Malaysia defends “the worst car in the world” Perodua Kelisa

A piece of news caught my attention today. A FPreported that:

 

Malaysia defends “worst car in the World” Perodua Kelisa

Thursday April 5, 2007, 3:38 am

Malaysia Wednesday defended a car made by national automaker Perodua after British motoring critic and BBC presenter Jeremy Clarkson labelled it the worst car in the world.

Abdul Raman Suliman, deputy minister in the prime minister’s department, said the British distributor of Perodua’s mini five-door Kelisa had never received complaints, the state Bernama news agency reported.

…In a February 2004 article in the British Sunday Times, Clarkson described the Kelisa as “a car built in a jungle clearing by people who go to work in shoes made from leaves”

In 2005, Clarkson actually made a video  (posted below)showing how he used a sledgehammer to dent a kelisa and then used a dynamite to blow it apart. I want to ask him ” which car can withstand an explosive?”  That’s why car bombs are being used by terrorists.

I think what he said is not fair to Malaysian. Whatever faults that Perodua Kelisa has as a car for  the lower income  group, it has enabled thousands of Malaysian to own a car fairly cheaply under the present circumstances.

  It is a product of the much debated national car policy , no doubt, but under the restrictive environment, it has done well to enable thousands of Malaysians to have the type of mobility that our public transport cannot provide.

I am a critic of the national car policy . Without the tariff under the national car policy, Malaysian would have much cheaper imported cars. We actually don’t need a national car just for the pride of owning one.  I think the Thai system is a much better system and that is why Thailand’s car industries are more advanced now.

However, since national car policy is already in existence for so many years, under the present restrictions,  whatever fault that Kelisa has, we must remember that  it is not designed to compete with a Merz, BMW, Mini, Toyota or Hyundai. Even then, it is still a car produced with the help of the technology from Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota of Japan. Certainly, I don’t think it is the worst car of the world.

Malaysian, mind you Clarkson, also don’t wear shoes made from leaves. For that matter, we also don’t stay in tree tops. We stay in proper houses.

For those who wish to see how Clarkson annihilated our Kelisa, I will post a 4 minute video here. You can see firsthand how he hammered the car, tore it apart witha heavy weight and then blew it up with dynamite.