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the journalists knows they are doing..probably they have it all figured out and their reports/insights..but as in Malaysia, the journalist will have to get "official" clearance? before they release their reports...just wait and see.. a few days more...all is needed is for the PM to say the the reduction is not enough....and you will see thousands of articles whacking the car companies..this is what you have when you have "no balls" journalist.

i guess they are unsure...

and no ball to make sure...

cos at one time some ppl will say imported cars are more xpensive

then another group of ppl will say it'll be cheaper...

that is a farrrking lousy excuse for a journalist to be unsure..If not sure you ask questions..that is how to piece together a credible report..and i don't think our journalist are so bloody stupid not to ask the right questions...or maybe they are?

or..

at one time they want to change their lifestyle (of writing)

but there comes another statement of "don't expect it to change overnight"

so they are confused...

hecks.. off topic maybe...

The Honda City we get is manufactured by Honda Malaysia and not imported CBU from Thailand. Same for Toyota Vios (UMW Toyota) and Nissan Sentra (Tan Chong).

Perhaps a bit more investigation on your own part, Jeff?

JEFF OOI sys: See The NST March 23, 2006, bylined Lokman Mansor. URL: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Thursday/Frontpage/20060323071920/Article/index_html

mark my words, car price in not reduce much and interest rate sure go up. At the end , car deaker make more money, finance company make more money, consumer is still the same lah

frankly, if i'm the journalists, i would rather be no ball to hold my rice bowl after all the privious incident.

I believe Lokman Mansor made a minor mistake, lets not focus on that.

http://www.honda.net.my/press_media_archive2001_pg2.cfm

Quote from Honda Malaysia website on its manufacturing plant in Melaka, "The maximum capacity at the initial stage will be 20,000 units per year on a two-shift basis, but flexible according to the market demand. The plant will manufacture four models of HONDA i.e. City, Civic, Accord and CR-V, and also component parts. DOH plans to concentrate on local demand initially and later venture into the export market."

Hope to see your article on this topic in your BM column soon :)

In 2004, when the finance ministry announced changes to the motor vehicle tax structure, and made a statement that prices should stay the same, listed prices for Volvo xc90 went up 20% from 285k to 346k, camry from rm120 something k to 140 something k for the 2 litre and honda city and vios all went up, despite consumers hopeful sentiments that prices may come down. So this time around, most of us have given up on affordable non-proton car prices and despite what was said, I believe the journalist and weary consumers alike prefer to wait for the manufacturers and distributors to crunch up the numbers first rejoicing in relief.

if there are margins to play with, market forces will eventually force the prices down. if the vendors think they can still outsell their competitors at higher prices. let them do it. i support the call to sit it out. wait and see.

Guys and Dolls,
B4 you plonk down your hardearned cash to purchase your next dream car, please, do not get your hopes too high about car prices crashing down around you, because nothing much will change. Consider the following: A fully ACCESSORISED 3000cc Toyota Camry costs a mere AUD 31000 in Melbourne (that's about RM82000), and it's not even a luxury car over there, it is everywhere. How much do you think an RM170000 2.4 Camry will fall to? RM 140000? And remember, the average wage earner in Melbourne will be able to afford the Camry with 10 months' wages. In Malaysia? Probably 2.5 years' salary. What's wrong with the picture?Need I say more?

Jeff:

As a former mainstream Bis-journo, I give my 3sen worth from an insider's point of view.

* Some GEICs owe their loyalty elsewhere, not to this Country or the Rakyat.

* The intimate Biz-Media Nexus you featured in a series is evidence that senior Editors (based on my knowledge of English print oK! I leave the vernacular press to others more in the know...) owe loyalty too to the businessmen in the news; I had had experienced reports coming to me "crying" because they were "scolded" for missing stories carried by the rival papers -- but my investiagtion showed the stories" had been submitted by the reporter BUT "killed" (journalese meaning sent to the waste paper basket!)

