My Car, The Waja

My ride, the Proton Waja 1.6M 2003

Could my waja really transform to this bumblebee robot?

As nothing much has happen today except for a cold and a fever like feeling, i would like to jot down a little bit about my current car, the Proton Waja 1.6M. The car was purchased by me on August 2003 as a result of the falling apart of my ex-beloved Proton Wira Aeroback 1.6xli WJL140. I've done some background check and it seems that my ex has migrated to the North of Malaysia, Kedah. I hope the new owner takes good care of it as i have tried my best in maitaining it for 2 years which i have spent nearly RM1ok for it (overhaul, gearbox, air cond....) I first test drove a waja 1.6A which belonged to my bro in law, Zekri. At that time, man it was awesome compared to my 9years old wira. The handling, interior, bau kereta baru (new smell) and the feel of it was just ummmphh. At that time i considered it as luxurios car. (come 2008, "everybody's has a waja"). I thought hard about purchasing it and did hundreds and hundreds of calculation whether can i afford such a car. The price was nearly RM60k. My budget the max was only around RM50k. Finally, decided to maintain the wira as long as i could. The wira did serve me well up to the North, Cameron & Genting Higland, east coast and the everyday KL to Subang drive. As months pass by, so was the maitenance getting higher. Temperature rising, tayar benjol, ac compressor not that strong and the usual wear and tear. But the turnaround point was when i was driving to Shah Alam and suddenly the car died. After towing it, it seems that the CAM of the engine has broken into 2 pieces. I mean, how can a cam breaks?? I thought it was life time thingy... So finally, after repairing it and doing all the calculation, i was really maitaining it at the average of RM 411 per month and still ending up not even at par with the waja. So one fine day me and girlfriend(now wifey) drove to a showroom and asked about the waja. At first it was just a suka-suka thing. But the SA, Fai was very keen in selling me the car. He even made an appointment between me and the 2nd hand car dealer to check how much is my old wira worth. After inspection, the dealer (Sam) said he could take the car for Rm19000. So again to the drawing board. The monthly installment for the new card would be RM584. Minus the cost of maintaining RM 411 is equivalent to only an extra Rm167 and ending up with a new car. Could only afford the manual transmission though. So finally took the deal, traded my old car and got the waja on 24 August 2003. Come 2008, the car has clocked nearly 60000km after 4 1/2 years of service. Still has that good feel of driving it though i think it has sounded a little bit louder inside the cabin (engine noise). So far it has not broken down. But it does suffer the common problems that the wajarian face: So far these are the stuff that i have faced:

• Power window (driver) failure
• Side mirror paint peeling off
• Power window switch (have to press hard)
• 2 broken door handle (both rear)
  

Other then that, it just works fine. Just the usual servicing cost. The car has taken me, wifey and Sofea places and places where we could go. Hehehe... Though last time it was a very clean and tidy car, it seems to have lost it's reputation especially after the presence of Sofea (hehehe, jangan marah ye).. It now carries food, baby's milk, stroller, and other stuff... noo to mention a couple of water spill and food droppings... There was also once when another waja had hit me from behind and left a scratch.. still have not repaired it... So finally what i can say about this car is that it has served me well for the past years and hope it continues to do so in the future. So far it has lived up to it's named by going very fast in the morning just to catch that one minute before 9am coz that is when the attendance system will turn red and that's not a good thing, especially where i work.. So waja, thank you for all these years and looking forward for many more years to come. I will try my best to bring back to your prestigious years :-) Tabik spring !!!!!