Proton Persona

Owning a car is expensive in Malaysia. When we needed a new car 5 years ago, we opted Malaysia National Car because it is the cheapest among all, in fact, not cheap for such poor quality car. I always feel that buying a car is not worth the money but with our poor transport system, it is hard to live without one. Kancil is too small and we think a small car is dangerous in an accident.  Not only it is hard for other drivers to see your car, the damage would be very bad if hit by another car. My hubby thought Myvi is too feminine, normally driven by ladies and retirees. But I notice that young people prefer Myvi over Kancil nowadays.

My Proton Persona engine became noisy in less than a year after driven for less than 10k. The same complaints go for other protons owners. We pay RM529 every monthly for a tenure of 9 years. We chose to pay 9 years because we were very tight on our budget 5 years ago. The basic model was RM49,775 excluding insurance. Simple interest was 3.99%, and annual percentage rate was 7.15%. We loaned RM42K. The mileage is only about 10k annually because everywhere I need to go is so near.

Other than the monthly installment of RM529, I spend about RM200 monthly for petrol. One liter of Primax 95 is RM1.9. I hardly pay parking because the car attendants are no way to be found. I don't know where they disappear to. After one week, the fine for late payment is 10 times, and I end up not paying. I hope DBKK can work out a better system. There is no toll in Kota Kinabalu because there is no 'highway'.

Mind you, maintaining my proton persona is not easy for my income size of about RM3000. Last month I spent RM202 for general maintenance. I also got them to repair the power window for both front window and back window. The power window on the driver's side had failed 3 times. Luckily I have the extended 5 years warranty and another month be expiring. The new protons will have the power window under warranty for life. I think the power window of protons must be of very poor quality that Proton has to give life warranty.

After general maintenance at Permaisaba, Eon's authorized service center in Jalan Bundusan, hubby found the car a bit too noisy. The technician concluded that timing belt needed to be changed because the rubber has lengthened and the teeth of the belt do not fit in the groove. I don't understand but just paid RM504 for the repair. Then, I noticed when I reversed and turned right, the tyre seemed to have some unusual noise. I got my hubby to do alignment at Bintang Ramai in Kolombong, and the boss informed that the noise came from faulty absorber and mounting. When you change absorber, you have to change left and right together. That cost me RM490 after discount just for the parts. Labour and tyre alignment cost me RM100. That's a lot of money for Persona repair, adding petrol and monthly repayment is above RM2000. How to survive for people having smaller income than me?

I hope Malaysia government can be more responsible for the welfare of Malaysian. Since the infrastructure of  our transport system is poor, the government should sell national cars at an affordable price to Malaysians. According to a newspaper report, our young people living in the city are in heavy debts paying for hire purchase, housing loan, personal loan, education loan and insurance. 37% of our young people do not have sufficient income to meet their expenses. This is sad....