Daihatsu invests RM746 million in new Indonesian factory

Daihatsu invests RM746 million in new Indonesian factory

Toyota and Daihatsu are working on a low cost car to build in Indonesia for the Indonesian market as well as the ASEAN region. According to reports, the car will be smaller than the low cost Vios-like Toyota Etios that Toyota launched in India recently, which leads me to believe it’s likely to be a hatchback. The car will be priced the equivalent of 800,000 to 900,000 yen in Indonesia, which translates to about RM29,800 to RM33,600.

To support this new vehicle, Daihatsu will invest as much as 20 billion yen (RM746 million) in Indonesia (not including land acquisition) to build a new factory with a 100,000 car annual output, of which about 70,000 will be used by Toyota.

The factory will boost Daihatsu’s current manufacturing capacity from 330,000 units a year to 430,000 units a year. It will have an initial capacity of 50,000 units a year. It will be located in the Kawasan Industry Suryacipta in Karawang Timur, Jawa Barat. Expected to be ready in end 2012, the new factory will handle stamping, welding, painting and assembly.

Things are definitely changing for Indonesia. Daihatsu and Toyota used to build only cars like the Avanza and the Innova for the Indonesia market. There is a Daihatsu Sirion currently sold in Indonesia but it actually uses our Perodua Myvi’s styling and is built in Malaysia by Perodua and imported into Indonesia. Deals like this might just end with Daihatsu having additional capacity for monocoque low cost cars.

Everyone over here is curious as to what this new low cost car might be, especially what kind of car and bodystyle. Word is that it will be based on a new minicar Daihatsu will launch in Japan in summertime this year with a targeted claimed fuel economy of 30km per litre. The Daihatsu e:S Concept (shown above) comes to mind, but it could also just be a Indonesian-ised Perodua Viva.

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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

  • tranformer on Feb 28, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    nice…. just let NAP, NEP to dries out all auto makes here and feed P1, P2 perpetually…. and also PEKEMA(/PuKeMa) + all AP King..

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  • Miwqa on Feb 28, 2011 at 10:14 pm

    err,Viva?

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  • mana kilang di malaysia?

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    • akinablue on Mar 01, 2011 at 8:16 am

      kan dah ada kat rawang tu..cuma diaang tukar logo jek..from D to P..macam kete2 yg assemble kat situ :-)

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  • kucingfight on Feb 28, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    Ah ha, and now we are continuing paying the price..loosing out to our neighbors.

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    • agree!!! G still siok sendiri with the certain figure on Msia economy status, but not mentioned our neighbors, Thailand, Indonesia and etc. They still ahead from us..

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      • aduss on Mar 01, 2011 at 7:39 pm

        jika buka kilang toyota kat malaysia, mcm maner perodua nk cari mkan? RM29,800 to RM33,600 for toyota? mati la perodua… faham ka?

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  • Goproton on Feb 28, 2011 at 10:17 pm

    cute car….!!!

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  • accord on Feb 28, 2011 at 10:27 pm

    er….. what happen to pero2?? your father & mummy run away from you??? Pero2 staff must get ready to work at Indonesia… or maybe might be easier for perodua to rebadge.. just change the bumpers like facelifted or limited … special… advance… edition that they only can do…

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    • peYno on Mar 01, 2011 at 3:06 am

      hahah… or.. Daihatsu will produce the car In INDONESIA for ASEAN region.. then perodua will rebadge it change bumper and headlamp only for malaysia market…prrrtfhhh

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  • Interesting indeed. P2 might eat humble pie sooner than I thought. I await full impact of AFTA and another divorce story.

