- 12 March 2012
-
- Malaysian Used Car Market
-
- "Implications of proposed guidelines for used car market "
-
- By Faisal Maricar
-
- Related: Oliac Autos Japan
-
-
In a recent move to aid local car-parts vendors, the Malaysia Ministry of International Trade (MMIT) and the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) have proposed a series of guidelines.
In our first of many articles, we explore what implications these guidelines bring to traders like you.
Used Parts
Traders in the used car-parts have much to frown about. Since June 2011, the Malaysian government has banned all imported used parts. Pundits bided this move as a response to the ailing businesses of local used-car vendors. Not all traders are worried though. The unruffled say that the move will not affect fans of Toyota Vellfire, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Audi, Porsche and Lexus. The many parallel new genuine parts importer in the market means that demands for parts of imported cars can still be met.
Importing Used Cars
Among the slew of policies the Malaysian government intends to pass is the proposed Vehicle End of Life Policy (ELV). If it comes into effect, the policy will subject cars older than 15 years to an annual car inspection.
What does this mean for car-sellers?
While it remains to be seen how the ELV affects traders, reactions to the ELV have been mixed. Intended as a move to push people to changing cars every few years, the ELV presents an opportunity for traders to up their sales volume overtime. On the flipeside, there are worries that the ELV may weaken purchasing powers across the board resulting from a higher car-change turnover rate. But still some say that such concerns are unfounded, arguing that not many use a car for more than 15 years. Furthermore, the craze for Japanese cars look set to remain good for some time. Until local cars match the corpulence and elegance of the Nissan GTRs and its likes, importing used cars remains a promising venture.
How do we reach out to customers?
The world wide web is abound with used-car online portals. The difficulty therefore does not lies in finding a marketing platform but in working with the hassle and tariffs the procedures brings. In our next article, we seek to demystify and break down the importing process, showing that it need not be a hair-pulling, off-putting and wreaking affair.
-
-
[ This article was written in 2011 and published as initial guidelines for used car trading in Malaysia. ]
-
