Proton price cut no joke

Proton price cut no joke

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's national car distributor stressed yesterday that its April 1 announcement of a one-third cut in the price of a Proton model was no April Fool's day joke.

Edaran Otomobil Nasional spokesman T. Khirlinah Khadtap told The Star daily that the offer of 29,683 ringgit (US$8,245) for the Proton Iswara 1.3 aeroback model was only while stocks last.

"There is market demand for a basic unit," Khirlinah said. "EON would strive to deliver the cars to qualified buyers in three weeks."

EON managing director Adzmi Abdul Wahab had said the company was very excited about the offer which was made despite the country's current economic problems.

In what was a serious effort to pull up sales, EON had Wednesday placed full-page advertisements in several newspapers to announce the offer, leading to suspicion that it may be an expensive joke.