Perodua started in the early 1990s with the introduction of their first model, the Kancil with a 660cc engine. This little car was not considered a threat by Proton at the time as the car was much smaller than the top selling Proton model, the Wira. Little did Proton realise, Perodua had many more plans up its sleeves and soon came introductions of several new models that ate into Proton's market share. Perodua promised better build quality and better after sales service than Proton and this worked in Perodua's favour to capture more sales.

With the ever increasing price of Proton cars (due to massive internal corruption and inefficient production cost), Perodua offered the Malaysian public an alternative to an affordable car. Pricing its cars below RM40,000; new graduates and young people were able to buy a cheap car for daily commuting. Keeping prices low did not mean compromising on build quality. Perodua were able to maintain a better build quality standard than Proton. Perodua also were very careful with the models they chose introduce to the market as they saw many prior failures by Proton.

The real boost in sales came when Perodua introduced the Myvi which was a rebadged Daihatsu Sirion. It was able to drive sales figures up to 8,000 units a month and knocked Proton off the top seller position for the Gen2.

Perodua launched the first small MPV under RM70,000 called the Alza. This model is currently the top selling small MPV in Malaysia. Proton's MPV, the Exora cannot compete with the Alza in terms of total sales. The driving experience of the Alza is also much better than the Exora as the Alza is not under powered and returns better fuel economy than the Exora.
Perodua the second national car maker in Malaysia is now the current market leader in terms on total sales volume and it does not look like it will lose this market leader position any time soon.

Having strong support from Daihatsu Japan and Toyota (Toyota owns Daihatsu), Perodua was also able to benefit from the efficient Japanese management and production methods. Perodua kept true to its plan and continued to offer affordable cars to the Malaysian public. Despite introducing newer and more expensive models, Perodua did not ignore its origins and maintained low end models to serve the public. Perodua cars are now the car of choice for many young people. Perodua is more worthy of its national car status than Proton as its original plan was to make quality affordable cars to the Malaysian public.

Perodua's success proved that Malaysia does not need a national car that is locally developed. A good rebadged model will suffice considering that the Japanese auto makers have more experience in product development and design than any Malaysian auto maker will ever have. Proton engineers may beg to differ but Perodua has proven this point time and time again.