On Valentine’s Day, I was driving my five-month-old Proton Saga heading home along the Federal Highway, slightly past midnight. All of a sudden, my car’s engine went dead. I was shocked but managed to remain calm. I shifted the gear to neutral and slowly steered the car towards the roadside. After trying to restart a few times, the engine remained dead. I had no other choice but to call for help.

Help finally arrived at 2:15am. The technician did some checking and found out that my car battery charge was extremely low. It could be due to an alternator problem. The technician was very friendly and helped to replace my battery with a temporary one. He escorted me to ensure I could reach home safely.

He told me to call the insurance company on Monday so that my car could be towed to the nearest Proton service center. Despite all the hassle, I was quite satisfied with the service from this technician. It was worth it to pay for such services.

On Monday morning, I tried to start the engine but to no avail. I went through the service manual and found the Proton breakdown help-line. After getting connected to a gentleman, I explained my problem and asked how the company could help me since it was still under warranty. The gentlemen replied that I should call my insurance company to tow the car to the nearest service center.

Being a bit agitated, I asked him what if I did not access to towing services. He kept insisting that the company does not provide towing services. Finally, I asked what a so-called ‘breakdown’ service center meant when it could not help me at all. The reply was still that I should call my insurance company.

I was confused and read the manual again. Yes, it stated clearly ‘24 hour breakdown help-line’ and it was free of charge! I told myself how na ï ve I was. There was no free lunch in this world. It was my mistake for still believing in such marketing gimmicks.

I called up my insurance company and the tow truck arrived after an hour. On the way to the Proton service center, after hearing my frustration, the technician cited a recent incident where he towed a two- day old Proton car with a similar problem. He said that I was more lucky than the other guy. He meant to console me but I was getting more concerned. Reliability is a question of luck?

I left the Proton service center after explaining what had happened to the technical advisor, leaving the car behind. It was 10 am on Feb 16 I was told that I would be informed once the car was ready. At 5:30 pm, I realised that I had not received any news about my car. I called the service center and was told that my car would only be ready next day.

Upon asking why they did not call me earlier, the answer was quite straight forward:‘You will be informed only when the car is ready’. I thought there should be some customer service personnel who was supposed to follow up on the status of my car and keep me updated.

I finally received a message from the service center that my car was ready the next day. I was quite relieved because it had been a challenge without a car. I should blame myself in that I am totally spoilt and had lost my knowledge about how to get to my office via our ‘sophisticated’ public transportation system.

The service advisor handed over my car and a service report. The report stated: ‘Before slow charge – 11.61 Amp, after slow charge (6hr) – 13.06 Amp’. Being a non-technical person, I asked what the problem was. The answer was that it could be a battery problem. It was the ‘SOP’ to recharge the battery first to verify if it was a battery defect before the service centre could make any warranty claim against the battery supplier.

After recharging, it seemed that the battery had gained back its power. And he had tested to confirm that there was no battery defect at all. This meant that something had caused the battery to be low in charge. Then, I asked what caused the battery to be out of power. The service advisor looked puzzled and replied again that it was their SOP to recharge the battery, full stop.

I was surprised at the answer given. Logically, should he not check why the battery went out of power since there was no battery defect? Did he not understand that by charging the battery, he had yet to solve the root cause? Was he not aware that he should try to find out the source that caused the battery to be flat?

Obviously, I was not happy with the answer. A technician was called in to explain to me again the same thing; that they had to follow the procedure to recharge the battery. Since they did not understand my concern, I asked whether there would be any indication or ‘warning sign’ that the battery power would become low again so that I could bring the car in for checking before the battery went dead while I was driving.

The service technician and the service advisor looked puzzled again. The reply was quite simple, ‘When the car breaks down again, I should send the car here again’. Again?

At that moment, I completely lost my patience. I had to insist that I could not accept such an explanation because I did not see any solution given to me. How could I drive away my car knowing that the same problem could happen again? It was quite clear that I had to again depend on my luck!

I resorted to a simpler question: ‘Who is going to guarantee that my car will not breakdown again due to the same problem?’ Finally, a service advisor told me that I could call the 24-hour breakdown service provided by Proton. But I did not need someone consoling me over the phone, without giving me any practical solution when I was stuck helplessly on the road.

I had my insurance but I wanted to know how these experts could be so confident that they had solved my problem without answering my basic question - what caused the battery to be flat in the first place? Eventually, a service advisor wrote on my service report his and his manager’s mobile number. He personally guaranteed that I would receive his personal attention anytime my car broke down again with the same problem.

I thanked him for his personal service and accepted as a promise. Certainly, I would not wish to make use of this guarantee for two reasons.One, not to disturb someone’s private time and most importantly, I wanted to remain confident with the car and the competence of the services. After all, it is ‘Buatan Malaysia’. I should be proud and continue to support it being a proud Malaysian.

My confidence was completely destroyed on Feb 29. A message came in early in the morning while I was asleep in Germany. It was a message from my wife that the car broke down again and she was helplessly waiting for the tow truck from the insurance company to come. Luckily, our two very young children were at home with my mother-in-law.

Being so far away, I was concerned yet I could not help my wife. I was confused whether I should regard myself being lucky because it happened again as what I had predicted. Again, it’s luck.

I hope what I have experienced is confined only to me, being the only unlucky owner of the new 1.3 Proton Saga. I attribute all these unfortunate experiences to my own bad luck. Nevertheless, I sincerely hope that someone from Proton will be helpful enough to look into the root cause of my car battery problem and provide a satisfying solution when I bring my Proton to the service center soon.

One marketing professor once told me before that product reliability is no longer a competitive advantage. It is a pre-requisite in business. The competition has become so intense that after-sales- services have also become a pre-requisite being in the business.

Proton has been in the car business for more than 20 years. I cannot but attribute all my bad experiences with this car to my own bad luck. By the way, if anyone from Proton, if any, would like to share with me how I could change my luck, I can be reached anytime.