04 Mar 2007

Oh Proton, what woes thou hast…

04 Mar 2007

Just finished a discussion revolving around (what else?) the stock market. Won’t go into the technicalities and conclusions we came to since this isn’t what this blog is about.

There was however one interesting point that was raised which I thought I might post here. R (one of my regular round-tablers for the stockmarket) kicked of a discussion on Proton and its numerous ailments – my, it does look terminal from my perspective – and he commented that Proton’s inventory buildup is high enough such that they’re going to take (further) drastic measures to pare it down.

He said that one of the things Proton will be doing is to push its stocks of Wiras and Iswaras off at below RM30K each. I was a little startled to hear that, but R emphasised that this has been publicly stated by the current Proton boss.

So to Myuu who might be thinking (or rather, required) of changing cars, that’s something to keep in mind. A Wira may not be sexy, it may have just a barely adequate powerplant (or to put it in geekspeak, it’s a Pentium 2 compared to what’s around us now) but let’s face it, parts for it are dirt cheap and maintainence wise any mechanic operating from under a tree can fix it.

And to Fish who already has a Wira, I feel your (depreciation) pain man even though you say you don’t intend to sell it for a number of years.

So to all readers, keep an eye out for Proton’s promotions if you’re in the market for a new car.

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  1. myuu March 5th, 2007 12:10AM

    we don’t mind the technicalities and conclusions. u can talk abt anything under the sun.

    except for things we’re not supposed to talk about, of course. 😛 erhmm…

    but anyways, i think 1 proton car with its headaches is enough. but a wira doesn’t sound too bad.

  2. HT March 5th, 2007 4:04PM

    Correct, the Wira has been a reliable “hero” that Proton has pushed throughout the years. Come on, more than 10 yrs? That’s a decade of pushing the same car over and over again.

    You know what? I think Proton just made the record for the longest series in a car (model) production. I mean, let’s face it, facelifts do not count as a new model.

    But on the other hand, they’ve got so many spare parts that they can match the interior colors to their prefered scheme. Hmmm, I think the board of directors would agree to the apple green dashboard coupled with banana yellow meter clusters. Or, conventional grey gearbox console tipped with red carbon fibre look-a-like trimmings. How about a blue steering with leather trimmings and a GTi steel gear knob?

    Heck, why not just make it like the Smart for two car? Match the trimmings to your liking? Blue doors and a black fender on a white engine bonnet?

    Rudy, I would agree with Az1 on this, the RM30k car would definitely fit your budget and if it breaksdown, there’s still warranty. If the warranty runs out, well, ah Keong can fix it. No gadget wizardry needed, just pluck and replace! You’ve got a whole range of engines to select from, VR4, MIVEC 1.6, 1.8 GSR turbo, 4G63T (Evo range), or the conventional 4G93 1.8 N/A. So many choices… Sure it may not look the classiest, but for that price range, who cares? You could run the car to the ground and it’ll still continue to move.

  3. HT March 7th, 2007 11:01AM

    Az1, you have been tagged!

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