of your possession?

Come on, let us sing 'Why MCA' together at http://youtube.com/watch?v=hQkMtd0wWOc

Rowan Milton said...

Rubbish, the issue here is not abt patriotism, it's abt spending the rakyat's money. Talk abt traveling long distances, has anyone looked into the alternatives? Trains perhaps? tht's right, 99% of all politicians all so used to be cocooned in air con this, air con tht. When i am at it, why do politician deserved to be ferried in the company of police bike convoy? Go ask the Queen of GB if she goes everywhere with half of the police station! cee pek tulan.

ok, u want to talk abt reliability.... japanese cars in fact are more reliable than the current mercedes, just go n look for various polls/surveys available.

to put it plainly, to spend money on mercedes is just like throwing shit into yr face (tht's if u r the rakyat!). The PM talked abt changing yr life style to cope with the inflation, so is this what he meant??

pure lunacy and 100% hypocrite !

Pearls said...

Actually, what is the problem with buying Marcidee instead of Proton?

OK.. OK..I know the austerity, frugal story in view of the economy and the condition of the people in Terengganu... BUT, wasting money has always been BN's way of life in Terengganu! So, what's the problem here?? A different person doing the wasting is the problem? Why should it be.. afterall, this different person belongs to the same group that was wasting away anyway.

How come earlier wastage by the previous MB which I am sure amounted to many times more than what this current MB is wasting never had so hot coverage?

Anyway, if the people of Terengganu are not making noise, why are we all so noisy about it?

Unknown said...

Dr Chua
All this is assuming these excos deserve these privileges. Have these excos earned it?

If we are talking about good value, perhaps these guys should be driving the smaller cars especially in times of economic hardships. I for one do not see any reason why these excos cannot drive say a myvi. In some scandinavian countries, the minister is known to ride a bicycle to work(I stand corrected if wrong). I am not saying you should but excos driving mercedes when they have not proven that they deserve it especially in times of economic hardship are just asking for it.

perhaps we should instead be thinking a penny saved is a penny earned

JYC

Camon said...

DR..

My understanding of the pending issue is that the maintenance bills could be highly inflated for individual monetary gain......

When you send your Proton Perdana for repair (sorry, there is no repair at all.... they just change the part and charge you at the rate only the government could afford to pay)... the difference could be shared amongst themselves.. The loser is the Raykat....

Wait till you see the maintenance bill for Mercedes later on... It would be higher than you could imagine... The cycle repeat again...

If you ever bother to really audit the bills for the maintenance of Proton Perdana .... I bet you will see the dirty games played by those involved.... In the end, it would be sweep under the carpet again... Malaysia mentality....

The Government talk and act according to their fantasy and do whatever that suit their action... They still have not learn from the failure of the recent election.

I foresee a bleak future for the BN government and unless there really work hard to win back the Rakyat's heart... I should safely say to you ..... Bye Bye... come the next election!!!!

Unknown said...

Datuk Seri,

1. The difference between a Proton Perdana and a Merce E-200 is not RM70k. It's more like > RM 170k.

2. Except for the ignoramus, no one spends RM 132k on the maintenance of a proton for the 1st 4 years it is on the road.
If you sell the car to the official for RM5k after he leaves office you'll see the maintenance cost drops to less than RM1k/year.

So if you want to save maintenance cost, you give the official a fixed allowance for him to own the car.

3. The whole episode is not about patriotism. It's about the moral authority of asking the citizenry to change their way of living in view of rising inflation while elected officials continue to indulge in extravagance.

- mikewang

Unknown said...

I agree with Nisha. Especially on considering other brands of car. Just like what the selangor gov is planning to do.. get toyota camry or honda accord... they are much more reliable than proton and still much much cheaper than mercs.

Anyway, in this issue, proton deserves the bad publicity... they have been operating so long now and yet reliability issues still persist. Their top management need to be brutally honest to themselves about their product and seriously improve. Malaysians deserve better cars with better reliability, fuel efficiency and pricing.

Sustainable and Environmentally Responsible said...

Dr. Chua,

Whose money are the YB using? Their own money or our hard earn money?

Elected YB can use our money to buy a Mercedes? Well in normal circumstances i might be able to agree with you but in Malaysia? Hah, one word "Kanasai".

Now, elected YB acted worst than 3 year's old child in Parliament. And use our money to buy Big safe toy for their own amusement, while we Rakyat cant even afford to feed our car and might opt for motorbike instead of car.

Let me quota what you said above

"it is wiser to purchase a Mercedes. It’s a question of value for money plus safety. To me, it is as simple as that. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish."

And my answer is GET A PERODUA!! You can buy 10 PERODUA instead of ! Mercedes.
Your safety? Well, Perodua top speed is around 130kmph, drive slow = drive save.

