Edited sentence: And for good reason.But in the Proton's first year of production, national car sales dropped by half to 47,000.By 1988 the Proton had overtaken all other makes and grabbed 73 per cent of the passenger car market.Duties on packages of parts for assembly into complete cars in Malaysia are around 150 per cent.Each year the pie shrank further, and the Proton's share grew bigger.Government policy has kept the Proton cheaper than other makes by the simple strategy of over-taxing the competition, leaving Proton as the one and only choice for the consumers.In 1983, when the 'national car' had been planned, Malaysia was selling nearly 100,000 cars a year and the market was growing annually by 20 per cent.Only last year did the market begin a slow pick-up to 54,000 units, by now most of them Protons.Proton is exempted from most of these.The Proton plant was designed to turn out 80,000 units a year and could gear up to 120,000 units.The Proton was at least $1,000 cheaper than the equivalent makes in the same 1.3 to 1.5 litre class.The next year was worse - 35,000.The only problem was that the market had shrivelled.When the first Proton appeared on Malaysian roads, local wits promptly dubbed it (Proton Saga) the 'Proton Harga', meaning the cut-price' Proton.With both the price and a dash of national pride working for it, the Proton got a rapid hold on the market