Proton Edar expects 20% increase in sales this year

Proton Edar Sdn Bhd is targeting car sales to increase by 20 per cent this year from the 141,000 units sold in 2012, says Chief Executive Officer Hisham Othman.

He said competition was very fierce in the automobile industry but Proton was ready (for the challenge).

"Most important is the introduction of new models. This is required. We have indicated that we will be coming up with a c-segment hatchback model by the middle of the year," he told Bernama in an interview.

Hisham said with emphasis was on quality, safety and excellent customer service, Proton believed it can compete with other models in the market.

"The only way to win this game is through volume and in order to sell a lot of cars, they must be of good quality.

"The cost of buying and ownership and, good customer service through the years is also vital," he said.

For example, Proton recently strengthened the body of the new Saga model and added dual airbags without increasing price.

It also made a lot of adjustments and improved quality based on customer feedback.

"For the Preve, improvements have been made to the extent the model is now an excellent car. It's a fantastic car because it is supposed to compete with the Honda Civic and Toyota Altis but price wise, it is equivalent to the Toyota Vios and Honda City models," he added.

Among the improvements made were adjustments to engine management unit to make it more responsive.

"Previously, our customers complained that the car was under-powered but that was not the problem. It was just tuned lower and this can be solved by making adjustments to the software.

"Besides, the Preve has been awarded a five-star Australasian New Car Assessment Programme safety rating. It's a new car assessment programme done all over the world by an independent professional third party and five-star is the highest rating a car can receive," he said.

Hisham said the maximum points a car can get is 37 and Preve scored 34.25.

Cars that scored more than Preve were all continental cars, he added.

Meanwhile, Proton's sales and service network now consist of 230 sales branches and 285 service centres, nationwide.

"We have an extensive network, including Sabah and Sarawak. It is our strength. We make sure every single outlet gives exceptional customer service and performs up to standard.

"For those not up to the standard, we would provide training and assistance until they achieve optimum standards if they want to remain as dealers," he said.

Among improvements made were shorter waiting period, providing courtesy cars and introducing standard operations procedures for customer complaints where every single complaint will have to go through top management.

"After consolidation, our service is streamlined, with increased efficiency in areas such as standard adoption, spare parts management. The process is faster. For example, it used to take about 5-10 days to receive approval to replace parts, now it can be resolved in just two days" he said.

With increased efficiency, more cars can now be serviced and it would have a big impact on the bottom line.

Currently, Proton Edar services 5,130 cars daily, nationwide. It targets to service 5,265 cars per day next year.

Proton Edar also provides courtesy cars for certain jobs and repairs that take more than three days but this excludes accident cases.

"We have never done this before. We now provide 40 cars for this purpose and will add another 30 cars by end-April. We're doing this in stages and by year-end all outlets will provide this service. Currently only premium car brands provide this service," he said.

Servicing contributes between 10 and 15 per cent to revenue but it is very important in order to retain customers and keep them happy, he said.

"It is the deciding factor whether they buy your car or not," Hisham added.