first of all, malaysians really wont mind driving a rebadge car would they? i mean ppl put beamer badge on waja ... thats rebadging right... ?? hhhehheh...look at the pimp my ride thread...one of the biggest thread right?
well proton has not been doing well building cars of their own, the sales figures have shown.. malaysians are just not as patriotic as japanese, not because they dont want to, but its hard to be patriotic in a country when your pay is normally low and most can afford a car if they sell a limb or somthing like that. again proton needs to feed a lot of family, they have made a lot of mistakes with many models... but a culture is not something you can just change, you dont wake up one day and say...hey id wanna change how proton operates and make it better.. no it does not happen that way. im in the auto manufacturing industry and im feeling tat to a certain extent too..
as for now i can see the inspira a move to revive protons sales... well the mitsu lancer isnt doing too great here themselves partially thanks to its price.. 123k isnt entirely cheap... top another 10% and its camry zone...
now i think proton sees this in another angle, what if we sell this car within the honda city / vios zone, retain the mitsu built (that is if they can maintain that) and revive the wira-converting-evo days or wiralution for most... and that never devaluate any evo on its days... in fact it made the evo more desirable...
the halfcut shop now has new business by this models launch, local tuners already have aftermarket parts for this car, a whole new industry could start from here.. a InspiralutionX will be born. and itd cost nearly or slightly more expensive than the actual lancer.. why not then? 9 yrs loan already available.. many will just get the 1.8 variant and X the car, perfectly legal... makes sense to save proton's mistakes as they can regenerate revenue to revive proton's future... i feel this might be a better way to make money than just sticking their palm out to the govt for more money to survive.. its legitimate business, even tho it might tarnish their image of 25yrs acheivement,... ego aside and save the company now and they could only hope for a better tomorrow...
all now is to wait and see the response of the market to this car, i dont need it so im not considering, but i know many will... just my 2 cents.. dont flame me ya