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  • forrestcat on Feb 28, 2011 at 10:52 pm

    you guys la sour grape..indonesia getting investments that will bring jobs and oportunities to its people.think positive instad of thinking we are losing out and Malaysia is doomed thinking.

    malaysia will alywas have a special role in ASEAN automotive market as our car industry is well developed..we can now design our own cars instead of just manufacturing dud models from Nippon and our built quality is also going to the next level as indicated by Proton’s improved quality and the Inspira which requires Proton to conform to Mitsubishi standards. Perodua has also developed local workforce with focus to quality excedding the japanese that it is said perodua’s cleanliness at its plants is better than Japan and soon Perodua will be opening its automatic transmission manufacturing plantt with esports of automatic transmission gearboxes to other markets and even the said Indonesian plants highlly possibe..we are sybergising with ASEAN’s autro indstry rather than isolating ourselves. I am not surprised if we see Malaysian automotive talents working for these soon Indonesian factories or for marketing

    I am actually supportive of the national car company plan, it ensured that the car industry remain within the country and develop our local workforce.We dun wanna be like GM who absorb US tax bail out money and then open up plants in China..so the money flow overseas.At least proton and perodua recycles the money internally and benefit our workfocr through skills, training and management in auto industry.retaining our industrial base is important!Since we can’t compete with China, a national car company like Proton and Perodua wil ensure our automotive industry remain active for decades to come and not end up dying like the US. The UK car industry failed because they failed to adapt to mass manufacturing and based on proton abd Perodua’s performance we did not go down that path..so dun compare we will end up like the Brits which is a favourite topic of Proton/national car bashers.

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    • Tiadaid on Feb 28, 2011 at 11:00 pm

      Congratulations on a well thought out post. I agree with your thinking.

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    • lonelyobserve on Feb 28, 2011 at 11:55 pm

      If so, why NAP still protecting national cars since you mentioned national cars are up to standards?

      Furthermore the most persuasive way to judge national cars are up standard is to compete equally with foreign cars, without heavy taxation involved.

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      • you got to admit that heavy taxation on foreign car is one of big income for gomen. if they can, the gomen also would like to tax heavily on our own car but will be oppose greatly by rakyat.

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        • Harris on Mar 01, 2011 at 11:31 am

          The tax is used by the government to support high amount of petrol subsidy..

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          • Kamal on Mar 01, 2011 at 12:30 pm

            Its ok as 1 day the UITM student will replace the indon and bangla at construction site

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      • jtiongwl78 on Mar 01, 2011 at 11:28 pm

        I agree, If they are confident that they are matured, why dont they advise the government to open up the Car Market in Malaysia, remove current NAP. If they still survive, I salute them. I will change to admit that they growed matured. Otherwise they are still a mother fucking big baby!

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    • redboy on Mar 01, 2011 at 7:37 pm

      1. You are saying Design of own car and then Inspira. Do you know what did you say?
      2. You are saying at least protong recycle money in Malaysia? Well, Proton is making a lost, guess where they spent on…oh ya, Lotus in UK! and also, where does the money really goes? Check where the part suppliers spending. Oh ya, UK/Canada/Australia housing….how much does the BLUE COLLAR workers get as compare to a factory of Toyota/VW setup in here?

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  • scoobylution on Feb 28, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    no need to worry. malaysia have perodua factory. perodua is daihatsu. so malaysia have daihatsu factory. so what the different?

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    • peYno on Mar 01, 2011 at 2:51 am

      so why Japanese (Daihatsu) needs so many plant in ASEAN region???
      They may centralize all daihatsu plant in ASEAN region in Indonesia after AFTA
      hahaha,, bye bye perodua

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  • Malaysia Memang Boleh on Feb 28, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    again and again,the same old story from Malaysian,blame this blame that.

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  • The tittle should have been ” VW invest billions in Malaysia Factory”…….

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  • lanovi90 on Mar 01, 2011 at 12:10 am

    always malaysian-minded..wanna cheap things.
    come on la..how long we want to depend to others to build what we want..
    I’m proud of proton as they slowly learn to adapt to changes under new CEO..

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    • squawk on Mar 01, 2011 at 10:08 am

      I think people are looking for affordable things, not cheap things. Cheap in this sense would be relative (e.g. a RM30k car is cheaper than a RM60k car). Nobody wants to forever take 9 year loans for cars.

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    • bcoz rakyat should have the best thing…not our gomen…our gomen is our servant!!!

