Proton strives to counter Malaysians' negative perception of its cars

Proton strives to counter Malaysians' negative perception of its cars by improving and upgrading each new model, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

He said Proton cars today fared much better as they were powered by efficient engines.

"Every new Proton model is an improvement of the last one. Proton started by producing simple cars, such as the Proton Saga, but Proton cars today are very sophisticated," he said in his keynote address at the Empowering the National Automotive Industry Seminar here Wednesday.

Dr Mahathir, who is also Proton chairman, said Malaysians were still not convinced that Proton had produced good cars as most consumers only remembered the earlier generation of Proton automatic windows which did not work.

"Today the automatic windows in Proton cars jump up and down efficiently," he said, adding that Proton endeavoured to produce world class cars.

He said Proton cars today were as good as imported ones and cheaper, like the newly launched Proton Iriz.