That's the best solution if you ask me.

Unknown said...

Dr. Chua,

Spending more than RM130k in total over past few years to repair a car that costs RM170k is a big big issue.

Of course, you can't compare the comfortability between Mercedes E class and Proton Perdana Exec V6.
They are produced by different expertise of people. One is about talking about many years and many versions of technology improvement and the other is talking about tech-no-logic and protect-logic.

Policy is set by human and followed by human. Any policy could change.

SoonTiang said...

Dr. Chua, Well said.. any low IQ malaysian would know theres no secret that proton really suck, thank you for making it clearer to all. But why Merc? There's so many other cars out there, there is cheaper to maintain too, e.g. Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Cefiro. These are much better cars compres to Proton Perdana and cost a fraction below the cost of a Merc, and I don't believe they costs more to maintain compares to a Merc or Perdana.

However, if it is going to be Merc to save tax payers money, why don't they just stop providing these either expensive to maintain or expensive to own official cars and give car subsidies to each of those gomen officials instead? wouldn't that save more and let them decide which are the more cost saving car, at the same time lock down the cost?

To be fair to everyone, especially income tax payers, I would suggest they should immediately abolish any sort of tax and duty imposed for all cars and let the rakyat afford a more safer ride so they could continue to work harder and pay(thru taxes) for these car subsidies for the gomen officials happily? Don't the rakyat deserve to drive a better and safer car? Yes, some of us(like yourself) could afford it even with heavy car duties and taxes, but the majority can't and need to depend on unreliable proton yet sufferring with expensive petrol price.

If proton cannot survive in an open and fair competition, then it should not be around anymore at the tax payers' expense. That way, we Malaysian can have a chance to be nationalistic in our very own way.

A better example of penny wise pound foolish would be to ask the people to start planting veggies at home(to live simpler lives), but burning milliions on a bunch of luxury cars.

Unknown said...

This car issue is just a subtle way of saying the former government has badly managed the finances. A very smart move and it involved ACA now.

Shall I say this is political consolidation in the guise of buying cars?

Coming back to the car repairs, everytime the Mercedes is sent to the workshop, the bill is about RM 2 to 4k, with an interval of 15,000km. A major repair would cost about 10 to 30k. However, if you take care of the car regularly, Mercedes would last a long time.

lleekh said...

Evrybody must remember that the Merc costs double the Proton Per!

Dr Chuah, you should be focused on getting the MCA to "protect" the Chinese interests. But today when UMNO goes in secret to speak to PAS what is MCA saying? Its alright!

OK, lets assume that the MCA had gone to the DAP and spoke about cooperating with it to form the govt in Perak..then what would UMNO say?

Common doctor! MCA is not useful to the Chinese..only to UMNO!

You should be screwing the leadership for talking cock!

Unknown said...

Dr. Chua,

Just forget about the quality of the cars. If the directives given to the excos of the state are to buy Perdana instead of Mercedes. Why on earth do we need to go against this? As far as i'm concerned, a rule is a rule. Why break them in the first place? If every Malaysian can do as they wish without any respect of the rules, what will happen to this country?

Unknown said...

Dr. Chua,

Just forget about the quality of the cars. If the directives given to the excos of the state are to buy Perdana instead of Mercedes. Why on earth do we need to go against this? As far as i'm concerned, a rule is a rule. Why break them in the first place? If every Malaysian can do as they wish without any respect of the rules, what will happen to this country?

KK said...

I own a Wira coming to six years now. It will give me new problem each year.

Doing business with the government is a very profitable business.

Should the ACA doing their jobs well, many of them are already behind the prison's cell.

What's to do? This is Malaysia Boleh mah.

笑看风云 said...

Dear DR. Chua Soi Lek,

if the" mercedes issue "can bring awareness, and reduce " wastage",we can actually save a lot of $$$$$ from
1) purchasing of spare part,,,,,,??
2) maintenance of proton .......????
3) monsoon cup and theme park and ....? as quote by Trengganu MB.
4?????

don't be surprise the " mercedes" is "free" after all the saving

a better car for those who "TRULY Honestly serve the "people" and country" why not.YES i agree.

" you want a fast horse but you don't gave "good grass" to the horse"--- A chinese saying
the horse has to look for grass. haha no strength and time to run

Same like windfall" gain " Tax for oil palm/palm oil? are we not encourage investor to go indonesia, philipine, thailand...???

so to be fair to investor we must have
wind fall "LOSS " tax

can't see an elephant walk by but see the ants on the ground clearly.

bye bye
happy day ,

NEIL said...

