PERDANAS MADE IN ’95 BEING RECALLED
Proton has confirmed that over 6,000 units of the Proton Perdana made in 1995 may have a defect, following an advisory sent by Mitsubishi Motors last week. The national carmaker has requested owners of the affected cars to bring their cars to an authorised EON service centre for inspection. However, Proton says that Mitsubishi has indicated that the actual affected number may be in the region of 500 units.
The defect is to determine if there are any ‘irregularities’in the dust cover which forms the lower part of the lateral arm assembly. If found to be defective, Proton will replace the RM200 component free of charge.
AUTOWORLD.COM.MY had, in fact, raised the possibility of defects in the Perdana when reporting on the Mitsubishi recall on August 22nd (see related story), and pointed out that the relationship between the Mitsubishi Eterna (a model identified by Mitsubishi has having fuel tank defects) and the Proton Perdana suggested that the Malaysian model could be affected. But no interest was shown by Proton in responding to the matter.
The defect was only mentioned by Proton CEO, Tan Sri Tengku Mahaleel Ariff on September 14th when he said that Proton was looking into a possible defect in ‘a few hundred Perdanas built in 1995. Following this, on September 15th 2000, AUTOWORLD.COM.MY had sent an e-mail to Proton’s Head of Communications, Maruan Dato’ Mohd Said to seek clarification but this query was ignored and it was only when Associated Press, a foreign news agency, asked Proton the same question (on September 19th) that Encik Maruan provided a response to that agency stating that ‘5% of units produced in 1995″ were affected. The discrimination against Malaysian media by a Malaysian national carmaker is puzzling.
The problem with the Perdanas is not something which Proton has not been aware off. AUTOWORLD.COM.MY has received a number of messages from owners asking about solutions to problems with their brakes which EON seems to have been unable to solve in spite of many visits to the service centre. A source in Proton said that the manufacturer was aware but could not identify the problem and suspected it was due to materials which come from a Japanese supplier.
AUTOWORLD.COM.MY also understands that there was one case in the mid-1990s involving a Proton Perdana which was alleged by its owner to have had a failure of its ABS. The owner had engaged an American consultant based in Johor to investigate the matter because he believed it was a defect. The outcome of the matter is not known.
The part in question is not normally covered under warranty as it is considered a ‘wear-and-tear part’ and recommended replacement is every five years. However, it is possible that this part may have been wearing out at a faster rate and therefore Proton is checking affected cars. It is a similar recognition of a component which was found to wear out too fast that led Volvo to recall S80 models produced in Europe last year as a precautionary move (none of the Malaysian-assembled units are affected).
This latest recall comes in the wake of the massive recall by Mitsubishi Motors for a variety of defects in its vehicles detaing back to the 1970s, The company is to be charged for hiding recall information from Japanese authorities and its president resigned recently to take responsibility.
The reason why Mitsubishi has asked Proton to initiate a recall is because the Perdana is adapted from a domestic Japanese model known as the Eterna. It contains a high level of content from Japan and would thus be affected by many quality issues that affected related Mitsubishi products.
Tengku Mahaleel made it clear, however, that this defect is strictly related to the Perdana and no other model in the Proton range.
