Congratulations to Proton for its latest NCAP 5-star models in the market. As someone who has driven several model of Proton cars before, I was proud when Proton put safety ahead of its competitors.

So, when I went for a test drive your 2016 Persona on Oct 2, I quickly signed up for a booking - a red premium model. I have always wanted an affordable six-airbag model with the Electronic Stability Control (ESC), leather seats, etc. The price was reasonable, and this time around I felt that Persona is such a presentable car. No longer an inferior product.

I chose the red colour simply because my wife loves red cars. And the salesman told me that red premium would be delivered much earlier compared to grey, as most customers prefer grey. And the waiting period was about a month.

I had no fuss about it. I told the salesman that I didn't buy because I really need a car (both my wife and I have a car each), but because I think I need to support Proton for producing a good car; safety-wise, particularly. Yes, I need a safer car.

A month passed, and I didn’t even bother to ask the salesman on the delivery. But by the sixth week or something, I started asking. Well, I think it would be nice to drive a safer brand new car, but the car is nowhere to be seen.

By the eighth week, I'm beginning to be irked at the late delivery. I told the salesman, try to deliver by the following week, else I’d like to cancel my order. He said he would try his best. But the following week, there was still no news on delivery. I gave him another week, for which he was thankful that I still had the patience for it.

Meantime, I have been following the Persona VVT Facebook, and some of the postings about the problems sound like genuine to me. Yes, some postings could simply be ignored, especially from the first-time car-buyers, but some of them are useful - that the new Persona is not problem-free. And that dashboard is still rattling!

And apart from a number of factory defects (though minor ones), they also talked about their dissatisfaction with service centres, which really filled me with dread.

Then, I read Paul Tan on some December promotions, that Persona models delivered in December were to be given two-year free service, but when I checked with the salesman, he said it’s not applicable for the Premium model. Again, I was irked! Why can't Proton extend it to the Premium model as well?

Later in the evening, I read another Paul Tan article that Honda is giving a huge discount for year-end sale.

That night, after two-and-a half-months of waiting, I called my salesman, told him to cancel my order and asked for a refund (it has been four days, but the money has yet to be refunded. Never mind, I didn’t expect to get it anytime soon). And I also informed the bank loan officer of my intention to cancel the booking.

And the next day (Thursday evening), on the way back from work, I stopped by at a Honda showroom and had a chat with a salesperson there. On Friday, I test-drove a Honda model, and paid for the booking. And called the same bank loan officer to arrange for the new loan.

And what surprised me was that the loan is so much cheaper (2.62 percent) compared to 3.11 percent that I got for Persona earlier. And I was told that the standard loan rate for Proton is around 3.5 percent, and that I was given quite a low rate due to my good credit performance.

Can Proton do something about this double standard in loan rate, too, please?

Proton has to improve its competitiveness

Well, I’m taking the trouble to write this because I think Proton has to improve its competitiveness to survive in today’s business environment. No matter how good your product is, people’s mind and perception could change as a result of prolonged delay.

I remember the Honda salesman laughed out loud when I told him about late delivery. “That’s why Perodua said ‘it delivers’ and not ‘delay-ver’!”

Yes, Proton ‘delay-vers’ and loses a customer like me. But I’m sure I’m not the only one. Unless and until your top management understand the ‘people’ element in the 7Ps marketing mix, it’s hard to stay competitive.

Whatever it is, kudos to Proton for raising the bar on car safety. I’m glad that safe cars are now within the reach of average income people. Only if most buyers understood how the safety features and help Protect the occupants’ lives in the event of crash, they would not think twice about buying Proton models.

Best of luck, Proton.