Uncaptivated

Warning: I am about to bash our National Car and those who think that bashing the national car is symbolic to one who is not patriotic, then don’t read further. Personally I do not think it has anything to do with patriotism.

You have been warned!

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Huh? Still reading ah? Okay, go on then.

We went car-hunting 2 weeks ago. The Proton Wira that we borrowed from a kind expatriate church member (who had to go for a year long sabbatical) for use as a second car was giving us loads of headache and causing us great financial losses. It was terminally ill. Every trip made in the car was a risk and a liability. Things were falling apart and it seemed that everything that could break down did break down, a few times.

Besides, our friend will be coming back from his sabbatical in October and we have to hand the car back to him (I am going to suggest to him to sell it real quick!). We thought it might be a good time to start looking for a new car (as a second car). My budget was modest (you really can’t think of anything beyond, say, 40K? Sigh….I wonder when will I get a raise?)

Right about that time, our national car maker EON launched their latest car, named ‘Proton Pesona’. Pesona in Malay means (correct me if I am wrong) ‘to captivate’.

Photo taken from www.paultan.org

Ok, I don’t profess to be a car connoisseur. In fact, I think 9 times out of 10 I would fail to identify the make of a car, even if it hits me directly in the face! But it’s hard to miss the Pesona. Hailed as the car that would turn the fortune of the ailing national car maker around, they even have a saccharin sweet jingle on radio promoting it!

And so we went to take a look. It looked like a Gen 2 with buttocks added!

Pesonally Personally, I wasn’t captivated.

I believe that a good layman test to judge the quality of a car is the ‘door slamming test’. And true enough, the first thing we saw when we reached the show room was this Chinese ah-pek opening and closing the doors of the car a couple of hundred times; and after each closing, he frowned. “Oooo, bad news”, I thought to myself.

I can understand how he feels. I owned a Proton Iswara (the first car I ever bought and it cost a whopping RM 39K back in 1998 at 8% per annum!). That car and every subsequent Proton cars I have ever driven in has one common denominator: the doors close (if they close at the first slam) with a hollow clang; you know like when you try to slam the lid shut onto a Milo tin?!

The Pesona is no different. The door closes with a hollow sound. One of the doors couldn’t close properly and needed a more forceful push.

Next, we sat inside the car. The feel was alright but the buttons on the dashboard and steering wheel felt ‘cheap’. You couldn’t really tell if you have actually pressed them or not because whether ‘on’ or ‘off’ they felt the same. Also, we didn’t like the mega-rounded air con controls.  

I do like the steering wheel though, it’s very sporty.

There’s one thing I did like about the Pesona and that is the boot space. Man! It’s so huge! Perfect for cross border human trafficking! I mean, you can easily fit 6 or 7 Myanmarese inside it comfortably!

Big, big space!

I know nuts about engines and besides, we didn’t take the car for a spin (they didn’t have that facility at the showroom!) so I can’t talk about the ‘precision handling’ they keep singing about over the air waves.

Memories of my old Proton Iswara came back to warn haunt me. In the 6 years that I owned it:

1. The windows rattled since the first day I bought the car. Numerous visits to the workshop didn’t solve the problem and the mechanics actually told me to “expect it for the Proton” and “live with it”. My mum used to say “if it doesn’t rattle, it isn’t a Proton”.

2. The radiator leaked from the very first day (again the mechanics told me they can’t repair it) and miraculously, the radiator began to rust at the spot where it leaked and it kinda auto-plugged itself!

3. The air con died within the first year and died again and again over the next few years.

4. The black panelling began to chip. The lining on the body began to give way.

5. By the 6th year, things were falling apart fairly regularly.

To its credit, not once did the car engine fail on me.

In the end, it was a no go.

Instead we bought this little beauty:

Actually it’s the only thing within our measly budget that we could afford! One consolation though…the doors close with a SOLID THUD.

Tues, 040907 @ 0808; still feeling patriotic.