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NEWS
$245K M3 – gulp!
Australian new car prices are steep, but spare a thought for our northern neighboursSo you reckon cars are expensive in Australia? Spare a thought for our northern neighbours. motoring.com.au visited Malaysia this week as the guest of BMW to drive the new M6 Gran Coupe at the brand’s annual M Track Days celebration of speed at Sepang International Circuit near Kuala Lumpur.
While we were there we dropped in on our friends at iCar Asia, the region’s pre-eminent online auto resource. Alongside the BMW event, this week’s big launch in KL was Hyundai’s new Santa Fe. No big news in that – that is until we saw the price.
As reported by
livelifedrive.com, (iCar Asia’s editorial channel) the Hyundai softroader kicks off in Malaysia at a steep 164,000 MYR (Malaysian Ringit). In Aussie dollars that’s the equivalent to almost $56,000! The top of the range version is closer to $65,000. Neither version is equipped as comprehensively as Australian spec examples.
livelifedrive.com, (iCar Asia’s editorial channel) the Hyundai softroader kicks off in Malaysia at a steep 164,000 MYR (Malaysian Ringit). In Aussie dollars that’s the equivalent to almost $56,000! The top of the range version is closer to $65,000. Neither version is equipped as comprehensively as Australian spec examples.
“Hyundai is trying hard to establish itself in the Malaysian market by being aggressive with its pricing for all the new models we’ve seen here lately, but the fact remains that comparatively, prices are still way too high in global terms.
“It’s depressing to spend any time cross-checking prices against other countries with the results showing we pay almost double, sometimes triple, what our neighbours do,” Chris Aaron, livelifedrive.com online editor, told motoring.com.au.
“New car prices and the duty and taxes the government charge on new cars have become big news in Malaysia.
“It’s already an election issue – both the ruling and opposition parties threw all kinds of promises surrounding reduced new car prices to win Malaysian voters at the 13th General Election nearly two months ago. And worst of all, we still haven’t seen any significant changes despite the promises.”
Local brands Proton and Perodua command slightly more than half the Malaysian new car market, on the back of strong protectionism, Aaron explained. Although ‘foreign’ car-makers including Mazda and Volkswagen assemble in Malaysia using CKD kits (Completely Knocked Down), overall, prices are still high.
Around 600,000 new cars are sold in Malaysia annually.
Fully imported cars, especially luxury brands, can be extremely expensive. The M6 Gran Coupe is no snip at just short of $300,000 in Australia, but in Malaysia it is over 10 per cent more expensive at around $335,000. Consider however that even an M3 coupe will set you back over $245,000.
Aaron explained the situation is complicated by the fact the tariff system imposed on new cars by the Malaysian government is far from transparent. No prizes, then, for guessing the identity of the majority shareholder of Proton and Perodua.
But protectionism has its downsides, our Malaysian colleague explains.
“You can’t turn a corner and not see a Proton or Perodua... It’s not that we particularly enjoy the shoddy equipment and build quality from our national carmakers; it’s that we’ve no choice but to put our hard earned dollars towards nine-year bank loans and monthly instalments.
“We’ve been made to kiss goodbye the rights to own a car based on what makes us happy to drive them,” Aaron lamented.
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Written byMike Sinclair
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