Competition and to remain competitive.
Btw, the Newest Perdana is not an entirely rebadged car; only handling , electronics and engine are taken from Honda. Exterior body is designed by Proton themselves.
Also it has to fight old Malaysian mindset - Proton Cars Sucks.
You give a rebadge car, the rakyat complain.
You give a completely in house designed car like Preve, still people complain.
What i noticed is that Proton likes to use European tech, of which some will appreciate some will despise. From what i see..Malaysians prefer Japs, no matter how lousy the design is.
i actually liked the Perdana because of its massive size, even longer than Camry and Accord.
but still people rather buy a Toyota or Honda. because of "Air Muka" mindset.
I mostly have forward thinking sort of mindset for the most part. I prefer originality. Going backwards by going back to rebadges is a big leap backwards. I prefer in house everything although Jap Engineering and Conti Engineering are better. Then only you can succeed.