* I was "reprimanded" as Desk duty OC for holding back a Book Review by an CEO (now a Tan Sri) as I had to rank my priority for last minute "breaking news", a fundamental principle of ethical journalism.
I told the Senior Eduitor to shuff "IT" up his hole where the sun don't shine (words to that effect-lah).

Jeff's readers who want "names", buy me tehtarik -- better steal, Nazi Lemak thrown it2! -- Email me-lah. The address is sprinkled all over my gardnern!:) "CHOW!" and this is NOT a profanity, altho 4-letter word. Rite!

Hey Benny, you got your figure all wrong lah... when u compare standard of living u do not factor in the exchange rate! Why? Because the average pay of most developed countries "unit for unit" are the same. Average M'sian earn RM2,000/mt, Kiwi NZD2,000/mt. A Waja cost RM85,000 (?) and a Mazda 3 2,000cc is NZ30,000.
So it will cost a Kiwi 15 months pay to own a brand new Mazda 3 and POOR Malaysian FORTY TWO and HALF MONTHS of pay to own a Waja, a whopping THREE AND HALF YEARS of hard earned money! Go figure my friend!

Since I'm working with a premier car financier, there's a market talk that Toyota Vios may have a reductions of between RM5000 - RM8000.

If we want to see car prices drop, stop all APs today.

Let the free market finds its lowest price level.

We won't see any sharp decrease on car prices since government still impose "Excise Duty" at 75% rates.... Is anyone out there knows whether the excise duty is violate to AFTA rules or not? And will it be abolish in year 2008 or 2010?

The government may impose any amount of excise duties but the total tax difference between an ASEAN import and a local produce must not exceed 5%.

That is to say, if the government imposes 75% excise duty on top of the 5% import duty of an Asean car today, she is obliged to impose 75% excise duties on a local produce come 2008 if that 75% duty for an import were to stay.

mikewang, thanks for your info.

Voltronking, firstly your nick reminds me of that cartoon series la. Brings fond memories of my childhood flooding back ;)

Excise duties are described as the 'sovereign' right of Malaysia. No, it does not violate any Afta rules and regulations but it is certainly and most definitely against the spirit of AFTA. Well, if Malaysia can do it to cars from ASEAN members, I guess they can do the same to cars exported from Malaysia to their countries. So much for Malaysia wanting to be a regional auto manufacturing hub should there be retaliation.

Yeah, Samarium, it used to be one of my childhood's favourites too.
Btw, after deduct 5% to 7% of Vios or City's price tag, it still cost around RM78,000 to RM80,000++.... really make no difference.... sigh...

We'll need more than 4 billion improve transportation after these tax reduction, its necessary for the goverment to realise it, which has been promised to the people... be prepare to pay more in taxes in other forms.

Yes, Lokman Mansor definitely made a big boo-boo with his comments on the sourcing for the three models.

On a separate note, for those who thought the RM50k drop in price for the Merc E240 after the NAP was announced was great.... you might wanna know they were already offering a RM40k discount before this. So, it's not as big a drop as it seems.

I preditc the same thing for the other car makes which is to drop the price and remove all discounts altogether. So, it ends up pretty close to status quo. Perhaps that's why Najib made the comments on the drop in price not meeting govt expectations (which is silly really, because if they want it to drop a certain quantum, they should just say so!).

Notice the range of excise duties? 80-200% and now 75-125%

Guess what - it favors the rich, for whom that 30 sen don't make much diff. And yet they get such a huge reduction in excise duty for their guzzlers! How about the masses? hardly anything - talk about helping to relieve the burden!

