It has been 3,500km and about a month since I took delivery of my troublesome Wira Aeroback Special Edition. To those who did not have the benefit of reading my first letter about this little "pride of Malaysia", my car had a tirade of troubles ranging from a gearbox which refused to shift gears to odd squeaks and groans emanating from various corners of the car from new.

I'm glad to report that the car now at least runs decently. The gearbox has found the missing gears it never realised it had and some (if not all) of the odd noises have been cured.

But it doesn't detract me from one observation and frustration - despite all the efforts of the dealers and service centres to rectify the car, the moment something was fixed, another component would take its turn to go awry. To date (and mind you, its only been four weeks since I took delivery of this car), the faults list related to my "pride and joy" reads like a menu at McDonalds.

The driver's side power window failed when the car was two weeks old (how many Proton owners suffer from the ignominy of having to open the entire door to pay toll charges). The air-conditioner blower has started making sounds akin to a flock of twittering birds nesting in my dashboard when turned on beyond its second-speed setting.

The fancy bodykit that was so shoddily attached to the car since new has finally torn clean away from the car, leaving retainer studs holding it to the lower sill of the car. The wipers clean the windscreen with persistent judder, and the diesel-like clatter of the car's engine has progressively gotten more severe.

Funny thing is, I'm immune to this by now. I expect the car to act up. I expect the car to make funny noises as I drive along - after all, the car has a pretty decent sound system that can drown out all the rattles, squeaks and buzzes that emanate from the bits and pieces that make up this car. It no longer bothers me that I wasted my hard-earned cash to buy a brand new car that has far more problems than my "old" 12-year-old Saga. It's a Proton - enough said, really.

Proton launches yet another new model this week - the ridiculously named "Gen.2". In the fanfare so typical of a new car launch, the Gen.2 has been proudly displayed at Proton showrooms nationwide, and I must say, I'm impressed with the design of the car. Looks like nothing else Proton has ever released on the Malaysian market. No more hand-me down component designs and outdated Mitsubishi technology.

However, having said that, why do I get this nagging feeling that the first batch of customers who paid a handsome amount to buy the Gen.2 are going to be regular contributors to this column? After all, if Proton can barely manage the manufacture of what is essentially proven Mitsubishi technology and designs up to standards expected of a modern car manufacturer, what hope is there that they can do it on their own?

With the Waja, Proton promised change. Change that would bring its quality closer to that of its Japanese and Korean counterparts. But at the end of the day, the Waja was just as disappointing as every other product that this car manufacturer has flogged to an unsuspecting Malaysian public. The scores of complaints targeted at the Waja's build quality (and in fact every model Proton currently produces) since day one underlines Proton's dilemma.

Take note that Hyundai, now a respected name in Asian car manufacturers, started making its first cars, the Hyundai Pony, around the same time as Proton, and was also ably assisted by Mitsubishi during its early years. Compare what this Korean upstart has achieved in the same time as Proton was allowed to lay languid behind protectionist taxation policies that priced the competition out of its market. Hyundai is already producing not one, but two engines of its own design, has a model line-up that any manufacturer would be proud of and sells its cars successfully in the largest car market in the world - the USA.

Time's running short for Proton. The Gen.2 promises a new beginning for them. Let's hope for their sake, they deliver this time.