GM to purchase stake in Proton?

[jetsetter]

DRB-Hicom, General Motors May Seek Proton Stake, Star Reports

By David Yong

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- DRB-Hicom Bhd., which holds the Chevrolet car franchise in Malaysia, may partner General Motors Corp. to bid for a stake in Proton Holdings Bhd., the Star reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

The parties may bid for a 35 percent stake in Malaysia's biggest carmaker from state-owned Khazanah Nasional Bhd. as early as next week, the report said.

General Motors may use Proton as its base to tap into Southeast Asia's biggest passenger car market, complementing its presence in Thailand, where it has assembly plants for pick-up vehicles, the newspaper reported.

Proton's discussions with overseas automakers haven't included the sale of equity, Proton Managing Director Zainal Abidin Syed Mohd Tahir said yesterday. Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop said on Sept. 5 he hasn't seen a proposal by a local company seeking to acquire a stake in Proton.

Yeah I know, who cares? Proton is a company that makes shitty cars that only people in South East Asian would buy(a huge market but that's beside the point). The really interesting question is Lotus. Proton owns Lotus and if GM buys a stake in Proton then guess what........that's right. GM will also control a stake in Lotus. Perhaps not as crazy as it sounds. GM did own Lotus from 1986 to 1993.

Before you say that GM is making a bad move remember that the South East Asian market is huge. But then again, this report may be bull.

[NAIDANAC A]

Doesn't proton work with lotus?

[BlaRo]

Basically, they'll take a bunch of Suzukis and leftover Opel Corsas and some locally made Protons and slap a Chevy badge on them and call it a day. They already do that in China, so it's all the same to them anyway, right?

And please leave Lotus out of this, they're at their prime right now and don't need any corporate bureaucracy to meddle with them.

[NAIDANAC A]

I was just wondering b/c I thought on top gear they said that the Proton Savy was the "entry level" lotus. I know they were joking.

[Wizegui]

There are two things that they can get from Proton. Crappy small cars with Chevy badges on and Lotus. I think its mostly Lotus although in GM's current state, its hard for them to buy anything.....

[andyhui01]

Originally Posted by NAIDANAC A

Doesn't proton work with lotus?

Proton has alot of Cars that are based on Lotus Handling (Although that is a bold claim, certain proton cars do handle quite well)

And only certain Proton's are shit, they have been improving steadily since they parted with Mitsubishi and are making better cars now, obviously they can only compete with Korean cars and are nowhere close to Japanese cars, but they take up 60% market share in Malaysia which is huge and therefore generated enough revenue to buy Lotus

[Kebab gud]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
GM destroyed Lotus in the 80s early 90s!
GM stoped lotus from working with toyota
the mk1 MR2 was going to be the Elan.. insted the Elan came almost 10 years later as a FWD!
GM = the death of Lotus