Proton Confirms Recall for Juara

As speculated in our report on November 27th, the Proton Juara is also affected by the recall which Mitsubishi Motors announced for certain vehicles it sold in Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia. The vehicles are the Minicab and Town Box; the Juara is adapted from the latter model and since late last year, over 3,000 units have been assembled at the AMM plant in Pekan, Pahang, from component packs imported from Japan. It is normal in the initial phase of production that a locally-assembled model uses a higher level of imported components while localisation by Malaysian companies is underway.

The following is the full statement from Proton, issued to the media this afternoon:

IMPROVEMENT CAMPAIGN FOR PROTON JUARA
Following an Improvement Campaign by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation of Japan (MMC) for its Town Box model, PROTON would like to announce a similar programme for all Proton Juara owners.

As the Juara is based on the Town Box, PROTON has been advised by MMC to carry out an Improvement Campaign to the pin of the parking roller rod located in the automatic transmission to improve the safety of a parked vehicle.

MMC has detected a single incident in Japan of a broken pin in one Town Box, which was used for commercial purposes. The pin broke as a result of excessive shifting of the vehicle’s transmission into the park (P) position over 100 times a day.

Although it was an isolated incident and occurred under extreme circumstances, MMC has since improved and strengthened the pin, which will be replaced when Juara owners send their vehicles to any authorized Proton Edar Service Centres from December 10th 2001 or during their normal scheduled service. They can call Proton Edar’s Call Centre for further service details at 1-800-888-398.

Even though the incident has only been detected in one vehicle in Japan, PROTON strongly recommends that Juara owners follow the operating instructions in page 68-69 of the owner’s manual to pull the parking brake (hand brake) lever all the way up when the vehicle is parked, in addition to shifting the vehicle’s transmission into the “P” position.

This Improvement Campaign will involve about 850 units and is being undertaken at absolutely no cost to Juara owners as part of PROTON’s commitment to ensure customer satisfaction and safety.