Government wants to curb half-cut car sales

The Malaysian government will be considering forcing second hand car buyers get their vehicles checked by experts like Puspakom to curb the sale of half-cut cars. Half-cut cars are cars which are assembled by having two halves of a car welded together to make a vehicle.

Half-cut cars are dangerous because they split upon impact. Normal proper cars are supposed to crumple. The crumple zone doesn’t exist in a half-cut car, so an accident could prove fatal. According to statistics, there are nearly 50,000 half-cut cars on the roads nationwide, and most of the time the current owners do not even know they are driving such a hazard.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between financial institutions which provide hire-purchase loans for car purchases and Puspakom which requires all second-hand cars to be checked by Puspakom before the loan will be approved.

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Paul Tan

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

Comments

  • i'm run (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 7:16 am

    At last… the goverment should done this about 10 years ago……

    Well better late than never…..

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  • handsfree (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 7:52 am

    i support this.. one of my freind in Thai.. buy such car…… got into crash…… front n back… he is dammmmmm luck.. airbag saved him.. but the car was spilt into 2…. really half cut……

    we lives once….

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  • Jason (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 7:58 am

    How to know if half cut? I suspect my car is half cut because can see some welding near the door. If half cut, i am forced to scrap my car?

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  • acbc (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 10:17 am

    Welding may indicate an accident-repaired car. I've seen many Cefiro A31 with welding marks here n there. Maybe due to drifting accidents.

    A member in Galant club bought a half-cut car and didn't know about it. He found out after sending the car for painting. Got a shock because the previous owner converted the Super Saloon by cutting off the original chassis and weld the whole half-cut in it's place. Car still ok but owner now wants to scrap it (really unsafe).

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  • ingolstadt (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 11:05 am

    Although its a good move, or to say good initiative; but i already got fed up with Puspakom, the government set them up hastily and AGAIN, no agency to rule over their operations. Ending up? ANOTHER HEAVEN FOR CORRUPTION.

    My bro bought a 2nd Vios last year November, the forkers at Puspakom Putrajaya, upon inspection stamped a "ADA KESAN KIMPALAN" signifying the 'A' pillars. I mean, what the fork is "ADA KESAN"? So is it a half cut or is it not? government agencies cannot have such ridicule statements of trust, the stamp on that paper will rule whether this car is worth RM50k or nothing. How can they do that? In the end, we finally understood why they did this (from insiders within the Puspakom institute) HAVE TO BAGI DUIT MAKAN KOPI BARU "APPROVE" knncb ! My bro paid them RM500 (THEY ASKED FOR THE AMOUNT!) and they finally add a "Approve" to the very bottom of that paper. But when we took this to the bank for financing approval, the bank rejected giving reason that the "ADA KESAN XXXX" is risky for them as it doesn't have a clear cut indication. We ended up running up and down Putrajaya another 2 times before finally ending up with paying RM800 for that forker in Puspakom Putra (some fat ass in office) and then proceed to JPJ and paid RM500 (rasuah as well !!) to the officer in charge to get another new documentation for the Vios (Clean history) then only we could get the financing loan from banks.

    Then it was my turn, the car that i bought from, the previous owner also paid a considerable amount in Puspakom to ensure the inspectors wont run any tricks on him. In the end, my conclusion is that, in Malaysia, you wanna get your driving license? PAY, you wanna make sure your vehicle is safe from trouble? PAY.

    Seeing these incidents, car's that are NOT HALF CUT needs to pay those forkers money for them to stamped, then why not CARS THAT ARE HALF CUT? So is what the governemtn currently doing effective? They just wanna give a shit load of trouble to 2nd car dealers, so that their forking Proton and Naza can sell! SCREW THEM HARD TIME, I'll work hard in 4 years time and leave this pain stricken country. Really FED UP WITH YOU MALAYSIA.

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  • GT27 (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 12:40 pm

    You should report them and file complain, so which Puspakom Putra you went in which state?

