My local garage no longer has any Proton stock.

As people may know, I worked for Lotus in Malaysia.
For much of that time I was working on site at Proton's R&D centre. So I was interested to see the garage around the corner from my house has taken down all it's Proton paraphenalia.

I asked the man in the customer service area what was happening. He said Proton had no stock, and was coy about whether they would be selling any Proton cars in the future.

I read an aticle that Proton sold just cars in the UK in 2012.

Last year, Proton reportedly sold just 208 cars in the UK, a poor figure for a mass-market manufacturer and a measure of the challenge faced by the new models.

Read more: Three new Proton models set for the UK | Carbuyer http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/news/136650/three-new-proton-models-set-for-the-uk#ixzz33raGqkVz
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Proton still makes cars. It has newer products. They don't appear to be reaching the UK.

Proton has trouble competing in its home market. It doesn't appear to be competing at all in the UK.

As I have based my proposal on using DRB-Hicom related hardware, this is not optimal. DRB-Hicom owns Lotus Cars and has agreements in place with Westfield and other manufacturers. So its not the end of the world.

Proton have a new Chairman, and Lotus have a new CEO. So maybe things will take a turn for the better soon.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the great British Summer, and keeping fit. Also, after many years abroad its nice to spend some quality time with my Father, who is now in his 80's.

Life is good!