At a media briefing, Proton chief executive officer Abdul Harith Abdullah said ownership experiences and a negative brand perception were the main challenges in overcoming a lack of confidence in the brand.
He also said the previous practice of hiding “service fix” issues from carowners and repairing them on the quiet when they sent their cars for service would be stopped.
“From now on, all service fix initiatives will be notified directly to each and every customer.
“My New Proton is about earning and maintaining people’s confidence in Proton while fulfilling and exceeding expectations.”
Harith also acknowledged that Proton must overcome its problems such as the poor quality of customer service in after-sales operations and insufficient infrastructure.
To overcome this, Harith said Proton was introducing a slew of measures to improve the ownership experience.
Among these were making test driving available at all premium outlets, increasing the number of 7-days-a-week service centres from three to 49 centres nationwide, a pick-up and delivery service, and an 80-minute quick service pledge under which the labour costs will be waived if Proton fails to meet the time limit.
It will also introduce the Proton Mobile Assist to provide roadside assistance to Proton owners as well as insurance and road tax renewal at selected branches.
Another initiative is the My Taxi service programme to assist Proton taxi owners through dedicated service advisers and a dedicated day (Sunday) for priority service.
Meanwhile Proton chairman Dr Mahathir Mohammad, at a later press conference, reiterated his call for the public to give Proton a chance.
“The issues that Proton had were in the past, from it being made of Milo tins to issues with the power windows,” he said at the briefing where the new Proton logo was revealed.
He said the newer range of Proton cars, such as the Preve, Suprima, Iriz and soon-to-be-launched new Perdana, were of a newer class.
He said the Perdana had gone through rigorous testing, both locally and overseas. and was expected to cost between RM100,000 and RM150,000.