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  • ingolstadt (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 1:16 pm

    Puspakom Putrajaya. Headquarters.

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  • shaif (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 4:37 pm

    Report to the BPR, or take it to the media. Much better , Teresa Kok could use this true story and highlight this situation in Parliament. Make everybody know about the current situation. If everyone is quite and accept this as a norm, then everyone is guilty for not stopping the culprit from doing it over and over again. Corruption must be stop.

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  • raptorclans (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 4:45 pm

    This marks the end of the Sil-Eighty… (Silvia + 180SX) hehe…

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  • honda_driver (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 4:48 pm

    Yes, I think you should make an official complaint. Another problem with us malaysians is, after we have been abused by govt. servants, often than not, we do not take any further action of our own. If they claim your car was a 'halfcut' car, you should have brought the car to UMW for inspection, and get them to issue a letter if the car is in good shape, then go back to puspakom. If they still insist they are right, you sould lodge a formal complaint.

    Although govt agencies have been a constant pain to us all, I think many of them have cleaned up their act, and services are improving. EPF and IRB are some of the better agencies today based on service.

    My own experience? I had no problems at all when i bought my car CBU from japan. I didn't have to pay anyone anything except for the puspakom inspection fee. I did all these last year, so i suppose i must be very fortunate.

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  • dec21st (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 5:23 pm

    correct me if i'm wrong. what i understand from a half-cut is that they will but the car's half cut (say a civic's halfcut with b18c engine) from a chop shop and they will take the engine out from the car to fit in your car (in this case, ur own civic). so there's no welding that half cut onto ur civic. ur just taking the parts that's in that half cut u bought (engine, transmission & etc… maybe that recaro seat n momo steering that comes with it as well :P) to fit into your own car…

    yes maybe there are incident when they physically weld it onto ur car, but my example is an optiion also is it?

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  • mystvearn (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 6:09 pm

    1. Owners will/are not willing to sacrifice their current car if they know its 1/2 cut.

    2. Corruption in PUSPAKOM.

    3. If owner with 1/2 cut sell directly then the buyer will never know.

    4. If the buyer can afford the car due to the "cheap" price without loan, but no need PUSPAKOM, then he would not be bothered with the PUSPAKOM. Or the seller coners the buyer saying stocks are selling quick, take it or leave it.

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  • Ricc (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 6:14 pm

    ingolstadt, I think you really should file an official complain to Puspakom. If you've experienced this kinda things, I'm damn sure that there are a lot more ppl have to "rasuah" them like wut u did. Then, this will make them (Puspakom) the biggest "rasuah" takers in the country…

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  • HatukNgkau (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 6:44 pm

    Biasa la… Semuanya OK!

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  • kimikim (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 6:47 pm

    how 'bout those perdana limo, aren't they also half-cut? How save is p1 half cut then?

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  • kimikim (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 7:01 pm

    those p1 perdana exec and limo not joined cars meh? if they are, does this mean there is legal and illegal half cut in bolehland? how reliable p1 half cut compared to workshop's welding then?

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  • kody (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 7:23 pm

    to dec21st said,

    halfcut here that gain problems was totally cut the car into half & welding back new front portion. This is not like buying halfcut transplant engine & parts.

    there must be something wrong then only people will perform additional welding to a car. not syok syok & weld here n there. :)

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  • pendek (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 7:50 pm

    the MOU is between finance and Puspakom.

    if we wanted to buy 2nd Hand cars, we go to used cars dealer…

    how does this goes?

    first we go to Car dealer to find ourself a car, then go to puspakom then finance? hmmm

    wow that hard eh, that mean lower sales for car dealer and lower trade-in value for our car.

    hahah… with Bank Negara increasing interest rate… used car will be expensive than before. hmm…..wtf, shoudn't car value depreciated????

    (i don't know economics, but wtf? depreciation are only at the user end)

    that also mean if i buy a new waja now, 2 yrs later if i wanted to sold my car, i would ended up topping – up more to the finance just to cover the interest.

    if i wait longer to contra the interest amount, my car value will go down even further.

    if you pushed the cars dealer, they will shift the preassure to the consumer.

    doesn't makes any sense to me.

    why don't they ban importing junkies to our bolehland???

