My husband bought me a posh new car. "The ultimate driving machine," he said. "Never will break down or stall," he said. But a year on and just 12,250km notched up, I had to sit alone on a remote kampong road for two hours at night waiting for a tow truck.

Sophisticated diagnostic tests revealed that the car that costs a bomb failed because of a clogged fuel filter. The reason adulterated petrol! This fancy car, being sensitive to low-grade petrol rebelled but not so the less fancy Protons which can survive on a steady diet of inferior quality petrol.

I was told by the manager of the service centre that he had seen six cases of this sort in Kuantan. Don't the rich petrol companies have any quality control? Who is to protect the poor consumer? Do we have to fight our own battles with the petrol station?

Does this mean that we in the East Coast cannot own a high-tech car? Why then sell the car in the East Coast? Doesn't the car salesperson have a responsibility to tell us about the "sensitivity" of this particular brand of car? How am I to know when my car is going to stall again? Which petrol station can I trust?

After spending more than RM700, my car is back on the road. Now, I don't take things for granted. An expensive new car does not guarantee that you will not end up stranded on the roadside. At the back of my mind is the fact - my car may stall anytime anyplace! with no warning whatsoever.

Why bother about petrol prices? Why not just fill up with kerosene? After all, we get that for the price of petrol at our petrol stations!