I refer to Afiq Aziz Shah's letter (' My horror experience with Proton Waja ' ). I am in full agreement with him as I too face similar problems with my Waja which I bought in July 2001. Although my steering wheel didn't wobble like Afiq's, my front left wheel tyre was brushing against the mud flap whenever the car runs causing the mud flap to wear off within 50 to 100 km. After failing to have the problem rectified at the Bandar Tasik Selatan Proton Edar Service Centre and the Jalan 222 Proton Edar Service Centre, I resorted to an 'outside' mechanic who finally solved the problem. The mud flap cost an exorbitant RM200 to replace.

After a few months of driving the car, my car alarm began to give problems. It will trigger itself within a few minutes of setting it on. I once parked my car in the Sheraton Imperial underground car park overnight and the alarm had triggered itself and went on for the whole night causing my battery to go flat. The next day I had to go through the hassle of calling for a mechanic to get a new battery. I also missed out on my appointments.

As in Afiq's case, my digital clock too is never accurate. Within a week of purchasing my car, the clock's time was four minutes ahead of the actual time. I checked with my other Waja-owning friends and they too have the same problem. Other accessories like power window and air-cond seem to give way in one year or even sooner. I have already changed both my front power windows twice. I have never encountered such problems when I owned a Toyota and later a Datsun.

There are also other design defects in the car. The front air-cond vents are aligned too much to the driver's side causing the driver to freeze in cold in a short time while the passengers are still feeling warm. The power window buttons are placed too much to the back on the driver's door handle. So one has to move his hands further to the back to operate those buttons. This can be dangerous because you have to shift your focus from the road to look for the buttons. At night, the buttons are not illuminated and this makes it even more dangerous. The automatic transmission handle does not have an illuminated indicator to indicate the handle's position, especially at night. The driver has to rely on the indicator in the dashboard to know the handle's position. Proton must listen to the customers need before coming up with their designs.

As Afiq said, EON and Proton cannot compete globally if their products are so sub-standard and their service personnel cannot solve the simplest of problems in the car. The only thing the service staff can handle at the service centres is to change the engine oil, refill the fluids, replace plugs and any other worn out or defective parts. They don't seem to be able to diagnose the engine problems or repair any of the accessories in the car.

And mind you, to do those simple half-technical work, you have to make an appointment one or two weeks in advance and leave our cars with them for one or two days and be inconvenienced. Don't blame the Malaysian mentality if imported cars are favoured because those of us who opted for the Malaysian goods are given a raw deal!