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  • RM29,800 to RM33,600.??

    pricing done right. =D the design looks good. like in the past… what ppl call the mini… people’s car. providing the shell is hard, comfortable interior. it’s a great 2nd car to own for life instead. =D reliable small car. cheap maintenance. best!

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  • nolan on Mar 01, 2011 at 1:14 am

    in Indonesia they can sell millions of cars compare to Malaysia…..but still they are poorer than us…dunno why….

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    • PakAbu on Mar 01, 2011 at 10:23 am

      There were 23,000 Indonesia millionaires (in USD) in 2008. It keeps increasing every year.

      Total population is 238 million. Even if 1% can afford a car, that’ll be 2.38 million already. Same goes for poverty.

      That’s why.

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  • Nonsense talk about local talents and money flowing out
    of the country by Forestcat.

    Just like TM who now blames Lotus for
    the loss registered by Proton. Always diverting the blame to
    others rather than to accept their own failures.

    Isn’t the 2.35 bil/480 mil pounds capex expenditure an outflow of funds to UK?
    Why can’t Proton just close Lotus UK and relocate their operations
    and ask Dany Bahar and his Real Madrid team to work & live in Msia instead??
    I bet they will freak out and resign en bloc !!!

    Anyway way to go Toyota/Daihatsu as they understand the automobile market
    in this region and opt to produce smaller and more fuel efficient cars rather
    than to put all the eggs in a basket and go all out producing EV’s and Hybrid
    cars instead. Efficient and practicality has always been the selling point of Toyota.
    Looking forward to see it at our doorstep soon with more JV’s with Perodua.

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  • peYno on Mar 01, 2011 at 2:46 am

    This is a bad news for Perodua.
    Eventhou Daihatsu is given special treatment in Malaysia as National car privillage,
    Subsidized by our Gomen etc .. but yet they still prefer INDONESIA to invest and produce small car for ASEAN region

    pity malaysian and perodua
    PERODUA has to jilat bontot more to the Japanese.. otherwise they will say bye bye and move to INDONESIA

    prrrrtfhhhh

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  • peYno on Mar 01, 2011 at 3:03 am

    RM29,800 to RM33,600.?? (Under Daihatsu brand.. no need to get National car title )
    but In Malaysia.. Daihatsu under Perodua got National car title and treatment bu our Gov.but sell viva @ RM45k???

    hahahha

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  • peYno on Mar 01, 2011 at 3:14 am

    After AFTA

    Daihatsu:
    Bye Bye perodua.. we prefer Indonesia indeed we will produce small car in Indonesia factory instead of your Rawang Factory

    Perodua:
    Wait… we had given National car title to u… still not enough??? why u gonna leave me??

    Daihatsu:
    We do business in Malysia , just because your Gomen give subsidi and special privillage to us ( national car title). but After AFTA, we see Indonesia has better prospec…so we decided to invest in Indonesia to produce not only lorry/van/mpv… but also a SMALL CAR

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    • Kamal on Mar 01, 2011 at 12:33 pm

      anyway i still wont buy a Proton car in my life…

      i rather buy a Chery or Geely car that are establish without helps from their government!

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  • peYno on Mar 01, 2011 at 3:22 am

    This small car is global car for Daihatsu and will be produced in Indonesia and export to worldwide.

    But in order to protect Perodua… our gomen will make sure the Daihatsu small car produced in Indonesia will not enter malaysia market…

    Perodua will rebadge again and sell it in Malaysia with higher price..
    pity malaysian

    prrrrtfhhhh

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    • Kamal on Mar 01, 2011 at 12:34 pm

      So for you its ok for Proton to rebagde Lancer as Inspira?

