Business

Tuesday October 18, 2011

Proton offers lifetime warranty on power windows

By EUGENE MAHALINGAM
eugenicz@thestar.com.my


SUBANG JAYA: Proton Holdings Bhd has once and for all moved to erase any doubt over defective power windows by offering a lifetime warranty for all new Proton models registered from Sept 1, 2011 and vehicles that are still under the manufacturer's warranty (as at Sept 1).

Group managing director Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said the lifetime warranty for Proton's power windows is limited to 250,000km or 10 years from the date of the vehicle registration, whichever comes first.

“We want to encourage our customers to use their power windows as hard as they want and if there is a problem, Proton will fix it free of charge for them,” he said at a briefing yesterday.

Syed Zainal: ‘We want to encourage our customers to use their power windows.’

Syed Zainal said the 250,000km limit was consistent with global standards, which was the typical lifespan of an average vehicle.

“It's just that many Malaysians drive their cars for more than 10 years,” he said.

Syed Zainal said Proton wanted to erase the prevailing stigma that the national car company was synonymous with failing power windows.

“It's been going on for years and it's still a negative perception for those who have never even driven or owned a Proton vehicle!”

Syed Zainal reiterated a personal story where he was travelling back home in a Proton taxicab from the airport and the driver chose to open his door rather than wind down his window at a toll booth for fear that the power window mechanism would eventually stop working if overused.

He said all of Proton's newer vehicles were free of any power window problems.

“Since the launch of our Exora (in April 2009) for instance, the vehicle has had no power window problems.

“The power window problem was actually fixed quite a while back, around 2006 or 2007. All of our models since then have not had any (power window) problems,” Syed Zainal said, adding that the problem might be apparent in models launched before 2006.

He said Proton would be investing about RM3mil over the next 10 years for its power window campaign, which could benefit as many as 450,000 existing Proton owners that still qualify for the manufacturer's warranty, based on the estimate that the national car company had sold over 150,000 cars a year over the last three years.

He also said the warranty was applicable only to Proton car models sold in the domestic market and to both private and fleet owners, covering four main components to the vehicle's power window mechanism, namely the door regulator, power window motor, power window switch and run channel.

On a separate note, Syed Zainal said Proton's operations in Thailand were not affected by the recent flood. “We have 34 showrooms in Thailand and none of the outlets are affected,” he said.

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