Dr,Even if I have to walk I will never buy proton car.Shit! This car can affect your daily mood,like it fail to start in the morning,funny noise in the undercarriage,power window not functioning etc,the list goes on.Never will this car be reliable.May be good for funeral cars.

Unknown said...

You politician think the rakyat are a bunch of idiots. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the government is getting screwed (may be willingly) on the maintainance of Perdana. Trying using the "inflated costs" to justify buying Mercs is a weak argument and complete joke. Unfortunately, this reflects the quality of our "so call" leaders.

Camon said...

Dr. Chua,

Could you use your 'cable' to talk to Pak Lah and propose to solve the following problems by ......

1 Buy back the Merc and resell to all the State for their VVIP use

2 Sell the Merc in the open market at rm 300,000-00 per merc... still untung lah.... I will sure bid for one.

3 Increase the EXCO's travel allowances and let them buy their own cars and services at their cost..... ( still can curi curi abit ... but still ok )

4 Forget the whole damn thing...He have much bigger problems to solve and this is only about 3 million !!!!! .... Ahoi..how much is the Monsoon Cup expenditure ??? Pengsan betul
Our leaders have lost their directions and their priority ....

5 What say you my dear Doctor ??? ... You don't seem to interact with us ..... Are we wasting your time ..... ?

HAVE PROTON WILL TRAVEL

Unknown said...

Now that the service centre people are detained for investigations on corrupt practices.

Chances are the spare parts dealers who supply parts to these service centres are shivering. It is know that grey parts are frequently supplied by these unscrupulous people as genuine parts.

And the trail goes on....

Dr Tang Weng Heng said...

http://tangwengheng.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-dont-even-care-if-he-flies-on-chopper.html

When Iju left to study overseas, he left a car for his footballer step-brother. However Mat found the four-year-old V6 too costly to maintain.

Being paid 20K per week, but thinking he should deserve at least 100K, Mat flaunted his wealth by getting himself a brand new E200. Even though he could easily afford E240 or go for even higher specs, after sparing some thought to his poor wage-earner fans, he settled for the entry model.

However his step-father was not impressed. Never been the blue-eyed boy, Mat was reprimanded for being politically-insensitive.

Pak Dol disallowed Mat from using the car. “If Aru, Mokhtar and Towkay could cycle to training ground and yet train so dedicatedly, Mat should be grateful for the V6, ‘given’ by his brother,” some neighbours offered their two-cents worth of thought.

Instead, Pak Dol ‘advised’ Mat to keep the car for use during Hari Raya to fetch balik kampung relatives, who actually had not been back as far as Mat memory could recall.

This flamboyant young man, who had just managed to secure his team captain’s armband after a rather prolonged tussle, remained defiant, albeit not unreasonably.

Gaining support from his fellow professional footballers, including one who modelled part-time, Mat continued using his E200.

When asked about his opinion on this protracted saga over a rather trivial issue, an arm-chair football pundit had this to offer.

“It does not matter what he drives, as long as he scores and the team wins. With footballer earning 120K yet calling himself slave, what is a car costing twice this amount?”

From the perspective of an underpaid, overworked middle-class wage-earner fan who is bearing the brunt of inflation, if driving E200 will spur Mat and his teammates to deliver on the field, thus repay the faith of the loyal ticket-paying supporters and not resorting to football bribery, I do not even care if he flies on the chopper to the playing ground.

Kenny Gan said...

When the leaked medical report that Saiful had never been sodomized surfaced, all that the imbecile Health Minister from MCA could say was that the leaked report is a breach of doctor=patient confidentiality and the MMC should look into this.

That's a fine thing to say while ignoring the greater crime committed. We know that MCA is a lackey of Umno but is MCA also an accomplice to the conspiracy against Anwar?

MCA has sodomized the Chinese community for too long. Now that the Chinese have refused to take this bending over, is MCA now in cahoots with Umno to sodomize the rakyat?

Dr. Chua, if you have any decency at all, you should leave this obscene party and join PKR. What is the point of jostling to be eunuch leader of an impotent party?

Unknown said...

With all due respect, Dato' Seri, in light of the current stagflationary situation, perhaps instead of arguing over the choice of car, the politically correct thing for the elected reps to do would be to do without a car and take public transportation instead.
It's probably the best way to be in touch with the needs and aspirations of the Rakyat!

波波 said...

dato sri,

不要糢糊視線,因為我們現在不是在討論merz好還是proton好,現在人民追究的是為什麼perdana V6的service這樣貴?4年保證期拿來做什麼用的?馬華的杜振耀一年修車280千,你可以tahan嗎?可能嗎?油呢?用的都是人民的錢!
你的論點是很好,不過很可惜你也從來沒有從人民的角度去看問題。

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