New national car this Tuesday?

UPDATE: The new cars launched are the LMG Tourer 7-seater SUV and the LMG Trekker double cab pick-up truck, both of which include Hydroxene water-petrol hybrid technology.

The Star carried a newspaper report on Friday outlining our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s two day visit to Johor, and the itenary included the launch of a new national car on Tuesday. Since it’s too soon for anything up Proton, Perodua or Naza‘s sleeves – we can assume this might be the new CKD Inokom Getz.

getz_small.jpgReader Khairil has reported sightings of a Hyundai Getz going around on road tests in Kulim with a sign that says “Kenderaan sedang diuji” hanging on the rear. However, what was different with this particular Getz is it had an Inokom badge on it.

Sime Darby has previously expressed interest in assembling the Hyundai Getz locally within the next 12 months in October last year when it unveiled it’s NAP plans. It is already assembling the Hyundai Matrix and the Hyundai Atos locally with Inokom badges.

Just a recap from Sime Darby’s NAP plans outlined last year, next up in the pipelines after the CKD Getz would be other Hyundai models like the Accent, Elantra and Sonata. There are also export plans. Click for more details on Sime Darby’s NAP plan.

Even if the car launch on Tuesday isn’t the CKD Inokom Getz, you can expect the car to be launched soon as uncamouflaged road tests are already underway. In fact, there’s something wrong with the theory that it might be the Inokom Getz. I don’t see why an Inokom car should be launched in Johor as the car is likely to be made in the Kulim plant, since road tests have been going on in Kulim. Kulim, Kedah is practically on the other end of the peninsular. So who has an assembly plant in Johor?

Oriental Assembler Sdn Bhd comes to mind. And Oriental Assembler has been generally associated with China makes of late, with reports of talks with Chery and Geely to assemble vehicles there. Could this be a locally badged China make? Information Gateway Corporation Sdn Bhd (IGC Corp) announced a CKD deal for Geely cars March this year, and said a local version of the Geely CK1 called the IGC CKX would be assembled at Oriental Assemblers Sdn Bhd.

There’s also the SUV and pick-up truck manufacturer Dadi. I’m sure many of you have seen Dadi showrooms around the city. LM Star Autoworld Sdn Bhd has assembly rights to Dadi SUVs and pick-up trucks, and a Bernama report says it plans to have an assembly plant in Kota Tinggi, Johor. LM Star Autoworld’s assembly plant will have the capacity for 60,000 vehicles a year but will start with an output of 28,480 in the first year. 10,000 will be for the Malaysian market and the rest for export. Could the new vehicle being launched be an LM Star-built Dadi SUV or pick-up?

LM Star also has an agreement with BYD Auto of China to develop right hand drive versions of BYD cars and have them assembled here both for the local market and export. Remember the BYD F3?

So many possibilities. I am as clueless as most of you are. Wait until Tuesday to find out. Thanks to Khairil and Stephen for the pointers.

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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

  • stephen_ksf (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 10:24 am

    welcome. glad to help

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  • jtshin (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 6:37 pm

    hehe… waiting then…

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  • Isamu (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 6:40 pm

    It would really be a piece of bad news if the Chinese cars start to invade our country.. More lives would be at risk..

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  • smartozone (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 7:04 pm

    Why is it such a bad news?

    Example, Great Wall Hover (one manufacturer in China) scored a 4 star in its NCAP test?

    I believe in competition. It's good for us the customer!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • neurra (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 7:21 pm

    sighs.. another rebadge? at least change a bit lah the styling

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  • OtakOtak (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 9:16 pm

    Fuiyoh…. any car from any country when rebadge in our country can attain national car status! die lah like that! Relatively high standard of living for average Malaysian have buy cheap car with poor safety feature but at damn expensive price – Big No thank to NAP! NAP policy basically have 6 main objectives but the naked truth on what actually happening on ground are: –

    1. Have to "lower safety standard" so that P1 still can still continue with producing damn 1985 car model.

    2. As a result of the above lack of strict safety rules implement in our auto sector, then can't blame recond, cheap, small, unsafe car can flooded our market.

    3. Make most of safe car suppose affordable to average Malaysian out of affordability with draconian tax to ensure rakyat carry out "national service" by pay "patriotic tax" and use so call national car.

    4. NAP make Malaysian motorist life as cheap as the unsafe car, but at expensive price they have to pay!

    5. NAP directly drive away FDI related to auto sector so that P1 still can continue to dominate local market.

    6. NAP directly enrich crocs, AP King, Datok2, Tan Sri2, etc.

    So the above are the "real" objectives of NAP and the last is the most important to G.

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  • stephen_ksf (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 9:33 pm

    paul,

    chck out the teaser ad in today's The Star sports section page 56

    a car wif LMG badge…another national car maker???

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  • Paul Tan on Aug 13, 2006 at 9:38 pm

    LMG? Then it's the Dadi cars.

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  • stephen_ksf (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 9:45 pm

    http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=213…

    article stated PM will launch a LMG car in

    and this site has the logo for the car maker LMG http://www.anjunggroup.com/

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  • e-nabilll (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 11:20 pm

    welcome to the real menaing of JUNK…feel like swearing at somebody! it seems that wen the badge changed to a local badge,it becomes a NATIONAL CAR..its so pathetic…i hope it ends up like the bestari..hardly see it on the road..which means a total failure

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  • bolo (Member) on Aug 13, 2006 at 11:48 pm

    yea! give us more of this! I don't care if they are junk or not. competition is what we need. as I always say, the market froces will sort them out.

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  • en7yfl (Member) on Aug 14, 2006 at 12:44 am

    Heard from Industrial said that , Oriental Assemblers had actually assembled 20 units of China Car – DADI….i guess thats the one…its a MPV, SUV and pickup concept vehicle….quite similar to Toyota IMV ( Innova, Fortuner, and Hilux)…any idea how much is the price?

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  • jtshin (Member) on Aug 14, 2006 at 1:00 am

    Well, lets wait till it launched. and lets see how the price goes.

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  • szw (Member) on Aug 14, 2006 at 1:47 am

    sure ar ?

    dis is a national car ?

    it looks like rebadge locally assemble car oni .

    if wan compete , giv more equipment .

    muahahaha !

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  • DtG (Member) on Aug 14, 2006 at 5:29 am

    what did the LMG ad mean by saying "Just add water" ??

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  • synchro_k (Member) on Aug 14, 2006 at 8:28 pm

    hmmm another koyak and tampal….

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