If you’ve booked the hottest new car in the Malaysian market right now – the Proton X50 – but are disappointed at the nine-month wait for your new drive, there’s a way to jump the queue.

Three dealers so far have confirmed the long wait with one of them saying that his orders were now spilling into October 2021.

The reason for the rush is because deliveries after June 30 won’t be eligible for the sales tax waiver.

How to get the X50 minus the sales tax

So, if you want to get an X50 without having to fork out extra money for the sales tax, meaning you want your car before June 30, you should book a standard specification, basic model and be willing to take any colour.

One dealer said that he could deliver orders for the Proton X50 in “three to four months if buyers are willing to order the standard specification car i.e. the RM79,000 base model and accept any colour.”

In the meantime, ignore the terrible rumours about why the waiting list is so long because these have been spread by those serving their own agenda.

• Rumour 1: Proton doesn’t have the financial means for the X50 CKD kits and vendors are being paid in kind (by way of cars) for their components.

Fact: MotorMouth checked the accuracy of this allegation with a senior Proton staff who vehemently disputed it on two counts.

“Money is absolutely not an issue. We secured some very good credit lines last year and financing is not an issue,” he said, declining to be identified as he is not authorised to speak with the media.

“The problem, and it’s a good problem, is simply that this is one of those classic cases of demand completely overwhelming supply.

“Put yourself in our shoes when we’re planning the product mix in terms of volume. Technically, the X50 is a new product, a B-segment SUV.

“There hasn’t been a proper B-segment SUV in Malaysia unless you count the Honda HR-V. You saw with the HR-V doing 10,000+ units. The X70 sold around 26,000 units, under 30,000 units in those first two years.

“The SUV B-segment is not a large one. The B-segment is primarily the space of sedans.

“If you were in our shoes, would you dare say that the X50 would sell 36,000 units a year? When we opened the bookings for the X50 and the first two months bookings already hit 30,000. Then how?,” he asks rhetorically.

“And the first three months of the CKD operations was a learning curve. Additional delays occurred because of the Covid-19 testing of our assembly line workers,” he said.

• Rumour 2: There are technical issues with the car, including engine vibration and “wind” noise from the door mirror mounted on the A pillar.

Fact: “We can also discount this because this car has been in the China market for almost two years and technical issues like this would have been resolved earlier in the domestic China market.

“Also, the X50 is based on a three-cylinder engine and even though there are mechanisms like counter balancers, there will be an inherent imbalance at certain low rpms but nothing to suggest that there’s any design issue,” he said.

• Rumour 3: There is also speculation that a Covid-19 cluster in Proton’s R&D department disrupted production.

Fact: Proton manufactures the X50 in Tanjung Malim while the R&D department is located in Shah Alam.

So, now that the rumours have been put to rest, pick up your phone and make your booking for the Proton X50 right this minute. Who knows, you just may be driving this hot, new model by mid-2021.

Yamin Vong has been a journalist for 40 years and has covered the Tokyo Show almost consecutively since the early 1980s, driven thousands of test cars and met numerous auto industry chiefs. Currently, he’s focussed on the motoring industry’s land transport issues. He blogs at MotorMouth.