KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 29): Proton Holdings Bhd strives to counter Malaysians' negative perception of its cars by improving and upgrading each new model, said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in a Bernama report.

He said Proton cars today fared much better as they are powered by efficient engines.

"Every new Proton model is an improvement of the last one. Proton started by producing simple cars, such as the Proton Saga, but Proton cars today are very sophisticated," he said in his keynote address at the Empowering the National Automotive Industry Seminar here today.

Dr Mahathir, who is also Proton chairman, was reported by Bernama as saying that Malaysians are still not convinced that Proton had produced good cars as most consumers only remembered the earlier generation of Proton automatic windows which did not work.

"Today the automatic windows in Proton cars jump up and down efficiently," he said, adding that Proton endeavours to produce world class cars.

He said Proton cars are as good as imported ones and cheaper, like the newly-launched Proton Iriz.