The reality of Car price in Malaysia

Yesterday I received a forwarded email from a colleague. I was not surprise by what's inside the article but was rather pissed off due to how we have been indirectly denied from the rights as human to have a taste of what other people in most of other parts of the world had. Yes, it is about car price in our country. The article is written by Syed Akbar Ali and I'm not going to publish that article here but I will rather crop up all the information which we need to know, especially if any of you plan to buy a new car. This is just a matter of sharing and no intention to condemn anyone as I felt that this information is worth to be spread and as we have the very right to know this sort of thing when it's involving we being the victim as we are all consumers. So this will be shared in the context that we need to know as many information as we should on any consumers items in our country as this consciousness can bring saving to us or avoid being a victim of overpriced things, so in this post it will be about car price. So crunch this people: 

In the United States of America (a developed country which we are also aspiring to become by the year 2020) a 2009 model BMW 535i Sedan is selling for about USD50,367.00. This is only RM178,000 - about the price of a Toyota Camry 2..4L here in Malaysia . The same BMW sells in Malaysia for about RM450,000.

The 2009 model BMW 328i 2 door Convertible sells for USD44,014 or RM155,36900 in the US In Malaysia the same car sells for over
RM460,000. This is an untenable situation. 

The 2009 model Audi A4 2 Door 2.0T Cabriolet Convertible sells in the US for USD40,328.00 or RM142,357. In Malaysia the same car would sell for about RM265,000.

In the US the 2009 model Volkswagen GTI 2.0T sells for USD 24,039 or RM85,000 only. In China the same car will cost around RM60,000. Over here the same VW car sells for about RM200,000.

And the 2010 model Toyota Camry 2.4L sells in the US for USD 19,659...00 or RM69,396 In Malaysia the 2008 Toyota Camry 2.4L sells for RM170,000. Toyota Camry 2.4L, 2010 model. RM69,000 in the US

Car prices in Malaysia are about three times higher than the prices in the United States . We are a developing nation. Our land and labour costs are so much cheaper than the US . Why are our cars so expensive? It does not make any sense. Tak masuk akal.

Then here are some car prices from our neighbour Indonesia . 
The Toyota Altis sells in Indonesia for about RM46,000. The same car sells here for around RM 112,000. Again we are three times more expensive than Indonesia 

The Honda Jazz sells here for RM108,000.. In Indonesia the Jazz sells for RM 36,000. Three times more expensive.

     

That's some part of the article, for the full original article click and read HERE trust me it will open up your mind more than before.

After reading that article (and if it is true and I think it is true) I can help but to feel sad as a people of our country, we even sell cars almost three times higher than Indonesia!!! I didn't see any good of selling things so ridiculously overpriced like this. If this is not happening then even low paid modern slave like me will have a chance to drive Toyota Camry but now I can only afford a small "kononnya reliable" national cars which cost almost the same as (or even expensive) than Honda Jazz sold in Indonesia!!! When we know the quality, reliability and the standards of those two cars are far far different!! "macam langit dengan tanah bezanya" but I was left with no choice, I was forced to accept the fact that I've been denied of my rights to have a taste of what other people in other country are able to have in their life (and I do know even that consider as low price can be very expensive in Indonesia :p but even Indonesia can sell that car cheaper, why can't we? well of of course Indonesia didn;t have national car interest to protect though :p ) So why is this happening? If you want to know why read the original full article HERE. I don't mean to condemn anybody but this is TOO MUCH!!!! What, only those filthy rich and those blood sucking politicians can use those cars, oh yes of course they even have the privilege to buy those car cheaper!!! or even get it for free (using duit rakyat la of course)!! and we the people can only drive small national car which as the same price as the higher standard car in the world's market, ridiculous? Well if there's any other words other than "ridiculous" can describe it, please enlighten me.

One thing I know, I felt like I'm being abused and that's not something good. Anyway, that's the "privilege" as a our country's people, what can we do? Nothing much, want to boycott national car? No can't do because we don't have the money to buy imported car!! So again we're force to accept something that we are not willing to. *sigh*

Well, I know this thing have been known for so long (and I might be the among the last to comments about this) but we tend to forget easily, so this can be like a reminder to all as we all are consumers. So what happen to the statement "consumer always right"? Nahhh forget it... Anyway give this a thought.

p/s: Please share if any of you have latest info on this topics and all opinion are very much welcome.  And if any of you wonder how true is the price of those car above, use your Google to "investigate" the price in other country and find the latest foreign exchange rate and convert it, it's a simple math anyway :p