I was watching Buletin Utama just now and I just realized about the Petronas ad regarding RON95 (sorry, I know it is not a new issue, it's just that this ad is completely oblivious to me). I am not a big fan of Petronas and I would never fill up gas at any of its station. My family had many issues with Petronas since I was in primary school. And according to some of the mechanics and people who know so much about cars (petrol head), Petronas is a bad choice for anyone to fill gas. One thing that I personally found out about Petronas is that, from my experience, if you want to go further with a full tank (this is about mileage), Petronas cannot keep up with any other gas station like Shell, Esso/Mobil and BHP.
Coming back to the main issue here - RON95. When the government announced long time ago that they would replace RON92 with RON95, I always think it would be an irrelevant move. I mean, RON92 (minyak merah) is still frequently used by many road users especially in Malaysia. In our country, we don't have scrappage program. For those of you who do not know what scrappage program is, it is a government budget program to promote the replacement of old vehicles with modern vehicles. Scrappage programs generally have the dual aim of stimulating the automobile industry and removing inefficient, high emissions vehicles from the road. Recently our government announced to put this program into motion whereby any vehicles over 15 years old would have to be inspected at Puspakom every year or get a new vehicle. Of course this program would be opposed by many Malaysian road users since they are more than 2 million citizens involved in this 'problem'. Imagine 2 million vehicles over 15 years old - that's why I say that RON92 is still relevant to this day.
Another thing that was pointed out by one of the people in the ad was, RON95 is actually make you go further. I don't know with you guys, but I'm a bit baffled by that statement. I bought a motorcycle when I first came to Sabah. It is a Honda EX5. The reason on why I bought that specific bike was that it is the cheapest of all new bikes and I really hate anything second hand. I could fill up its tank full with only RM5 (using RON97, minyak hijau, the normal one that people use). I have tested the bike that if I go up to normal speed (in this case, 60-70kmph), it would go to 120 to 150km. But ever since I changed to RON95 (minyak kuning, like what they call it here in Sabah), it seems that my bike cannot even reach 100km. And this isn't just me. I only use Shell for my bike but then for those who are using Petronas, they would have the same complaint - RON95 cannot make you go further like what they claimed on tv.
Finally, one woman at the end of the ad make a statement telling us that RON95 is actually better for the environment. Now, that's what I call a lie. It may be bold for me to say things like that but I can prove to you. Picture this - although there are 2 million vehicles over 15 years old on Malaysian tarmac, there are more new cars on the road as well. And by new cars, I mean vehicles which are less than 10 years old. If you even look at your own car/bike and even your family's or parent's or friend's, most of them are using minyak hijau - RON97 before RON95 was being introduced. In our country there were only 3 types of fuel - RON97 (hijau), RON92 (merah) and diesel. RON97 is being the most environmental friendly while diesel harms Mother nature more than we could imagine. This is a fact. So, since when RON95 is better for the environment whereas people are using RON97 in which, it is much more better for our planet? I'm not making any speculation, I'm just talking using logic per se.
The only reasonable conclusion that I could come up from the reason RON95 is being introduced by our government 3 months ago is that, the government wants to take our money - as simple as that. Think again, the RON95 was being effective on 1st of September. Just one day before that, it was our independence day where our Prime Minister talked about many things especially on 1Malaysia and 'rakyat didahulukan'. The next day, came RON95 with a price of RM1.85 (5 cents higher than RON97 before that) and RON97 went up to RM2.05. Just a week after that, our beloved PM once again announced on tv that our government gained entry to the 2010 Formula 1. I'm a huge fan of F1 and I know to manage a team for one season, I repeat - one season, it would cost about 300 million pound sterling. Malaysia is not a rich country nor a developed one. We would need massive funding in order to stay in the business. I'm not making any reasoning based on inconclusive evidence nor accusing our government for sucking our money. No, my intention is only to discuss about the ineffectiveness and irrelevance RON95 - that's about it. In fact, to some extent I found that government's intention in pursuing in F1 is a good thing. But then please don't burden the citizen. Build an F1 car, build our own space shuttle or any other megastructure but don't torture us in the process.
All in all, I don't like RON95 - especially in Sabah where all petrol stations do not provide RON97 anymore. Seriously, if they still sell 'minyak hijau' here, I would stick with it for a long time.
p/s - it has been a long time since I last posted something on my blog...it feels as if I was doing a piece of academic writing...LOL
