The first locally assembled 1.5 litre Suzuki Swift rolled off DRB-HICOM’s fully robotic welding assembly line in Pekan last Saturday. The robotic welding line costs RM20 million and is the first non-national local assembly plant for small volume production to adopt robotic welding machines. I assume this allows for better assembly quality.
Suzuki Malaysia Sdn Bhd aims to produce 300 CKD assembled Suzuki Swift cars a month initially, and if demand is sufficient, this may be increased. The first new Swift to roll off the assembly line marks a new milestone since the agreement for Suzuki Malaysia to assemble the Swift here was signed with Suzuki Motor Corporation back in March 2006, more than a year ago.
We still don’t know how much the CKD Swift will cost though, but NST reports that the price is expected to be roughly 30% cheaper. At current prices of between RM87,000 to RM92,000 depending on equipment level, expect the CKD Swift to be sold in the RM60,000 to RM65,000 range.
UPDATE: Sorry, there is an amendment. I misread NST’s article and had the impression Suzuki’s CEO mentioned the estimated price, when it is in fact the reporter’s speculation based on some of his sources.
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. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
Congrats Suzuki ! Great sales volume ahead. I believe at 59K for a basic 1.5 should be a good start.
Hopefully the 1.6 sport manual is CKD too
Yahoooooooo
Thanks to DRB & Suzuki
Hopefully I can afford one soon
Woot ! They will break the iceberg !
If the price really in RM 60 to 65K, then it will "eat" into Waja territory. Good for consumers with better choice by spend less!
wihs they didnt announce it… bcoz now the powers that be will come down hard on them to protect you know who
my oh my.. have been waiting for this to come out for such a long time already! and the price really looks great, if wat said is true…
great pricing……
When is MINI Cooper CKD?
hurrah… this is good news..
What a wonderful world if Suzuki could do just that.and maintain the safety specs -abs ebd and airbags
wow wow wow why DRB-HICOM’s can make it ?? y not the P1 …. RM60k – Rm65k will be nice starting like T/Vios . How about product a 1.3 litre swift that with RM50k – Rm55k ?? that would be stop the P2 MYvi also … hoho hope more CKD coming soon ~
sure no airbags la
only premium models will have dat
but i think abs will be standard issue.
Thats good news.
Unfortunately anyone who just bought one would be fuming mad. Just like the CKD'ed Getz, and the (Naza) Picanto.
I dont think they will bother bringing in the 1.3L engine. It wont change the price much (as it wont cost suzuki all that much for the 1.5, especially at the expense of keeping inventory of different spare parts). Not much difference in the fuel consumption (and road tax) either.
It will be another nail in Proton (right smack in the thick of it). I would also see it taking away sales from the Myvi 1.3 premium at only a few $1,000 more.
I do however share the notion that it might be decontented a little to hit those price points.
shouldn't it be cheaper? if the current cbu unit is going for approx. 90k, a ckd unit which is exempted from the crazy tak should be at least 50% cheaper i.e. 45k.
no?
wahlaueh…
excellent moves by suzuki… P2 need o come out 1.5lit MyVi to fight this swift.
If P2 come out 1.5lit version cars… haha… near end day of P1
30% cheaper after tax or before tax? Even with a cheaper price tag, do expect them to cut cost further by trimming down on specs. Perhaps less airbags, different brake (drum), lack of ABS and perhaps more local accessories.
Yahoo… can get suzuki swift at a reasonable price! Anywayz i would like to get the suzuki swift sport 1.6 manual with traction control.. Wow..
Hopefully this will make Ploton bleed more.
By then rakyat will get a lelong Waja for RM45k
Xoomie ,
When the lelong Waja its probably because P1 is dead by then you still wanna buy ?? Think again. No more parts, no more warranty!!.
I really hope the newspaper's source is correct but it was only quoted at one source and not repeated any where else.
I think the price would make the world of a difference as to whether this car is selleable. But then I think MITI (or the Iron Lady's department) would be hindering a genuine price to be set for this car. Such a shame, because this would genuinely be a very good car to buy, provided the price is right. Anything less than 30% is no good. Just look at Bestari, not selling as it should be if the price is 10k less.
