Proton car owners in UK a 'very satisfied' lot

PROTON Holdings Bhd has scored big in the UK, being among the top five car manufacturers when it comes to customer satisfaction there.

Proton trailed Honda, Toyota and Skoda, but was ahead of more established carmakers such as Nissan, BMW, Volvo, Hyundai, Kia and Volkswagen.


Documents obtained by Business Times showed that Wegener DM had asked over 70,000 shoppers to rate their level of satisfaction on a range of products and services such as mortgages, mobile phone providers and banks.


A total of 46,627 people responded to the car satisfaction section of the survey.


When contacted, Proton managing director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said customer satisfaction has always been high in the company's list of priorities.


"Proton has made a promise to resolve quality concerns and to deliver total customer satisfaction.


"While the issue of quality is being sorted out with the more recent Savvy and Satria Neo models setting new benchmarks in quality, validated by market acceptance, we are working very hard to fulfill customers' expectation overall.


"These independent results have given a big boost to this commitment," Syed Zainal said.


Proton UK managing director Brian Collier said the latest result was backed by the recent NFDA Dealer Attitude Survey where Proton dealers also showed their support for the carmaker.


He added that the results were timely with the growing monthly sales recorded this year compared with 2005.


Collier said the company's future looks bullish with a new three-door Satria due to be launched in the UK in early 2007. - By Zuraimi Abdullah