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  • damion (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 8:36 pm

    it's nothing new actually..

    all 2nd hand cars from year 1999 onwards that are to be re-sold are being sent to puspakom for inspection…

    it's just a reannouncement of an old news already in effect…

    try asking your insurance panels, it's already been in effect for some time now..

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  • damion (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 8:38 pm

    the main point of the announcement is to tell people why the cars should be sent to puspakom for inspection,

    because the risk of half cut cars… cars that are joined and welded together… front and back portion..

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  • honda_driver (Member) on May 02, 2006 at 8:51 pm

    Those proton limos were actually built by a subsidiary of EON and not proton. There were built using the same techniques as limo builders in the US. So its a proper engineering build-up. The cars are also inspected by JPJ and are legally registered and road legal.

    The other thing about the "halfcut" scandals are that, not only are the cars unsafe, many of the cars do not actually "exist". Some of these cars are brought in as Scrap, cut in half, rejoined, and then resold. The paperwork on these cars are also suspect, with internal jpj people working with these syndicates to falsify papers for them.

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  • goingberserk (Member) on May 03, 2006 at 1:36 am

    I will say this..IT'S ABOUT TIME. but then again what is the Fuckers in JPJ and kan ne Puspakom doing all this years ?. Is the G trying to tell us that the current practice is not really foolproof ? What the CEBAI !. I Ingolsolt shd hv lodged an official complaint against the FUCKERS PEOPLE in Puspakom. I had a similiar problem when I wanted to buy a 2nd car last year. The same thing happened which the CEBAI OFFICERS in KAN NE PUSPAKOM wanted some $ to ensure that my vehicle is roadworthy. Common wht the heck is going on. The car I intend to buy was a Honda CRV 2004. The original buyer even have the letter from Honda Malaysia certifying that it is roadworthy.. But NOOO ., THE PUNDEK PEOPLE IN PUSPAKOM SAID NO… must pay to get approval. I meant not the inspection fee but the LANCAU WANG KOPI.. Finally I ran out of patience and decided not to buy the car. LET ME SAY THIS PUSPaKOM IS A JOKE. NOTHING GOOD ABOUT PUSPAKOM EXCEPT THEY ARE BLOOD SUCKERS AND ASSHOLES.

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  • Tracks (Member) on May 03, 2006 at 2:20 am

    PUSPAKOM perhaps should be renamed PUsat PAkso KOpi Money or else nothing goes. Sadly, corruption never ends unless we do something about it. Recording the conversation with the corruptor might be a start.

    kimikim said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 10:47 am

    "how ’bout those perdana limo, aren’t they also half-cut? How save is p1 half cut then?"

    Perdana Executive and Limo are indeed cars that are cut into half and joined back together. But unlike the other half-cut vehicles that are join back to like as though they one in the first place, re-inforcement and additional welding has been added to the Perdana Executive and Limo to strength the structure due to the additional length. Other half-cut vehicles are merely welded together at the joints with no reinforcement what so over. Therefore, in the event of a crash the welded joints would break. That why the modification of the Perdana is considered safe to a certain extent.

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  • Joe Ooi (Member) on May 03, 2006 at 2:29 am

    How about Chancellor, it is stretch body of Waja by 250 mm longer? Is it kereta potong as well! Can anybody here explain!

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  • intermilan (Member) on May 03, 2006 at 4:16 am

    report tha bastat. no compromise when it come to this sheet.

    my friend ada mau jual spectra. masa buat inspection pun kena dimintak wang.. the option given are: either they will saman (due to tinted glass), pay rasuah rm400, or koyak all the tinted lah.

    since my friend no option except to pass the inspection coz want to sell the car jugak, then nego-nego RASUAH rm100 pun they took.

    this puspakom ppl are corrupt to the bone.

    wonder does pak lah know about this rasuah heaven or not?

