IF the predicament faced by many Proton X70 can be a lesson to all budding car buyers out there, it is that never lose sight on spare parts availability and affordability when buying your dream car.
For practical reasons, Japanese car models are often preferred over European car models – even if the latter shine aesthetically or boasts high-tech features – simply because of the ease of sourcing for spare parts at affordable pricing.
As in the case of Proton X70, it can be mind boggling to the uninitiated as to how a so-called national car model can encounter a shortage of spare parts when one would assume that the car would boast a large percentage of local content (ie. 90% in the case of the Saga) when the truth is that the X70’s local content to-date is only in the 50% region.
Recall that the Compact Crossover SUV (sports utility vehicle) was first launched on Dec 12, 2018 to raise the first national car company’s game in the automotive industry (Proton’s first C-segment SUV).
Touted as ‘baby’ Volvo as Geely Auto owns Volvo Cars Sweden (it also holds a 49.9% substantial shareholding in Proton Holdings Bhd), many of the X70’s features and designs were overhauled with new ones from the originally-derived left-hand drive Geely Boyue.
In other words, the X70 is the facelifted version of the Boyue which was previously assembled overseas “Completely Built-up” (CBU) from China prior to gradually being locally assembled on the “Completely Knocked Down” (CKD) basis.
For now, it seems that patience is the name of the game as Proton is working hard to resolve the parts shortage issue shrouding both its X70 and X50 (a.k.a. Geely Binyue which is Proton’s first B-segment SUV).
As per the explanation of its Deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah, the shortage partially stemmed from China’s emission-reduction campaign which was further aggravated by the winter season.
“Local governments in China have imposed power cuts and rationing on both industrial and residents. In some cases, Proton had to resort to source from vendors from other provinces,” he told the WAP Car automotive portal.
On a broader sense, this can be deemed as the peril of re-badging that Proton has to seriously look into to ensure that both the X70 and X50 do not lose their fandom.
This observation by long-time motoring journalist and editor Daniel Sherman Fernandez is something that all X70 and X50 owners have to take to heart:
“Geely Auto seemed more interested in selling new cars over customer care and this might be how they do their auto business in China. However in Malaysia, Proton had only just gotten a large new group of fans and consumer trust back with the brand which was slowly going to be eroded away by mounting complaints about after sales and quality.” – Feb 14, 2022