Hikaru,
don't worry. want to see if Iron Lady want to support or reject this price? lets just see how deep Iron Lady got her hand in the DRB Hicom's cookie jar..
the only problem with this car, is no boot. will not really appeal to families. i'm thinking this would be more an option for people with no kids, and single people, or as a 2nd car.
if they rid off all the safety feature 'pun' i still buy
BanyakMasukWorkshop said,
June 5, 2007 @ 11:15 am
the only problem with this car, is no boot. will not really appeal to families. i’m thinking this would be more an option for people with no kids, and single people, or as a 2nd car.
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agree with you! er, you byk eksiden ka? or tokey Bengkel aa?
This is one of my all-time favourite cars. Ever since it came out, I knew it was going to be a hit. And win awards worldwide, it did. However, the pricing for a 1.5litre car was a little steep for me, so I opted for a Matrix instead. Although the Matrix has plenty of interior space, it cannot match the handling of the Swift.
Regarding the lack of boot space, it's not really a priority for people who love this car. There are some families who drive hatchbacks as well and you won't see them complaining. And now that the price is gonna be lower, I'm sure it will appeal to many people who couldn't afford it earlier.
However, since it is CKD and enjoying tax breaks, there will be a certain amount of local content and it may or may not affect the overall quality of the car.
but MyVi still sells wat……even ppl buy it as family cars…..i think having 1 or 2 kids should be okay…unless they area all grown up and by tat time…they will be having their own cars! hahaha
still expensive…Malaysian will have more option now. Swift, MyVi, Savvy….
Digiman,
I don't think she is that dumb to let it compete with p1 cause she might be willing to sacrifice profit for politics and support. If she prohibits the price and the price ends up being more than 30%, she will make the profit anyway as people will buy it and she gets to be a political saint for protecting p1. Further swift is nothing compared to the bigger picture and she might not even know about such a car.
They always get two bites of the cherry. Win-win for them, lose-lose for rakyat. Here's to hoping……
30percent is a huge decrease !
hoorray ..for sushi !
do anyone here knows hows the standard of built quality from drb hicom?
bestari,
sutera
or perhaps, inokom??
juz curious, the outcome of this ckd swift..
Sounds like a good deal to a very nice car indeed,
bugbear: Inokom quality has been pretty good but problem is that their local accessories are quite crappy like alarm system. If not mistaken Inokom does not have a fully robotic factory and mostly is done by manual labour. So I guess DRB Hicom's fully robotic assembly line would offer better quality.
Inokom has less stuff compared to Hyundai. For their Getz, Inokom has no rear disc brake and no ABS+EBD. The Hyundai imported version has all these and the price difference is just a few thousand. We just wait and see if DRB Hicom keeps all the goodies of their fully imported from Japan version while dropping the price.
where is my suzuki grand vitara?
just my opinion on the bootspace, coz thats what i always look for. i do a lot of long distance driving, and no boot is a big pain in the you know where.
i always believe myvi is an anomaly in the malaysian market, even perodua admits it. they never expected the car to sell the way it did(fantastically), and to the target markets it did. they were caught off guard.
Good news for the people, we'll see more of this cars on the road then.
good news, hope dream come true…
now wish buy a new car…
latio sport or swift ckd…
we shall watch and see..
i am not sure whether malaysian is lucky enough to get this offer.
hopefully no more new tax from our beloved iron lady dept just like what we malaysian experiense earlier.
anyway, if we analysis properly, no tax means no $ to support P1..
haha… poor malaysian…
good stuff….as long as it gets much more affordable than before it is always welcomed by the public.
now its just a matter of how much reduction we will see…..my guess would be hopefully no more than 75k……60k sounds a bit too cheap for good and maybe if the price is 60k…lots of stuff will be missing or reduced.
Still expensive, Swift 1.5cc should sell at RM50k-55k.