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  • DAN (Member) on May 03, 2006 at 5:39 am

    he know , but what to do , Mosley what type of people in government is the Mose!. so only close 1 eyes la… n late this type of people become more at the end become indon n evil like sky drop a shit easy to get a thing, there r thinking!

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  • Tracks (Member) on May 03, 2006 at 4:46 pm

    Joe Ooi said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 6:29 pm

    "How about Chancellor, it is stretch body of Waja by 250 mm longer? Is it kereta potong as well! Can anybody here explain!"

    Unlike those Saga, Wira & Perdana which was converted (lengthen) by a third party (subsidiary company) by cutting and reassembling it together, the Chancellor stretch body was made by inserting additional spacer into the tooling and stamped out as one single piece to form the structure. That's why the chassis is even stronger than the standard Perdana. The Chancellor concept was good but over-priced with unnecessary ICE system while omitting important feature such airbags and lacking other features such as auto-cruise, automatic air-cond and updated centre air-cond vents which could be adjusted properly.

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  • raverus (Member) on May 04, 2006 at 2:00 am

    Should have done this checking rules long time ago…….rather then go out arresting the innocent buyers. The boleh land……………………lol

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  • kendo (Member) on May 05, 2006 at 2:32 am

    what about those "potong"quality like car

    "proton?!

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  • Joe Ooi (Member) on May 05, 2006 at 8:04 am

    This issue appear in the newspaper many time, with corrupted JPJ and Puspakom, there is no way G can eliminate it!

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  • ingolstadt (Member) on May 05, 2006 at 4:53 pm

    But we can eliminate the so called "G" right?

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  • rootmy (Member) on May 05, 2006 at 10:15 pm

    I think no more half-cut sale exspecially for local car and there must be company/goverment to take half-cut car and dispose it as scrub and recycle it again.

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  • mycar_stolen (Member) on May 05, 2006 at 10:55 pm

    kendo said,

    May 4, 2006 @ 6:32 pm

    what about those “potong”quality like car

    “proton?!

    yes this is a good one….not even cut and joint or weld but always act like one

    the 21 Year Old Never Grow Up Proton.

    True Msian car enthusiast or msian who appreciate their money or respect the terms of proper motoring

    "Please Dont Buy Proton"

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  • Mirage (Member) on Jan 25, 2007 at 11:01 pm

    I totally agree with you guy ……. the more government organizations that have to be by passed ..before approvals are given … the more corruption we encounter. These organizations are supposed to benefit the consumers??? …I think more like the pockets of a few politicians ….. or officials of JPJ and Puspakom ……Thank god i didn't have to go through that when buy my car!

    The only way is to catch them red handed !!! …..Let just say you want to buy a car and you need to go to JPJ or Puspakom for what ever reason …. i'm sure most of us have a video cam with our phone. Put it in to your pocket or play around with it casually …….and make sure the lens is not covered ….. start it before you enter ……. and get the bastards on tape …… and when he's done telling you what he wants, to stamp your document ….Smile and walk out … and don't forget to say thank you. Opps oh ya also try to address him by his name on the name tag in case your're using 1.2 mega pixel camera lol ….

    As for not buying Protons ….. thats partially the reason why i keep modifying my car ….. so that it is less of a Proton hahahaha.

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  • larry on Mar 27, 2009 at 6:49 am

    halfcut like mira or wat juz 4 people want 2 modified them car 2 turbo…just take engine,fender,bonet,headlamp….no wedding2…if barang cun2..y need wedding?….KANCIL WIF TURBO IS BEST….OLD SATRIA ALSO….JUZ ADD TURBO…IS VERY COOL N KUAT PICK UP…welll tat oni…jpj all need money tat true…now all in the world all c money 1st…no money no talk…tat is true 1…rish people want do wat juz do…no people larang 1…if poor 1..sorry man…so now money is the bosss…..money is everyting…me is poor boy…im juz gv a opinion on tis…huhu

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