Cars and Perodua...

I've gone a full cycle and gone back to our 'national' car... well at least from a car badge point of view. Cos though everyone calls Perodua our second national car, it's also an open secret that they're assemblers for Daihatsu (now owned by Toyota). So essentially these are Toyota cars... see what wool we pull over our own eyes to make ourselves believe that we are technologically capable of building cars that can sell in the world market. Proton is still trying to break out of the kampung market; and 'depriving' us common folks of other makes of cars unless you are willing to pay dearly for them.

Anyway, my ECU blew second week into ownership, as in it totally kaputed! ... first the 'technicians' told me that it was a common problem. So I joined a forum to find out more. Then when my replacement board came, I was told that mine was the first case they've encountered, as in the whole board malfunctioning. My responses from the forum indicated so too. The technicians know not what they mouth.... So, I lived for almost a week with that darn engine icon blinking at me each time I drove. Then when it arrived and I went back to get it changed, I was told each board cost about 1K.... good thing mine was still under warranty. 8)

Then there was this funny metallic scrapping sound at intervals which bothered me. So I put it down in my complaints when I sent it for my first 1000km service. Turned out that it's a perennial problem in the car of this make. The engineers at their HQ have not sorted it out yet... I wonder if this is the US or some European countries with stringent laws... would they force a recall. This is Malaysia where recall of cars seem not to be compulsory. Nissan had a materials failure in their original batch of Sylphy. Sure they'd change the dashboard if it bubbles even though it's past the warranty period but there is no effort to recall all the cars back for a change. Different standards... we seem to settle for less. In the US they recall cars for anything that warranted it. Toyota have had a spate of recalls lately.

Anyway, I was told that the metallic sound no way compromises the safety and the handling of the car. But the point is the sound is not supposed to be there. So, I'm supposed to live with that grating sound until they come out with a solution. To be fair they should have informed the consumers of this problem. So I asked them how. And they said they'd call me once HQ sort the problem out... don't know when that'll be. Problem's been there for a while that's all I know, since the model has been in the market for some time.

But generally the service in the Perodua Service Centre has improved. They even serve breakfast and provide a free flow of drinks. 8) Their customer service people are friendly enough and try their best to please. There could still be some more improvement like cutting down the time for a customer to be seen.... but generally, it's a big leap from those days of old.

But it remains though, where cars are concerned, we pay a lot to protect our 'national' cars.