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      • aduss on Mar 01, 2011 at 7:59 pm

        Proton to rebagde Lancer as Inspira is smart paln,, inspira jualan nyer bukan mcm goring pisang panas mcm myvi.. so lg bagus rebagde jer.. errr, old topic.. malas nk tip panjang2…

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      • peYno on Mar 02, 2011 at 6:02 am

        what’s a problem.. proton has rebadge model and home ground model
        Rebadge model for small volume
        Home ground model for core model
        Rebadge model
        Inspira and next Nissan Fuga (perdana replacement)

        Homeground model
        Saga, persona R, EMAS, exora

        pls don’t compare with perodua laa.. perodua and naza is the only one in the world 100% rebadge company yet got a NATIONAL CAR title…

        even their boss Daihatsu also got homeground model(Move, Mira) n rebagde model ( boon, luminas)

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  • It is all good and well that Malaysia has a thriving car industry but somehow such news are indication that how much better Malaysia car industry can be. To use Inspira as an example to show Proton is taking the next step in technology and production maybe a bit shortsighted. True, Proton did some localisation of the car which is based on the Mitsubishi Lancer but all those items done can be easily done by a specialist tuner. To some that may say, this is picky and Proton bashing, well maybe some criticisms do run true.

    To compare Proton, one should actually take a look to Hyundai. Both are national based companies started with Mitsubishi Motor Company (MMC) as its technical partner and shareholder. Both started in early 80s. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who are the better company. Hyundai and MMC are in JV for a number of projects not least the Mitsubishi Lancer which uses the same engine as found in Kia Forte and Hyundai Elantra. So in turn, Proton is using Hyundai co-developed engine. In Korea, the top option has the 2 litre engine produces more than 155bhp.

    Does NAP failed? On the surface, it has to the detrimental of the Malaysian public. All lament the high prices which on the surface it is due to the NAP and the high duty. Currently driving a XC70 Cross Country which doubt can afford in Malaysia. Please do not use the exchange rate as earned here, spend here which goes to show the big spending power here. A litre of V-Power is only $1.45/L and that is not even at discount yet which is normally 4cents a litre. To those who does support NAP, maybe a sense of patriotism or maybe getting $$$ from it but will not praise NAP cause it does not allow an ownership of a nice continental SUV at a realistic price.

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  • Malaysia Memang Boleh on Mar 01, 2011 at 7:00 am

    I think Daihatsu is planning to move out of Japan due to higher cost of producing cars in Japan.

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  • gonggok on Mar 01, 2011 at 7:47 am

    Hee.hee…what NAP? P2 is owned by Daihatsu/Toyota. P2 IS JAPANESE. So we ARE giving a japanese company National status with all the tax breaks. But what are we getting out of it I wonder. Are the exporting (except to Mauritius?) Is Daihatsu/Toyota making us an export hub for any of their models? What do we get?

    Instead they open a factory in Indonesia…

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  • azrai on Mar 01, 2011 at 7:58 am

    What happened to their counterpart in Malaysia? Already have Rawang plant still focusing to open new plant in Indonesia? Something is amiss here.

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  • moha3774 on Mar 01, 2011 at 8:46 am

    …Cost of labour over there is much more cheaper compared to here… so ,personally think its a pure business decision…and they have firm foothold in Indonesia market..

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  • Bapak_Hussein on Mar 01, 2011 at 9:27 am

    Launch that here now & I bet this could put P1 out of business…:) Japanese Mini

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  • farghmee on Mar 01, 2011 at 9:33 am

    it’s an interesting news.

    may be it is an exercise to distinguish which country to produce what model.
    say malaysia: myvi, alza; indonesia: viva, avanza.

    normally, when the conditions are right, it’s better to setup new factory as to increase production rate.

    my hope is the safety std in these vehicles are on par with those jdm.

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  • Wisdom on Mar 01, 2011 at 9:48 am

    RM29K-33K before tax will be equivalent to RM40K++ after tax. Same old story in the end. SMALL car, BIG price.

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  • err i hope they sell it around 50.000.000 rupiah

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  • wuttaheck on Mar 01, 2011 at 11:06 am

    PT Perodua?

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  • indonesian need affordable tata nano so they can change their bajai or oplet.

