We are in the midst of a financial depression but apparently the rich are still thriving, perhaps enjoying the freed-up money that they have from laying off extra workers. Earlier this month we heard news of Maserati making a come-back to Malaysia. Next up is Aston Martin, another maker of sexy high-end sports cars.
There’s apparently an Aston Martin showroom being built on Jalan Genting Kelang near Berjaya’s Sri Pelangi condos. A quick check with Bursa Malaysia filings (page 160) shows that a unit of Berjaya Land Berhad had actually purchased a 49.9% share of Singaporean company Aston Martin Lagonda (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd for RM8.47 million back in 2006. AML SEA is the dealer for Aston Martin in Malaysia and Singapore.
Looks like Berjaya’s making a big re-entry into the automotive market. It now deals with Mazda, Skoda, Changan, Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles and soon Aston Martin. Berjaya has also secured rights to sell Changan cars in Vietnam. Pretty soon we’ll be able to see more of the DBS, DB9 and in the future the Rapide on the road, I hope!
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Not wanting to lose out on the latest fad of automobile manufacturers sponsoring movie franchises, Chrysler has announced it will be sponsoring the new Terminator 4: Salvation movie, which will see Chrysler cars being product placed in the movie. Chrysler did not say how much money it would be spending on this though.
Proton has been in the Thai market for just over 1 year now, and its market share is currently 1.4% or 2,918 cars. Total industry volume for 2008 in the Thai market was 615,270 units.
GM is no longer than world’s largest automaker in terms of sales, ending its 77-year claim to that title. GM only sold 8.36 million units in 2008, which is slightly less than Toyota’s 8.97 million units. Who knows what will happen in 2009 though, GM may overtake Toyota again, Toyota may leave GM even further behind, or GM may just cease to exist. Now is not the time to be bothered about such titles, especially since GM has not posted a profit since 2004. More profit per car is what needs to be achieved, not more cars sold.