After reading two pieces of news in the papers recently about our two national car manufacturers, I found something slightly odd about how the Perodua Myvi and the Proton Persona are doing in terms of sales.
Despite Malaysian preferences for 3 box sedans, the sales of the Perodua Myvi has not dropped at all and it is still selling between 8,000 to 9,000 units a month despite being in the market for over two years and approaching the time for the usual mid life facelift soon, assuming a 5 year product cycle. There is still a three month backlog. And Perodua themselves admit they do not know why.
In the meanwhile, the Proton Persona is doing great as well, with 19,840 units so far in the first three months at last count. Bookings for the Saga has reached 31,455 units, thanks to the current low price. Half of the Persona orders have already been delivered, while 72% of the RM26,999 Proton Saga bookings are on the road now.
Waiting list for the Persona currently ranges from 1.5 months to 2.5 months for the base line model, 2-3 months for the medium line and 3-4 months for the high line.
You would think that the fact that the Proton Persona is doing so well is partly because it has been stealing some Perodua Myvi sales, but it turns out that the Perodua Myvi sales figures have not suffered at all – not even a small 1,000 unit per month drop can be seen, and this is in a market where both cars are in similiar price ranges AND the Persona is of the preferred 3-box sedan format.
Response to the recently launched Toyota Vios has also been encouraging, so where are all these new buyers coming from? Have they all been holding back for a proper 3 box sedan so long?
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