I have done my share of plonking down my hard-earned cash for a lemon of a 'national' car that, upon leaving the showroom, started to fall apart. Not that I had much of a choice. Remember the days when you spoke to your 'friendly' 'national' car dealer and the look on his face said 'you can have any colour you want just as long as it is maroon, and the waiting list was 6 months, which could be persuaded to fall to one with the right incentives?
BTW, the Hyundai Elantra ad just came on the TV and it is going for AUD19999, with free upgrades.The Toyota Yaris with the WORKS asks for AUD21000.And that a Toyota 3.3L Kluger (Disguised as the Toyota 2.7L Fortuner in Msia) retails for AUD40000. Makes you want to weep doesn't it, when one people enjoys the fruits of free market, and another suffers the burden of protectionism?

what i do note after the announcement of this NAP is that everybody is waiting for the new car prices. that's understandable. it's the excitement.

but i have not come across anyone giving opinions or commentaries on how a fall in car prices will affect anything, like used car dealers, financial institutions or even present car owners.

first of all, if one already owns a car and wishes to upgrade, there's basically no difference because his present car would depreciate in tandem and hence it COULD be a zero sum game. the fall in prices of course benefits new car buyers.

next, how will it affect used car owners? is it likely that they will suffer losses?

finally, the financial institutions. we have heard about more than RM1 billion being the amount in default of HP loans. these cars should now depreciate even more and will it affect the recovery process?

my 2 sen. what's done cannot be undone. there can never be a drastic fall in prices of cars, especially considering the mayhem that follows.

so, don't even hope that we can buy a vios or a city at the price Thais are enjoying!

sorry .... typo mistake in my post above.

paragraph 4 should read ....

next, how will it affect USED CAR DEALERS .....

By rough estimate, at least 90% of our workforce working their asses off paying monthly dues to the banks just to own a car each. Wonder if this is healthy??? Don't know much of economics, but this is my question.

city, vios are selling at RM50-60k, at thai and china.
why we have to pay more = exercise duty= to pay for overstaff, reductant government staffs and wastage...we should bring GM / US governement, as the thai and china models, auto to put pressure on government to open up to globalisation

LC teh,

Its more hazardous than smoking.

It will only translate to less purchasing power for other goods and services and lower saving, which in turn meant lower standard of living.

Together with the crowded tol plaza throughout the country, high oil prices, low wages, high cost of healthcare, high cost of education (non-bumi only) and low level of saving, it will have definite consequences in the future, once the oil is depleted or foreign investor leaving en-mass to lower cost centre.

Just pray Malaysia wont end up like philipine in 2020.

Beside, unlike singapore govt. who use tax money on useful endevour such as bio-tech and enticing brilliant brains such as the dory sheep cloner to set up shops in singapore, and they are moving steadily higher and higher in the value chain.

Malaysia on the other hand, spend their tax money and oil money on wasteful things like "scenic bridge", send an average chap to space, putrajaya, bakun undertaking (no customer yet), sponsor ANY cronies activities (too numerous to list out) etc.

Just travel from Johor to Singapore, you will see the different.

Don't you think it's amazing? Malaysia being the region's biggest passenger car market with 500k units p.a.? And the irony of it is this - the cost of buying a car is the highest in this country.

All of us complain and complain but we are still willing to pay the exorbitant exise duties thru our noses albeit via friendly hp terms the past decade or so.

Know what the truth is? For lack of a better word, we actually pawn our future earnings to meet our hp commitments. And the bulk of that is for the taxes/duties the govt charges.

So what's my point? We're a nation of complainers - whinge whinge whinge but never looking at our own behaviour.

We complain about income tax & we find ways and means to avoid it. But do we realise, we're happily paying exorbitant duties and taxes on cars? Without even a whimper?

As far as the govt is concerned, for that matter any businessman, it'll continue to charge high prices (duties/taxes) as long as the market is willing to pay. And this willingness is evident from our premier position as the region's biggest market.

The economic principle of elasticity is what we're talking about here. Same as in the tobacco trade - they keep raising duties but people still keep on smoking at the same rate.

I support JO's call to sit on our wallets - not just to make the manufacturers snowball their inventories but also to tell the powers-that-be we won't take it anymore. We're changing our behaviour. We won't pawn our future earnings to pay off the exorbitant duties and taxes anymore!

Agree with those who say our journos only good at rewriting (sorry, not even rewriting, some use wholesale) PR pieces.

