Bells and Whistles...

I'm struck by how much Malaysians pay for our set of wheels and still fall short of a good deal. With Son driving, we didn't feel safe letting him behind our wheels. I remember my bro when he had just learned how to drive.. one evening dad took him out for a spin. It was quite late in the evening when the the car 'limped' home with a damaged front end. Bro had 'crashed' Dad's car.... So, we got our boy his own set of wheels while I 'downgraded' (that's what my friend says) mine.

Am going to miss my former comfy set of wheels. It was with a little heavy heart that I let it go for something smaller. Back to the bells and whistles. In Malaysia the gahmen taxes us 'left and right' for imported cars. So when I recently got my new locally assembled wheels, it was amusing to find the convenience of bluetooth connectivity in a car which cost way cheaper than its predecessor. The imported car dealers have had to trimmed down so much on the pluses just to make their cars more attractive in terms of pricing. We've had Proton for so many years... yet till today, it still needs the big bro to give them unfair advantage.... so while my 'local car' had all the bells and whistles, my non-local car came with the basics... how we're shortchanged for quality.

Then, I was at Pizza Hut again recently too and I notice that compared to the early days of Pizza Hut's presence in our country, their service has deteriorated. Quality generally too... though their pizzas still taste the same. We may have a winning franchise but of late, many people I know have been complaining about their quality.

A couple of months back, I went to Pizza Hut at another location and their tables were sticky, the salad bar near empty, no credit card payment unless you go downstairs where they do the take-out orders, slow service.... Well, the one I went recently had waitresses made up like models but with service equals Turtleville pace. Here we've a franchise which would be a bells and whistles kinda treat to many but we seem to be lacking in attitude to keep it at that level. The service just makes you think twice about going back there!

Bells and whistles from both ends... but in the end, we the people still are shortchanged by our leaders' shortsightedness and coming up short on so many ends. Flip-flopping as we go along but filling their own pockets... take a read about the Sarawak Chief Minister's empire as an eye opener... if I had the sort of money he has, bells and whistles of every form and shape, here I come. 8)