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  • Yusli on Mar 01, 2011 at 11:53 am

    Reason why Indonesia wz preferred over Malaysia is be’cos
    MITI always drags its feet with no clear NAP direction and
    only encourages manufacturers to assemble cars costing 180000 and above
    here. Look at the models VW & DRB plans to assemble here.
    What is wrong if Toyota is expanding its capacity in Indonesia?
    Proton feeling the heat cos now Perodua will benefit from the
    spillover effect of the increased capacity.
    The investment in Indonesia will spur growth to the
    Indo & Msia region unlike Proton who is forking out 2.3billion ringgit on
    capex to Lotus. Talk about capital outflow and supporting the European
    economy and where is the Patriotism?!?!

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    • kickstart on Mar 01, 2011 at 2:29 pm

      talk about Patriotism
      1) who bash kawkaw when proton introduce saga fl with dual airbag but no TC, ABS, EBD, BA, ESC etc etc
      2) who bash kawkaw when proton introduce CFE turbocharged engine?
      3) who bash kawkaw when proton rugi in Q3 but untung in Q1 & Q2?
      4) who bash kawkaw when proton go there go here do there do here bla bla bla?
      please leave this so called bolehland and go live in countries with no national car so you can bash others. typical basher

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      • Losers comment by kickstart , you have run out of excuses
        Even TM now blaming Lotus for the losses incurred.
        The blame game is directed to all except Proton.
        Poor shareholders of Proton ,share price also taking a hammering.
        Today Proton was the biggest loser at Bursa – closing at a low of$3.58
        :(

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  • looks like proton and perodua are going to have tough time….

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    • peYno on Mar 01, 2011 at 11:32 pm

      proton still can survive coz they have capability to produce own car , own engine and own design

      perodua?? everything feeded by Daihatsu.. once daihatsu says good bye… then perodua bye bye

      prrrtrfhhhh

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  • SiapaBoleh on Mar 01, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    Indonesia = earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, riots and etc.
    Malaysia = no earthquakes, no tsunamis, no volcanoes, no riots (just illegal gathering)

    still, Daihatsu prefer Indonesia… wtf.

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    • peYno on Mar 01, 2011 at 11:37 pm

      Indonesia= no need jilat bontot jepun, no need give national car status to daihatsu
      Malaysia= perodua has to jilat bontot jepun, gomen has to give national car privillage to daihatsu, perodua market /national compact car market is protected

      still.. daihatsu prefer Indonesia

      prrrryhhhhh

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  • Tiadaid on Mar 01, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    The only reason Daihatsu chose Indonesia over Malaysia because labour is cheaper there. Same reason why so many companies moved their production capabilities to countries like China.

    So there.

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    • Kamal on Mar 01, 2011 at 7:07 pm

      With cheaper labour, there also cheaper material & part, lower cost to built a plant.

      In addition there are less government interfere in their automotive industry and bigger market.

      Not to mention nearly half of car sold in Indonesia are Toyota

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  • Kevin on Mar 01, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    Why not setup a plant in Malaysia rather than in Indonesia? Malaysian got more higher educated than Indon…more stable political & ….

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    • peYno on Mar 02, 2011 at 5:53 am

      blame to Perodua la…
      In Malaysia. daihatsu has to share their profit with Perodua

      If perodua no exist… i guess Daihatsu may consider to invest in Malaysia
      This all about money and they want MORE PROFIT

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  • adiddaniel on Mar 01, 2011 at 5:40 pm

    I think all malaysian people what so spcial dont look down on our neigbour what so great about you all think positive this big company had their own market strategy in thier own bussines. So what bother you all know only to complain all silly little thing. Not like our government share company very greedy they only think their own pocket .

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  • Unforgiven on Mar 02, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    It’s more like M’sia vs Indo now… The G with a better auto policy will always win…
    So many choices like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc…

    We are happily driving a Toyota that’s made in Thailand, soon will be Audi from Indonesia. Foreign investors are capable of moving their operations to other countries anytime that they want.

    Please don’t tell me that our P1 and P2 are better cars than those cheapest car in the US/Europe or global point of view.

    Again, good luck and please treat your own people better!

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