I wish the Wish 1.8cc Naza version sells below RM100k. The UMWT version 2.0cc sells at RM150k while NAZA RM120k. Dunno if NAZA is CKD.
suzuki spare parts: cheaper n easy 2 get?
no use if d car is cheaper but spare parts hard 2 get n expensive.
surely, some spare parts will b outsorce locally.
wot other import cars we wan2 to b CKD'ed??
golf GTI n some Peugeot models
spare a thought for those who bought the swift for nearly 90k,now seeing their car loose value like no tmr…same story with the kia…
hopefully below 60K:)
can it really be around 60K?
will our dream come true?
must buy, must change, must trade-in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
kody said,
June 5, 2007 @ 9:33 am
wahlaueh…
excellent moves by suzuki… P2 need o come out 1.5lit MyVi to fight this swift.
If P2 come out 1.5lit version cars… haha… near end day of P1
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myvi 1.5cc???in ur dream la bro
u oso believe in the story of myvi SEDAN rite??
prrrfthhh
Yeah dream on!
That's no way it will price in the range of 60-65k.
A reduction of 10k from the current price seems positive.
i just recently bought a swift…last week actually…even though i knew the CKD version would come out soon and would be tagged a lot cheaper i still opted to get the CBU version..somehow knowing that most of its assembly would be by Malaysians didn't really appeal to me..heh heh…plus no matter what, it can never really capture the true 'essence' of an original import…
the only thing im worried about is that there'll be more 'swift-ers' on the road soon..the car will lose its "exclusivity" it once had and it wont be much of a head turner anymore… = (
Noo worries affie,your swift is still CBU fully imported….haha
There're hips of CKD assembled cars in malaysia,yet how many of them drop to the price we can afford.
As long as P1 and P2 still here,those japanese and european marque(even CKD)seems unreachable by majority.
I still have doubt about the 30% cheaper at RM60k or RM65k, I don't think gov will allow to have this price and this sure will affect P1 and P2, but I still hope this is true for the RM60k swift.
at least their sale is better maaa….
nice car, the third car that i will go for it. waiting for the price to confirm.
affie
" the car will lose its “exclusivity†it once had and it wont be much of a head turner anymore… = ( "
no worry man, jz stick sticker at ur window write "this is CBU version swift not CKD"
haha..engtaokia, i might just do that! = p
4 exclusivity, go 4 the Swift Sport, but it will burn yr pocket. Anyone knows when its going 2 b launched ? ….waiting 4 so long oredi..or maybe 'pigs might fly'…. anyway still dreaming zzzzzzz……….
I'd like a swift with manual shift please. thank you. There are still some Malaysians who would rather press the clutch and shift their own gears than have a computer or machine to do it for them. I bet you, that alone would cut the cost by 3-4k.
BTW.. a bit OOT, but kudos to Naza for producing a 206 with manual tranny.
HOW low CAN IT GO ? ? ?
organisation still live on profit… don't dream of 30% cut… Just have to wait till 2020….
2020? !@#@#@$$$%^%&!
They'll never sell it for that low, a CKD City/Vios is ~RM80k so the lowest a CKD Swift will be is RM 75k thereabouts.
DRB isn't stupid, they know the market is ready for a cute CKD hatchback from Japan (unlike the French sourced 206 Bestari) so they'll milk as much from the buying public as they can.
Affie
the swift is a head turner all right. doesnt matter how many there are on the road. its selling so well.
however i doubt it will be priced that low. coz this model is a market breakthrough product. single handledly brought suzuki out into the limelight and paved the way for the sx4 to get good reviews.
perhaps the same way myvi is. thats why i think they should price it very close to the myvi as i think msia is a very price sensitive market given the fact we dont have any choice in cars. only way to eat into myvi's big cake is to price it very near the myvi. anywhere 8-10k above then not many would buy it. savvy obviously cannot contend. no doubt about that.
dont forget the new mazda 2 to be launched in september. same price bracket. bigger but lighter, more powerful and more fuel efficient, and better driving dynamics for sure.