This goes with Star, NST and Sun (the last one don't say lah; look at the no. of articles highlighting their advertisers ... who wants to read that kind of stuff?)

Very seldom have we seen a journo really explaining a policy to the readers in layman's language ... why the need for such a policy, what it means in terms of ringgit and sen ... how it will affect the pocket of the readers ... what to do to soften the blow ... etc.

Even with this MAS-Air Asia issue. There's only chunks and chunks of words from the PMO's statement and press conferences by MAS and Air Asia CEOs.

There has been no attempt to interpret ... which airline will go where ... how the decision is arrived at ... how much tickets will cost ... what the deal will mean to MAS ... what it will mean to Air Asia ... will the 'common traveller' like you and me benefit ... etc.

Really, I think nowadays our so-called journos only report ... they don't analyse ... maybe not smart enough.

Contrary to some comments here on the origin of Honda cars in Malaysia, I believe Lokman of NST is right in writing that the City is sourced from Thailand.

I don't think Honda Malaysia "manufacture" the City per se; rather it assembles the CKD kit sourced from Thailand. This applies to the Civic & Stream as well, that are sourced from either Thailand or Indonesia. I have seen the import papers for the CKD kit of Civic before. In any case, the engines of these Honda cars are sourced from Honda Japan and thankfully not from Honda Malaysia.

lemaklaksa, what to do? These days most of our journos only regurgitate. They are merely mouth pieces. Period. If you want analysis on this, then you should visit www.motortrader.com.my for Chips Yap's views. Concise, to the point and most importantly, makes sense. Either that or you can wait for an article from The Edge on this. I am sure that they would have an analysis on this sooner or later.

The Sun is a free paper. How else do you expect them to survive if they can't attract advertisers? They can't possibly bite the hands that feed, right?

Er, we expect more from our journos, but how can you expect them to give you price indications of air fares? That is the privvy of the airlines and no journo has control over that. What margins the airlines wanna make is also their prerogative. Costs too are highly confidential. Don't expect the moon from our journos la, dude although I know that there is much room for improvement.

You must also understand that most of our journos are one leg kicks, meaning they cover almost everything under the sun. Hence they don't have the industry knowledge to even ask the right questions, let alone provide a acute analysis of the situation. This case draws a very similar analogy to the Hasbullah Awangs and Rahim Razalis of yesteryears, who commented on all sports known to man. They are a far cry from the commentators whom you listen to while watching the F1 races, NBA basketball, AFL, NBL, EPL etc, etc. They are able to provide very good analysis cos they specialise in that game. This analogy is very apt in this case.

Bolehland is DOOMED.

By present us the NAP, it show that the head has no idea running the country, but keep making micro-management showcase to pretend working.

Where is our National Transport policies? Where is our National Technology policies? All absents in the 9MP.

It seems I must start buying GOLDS than keeping money in banks.

Very well put Samarium.

You no what? The 3 main newspapers Star, NST and Sun seem to be engaged in a new war to attract readers and advertisers. Revamp after revamp ... it only shows none of them have found the winning format yet after so many umpteen years.

NST seems to me (others may not agree) as the most well-thought. Its trying to come out with esklusive stories on front page every day, like today's Custom-made APs. Also some of the new weekly columns are quite readeable (others may not agree, but its alright).

Sun only advertisers news, rojak layout and boring Bernama stories. So it tries to cover up by mixing news without borders.

Star of course is plain boring but if you want to read adss, its the paper to buy.

Sad to say, no more good journos left.

Since passenger cars getting cheaper&cheaper and public transport remains s**k,every Ali,Achong and Samy become affordable to hire one.Govt's fuel subsidies will shoot up like crazy and makes it more valid to unsubsidise on fuel.
Card debts will get higher&higher and we may not have enough money for old age.
EPF savings? Finished the damn thing within a year or two after withdraw it.
Taxpayers' monies used to settle banks' NPL.
Forgot to mention that our town will be become a super gigantic carpark.
Malaysia Boleh..