Local Great Wall Motor assembler Go Automobile Manufacturing (GAM) has announced that it has revised the projected 2015 sales target for its Great Wall M4 SUV. During the introduction of the CKD variants of the M4 back in January, CEO Ahmad Azam Sulaiman had stated that the company was targeting to sell 6,000 units this year.
That number has now revised to 2,600 units, according to a report by The Star‘s business section. Azam told StarBiz that the downward revision was despite the good response the company had received for the SUV – in January, it had said it had obtained 2,500 bookings for the vehicle.
“This year, it took us almost three months to clear our outstanding orders, and currently, all the new orders will take one month to deliver. Year to date, we have sold more than 1,600 units. However, due to the uncertainties within the automotive industry recently, we have reviewed our sales target from 6,000 units to 2,600 units for this year,” he said.
He said that the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in April, coupled to the dip in the ringgit’s performance against the US dollar had affected consumer sentiment.
“We noticed that consumers were adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ approach during the implementation of the GST. Nevertheless, we managed to convince consumers that our product pricing would not increase compared to other brands. Unfortunately, almost immediately after the implementation of the GST, the currency exchange rate started to become unfavourable for the ringgit, regardless of whether we traded in US dollar or yuan,” he explained.
Production of the M4 began in December 2014 at GAM’s plant in Gurun, which had been assembling the Haval H5 and Wingle pickup. First previewed in left-hand drive form in January last year, the M4 was initially launched in its fully-imported form in July. In August, on-the-road pricing was revealed, with six variants of the SUV going on sale.
The locally-assembled versions of the SUV were officially introduced in January, with a five-speed manual and six-speed manual transmission with automated clutch operation (the Getrag 6AMT160) being available.
The front-wheel drive M4 is powered by a normally-aspirated 1.5 litre VVT MPI four-pot offering 105 hp at 6,000 rpm and 138 Nm at 4,200 rpm. The current pricing for the M4 ranges from RM48,138 for the 1.5 Standard MT to RM60,800 for the 1.5 Premium AMT, on-the-road without insurance.
Heading into 2016, Azam said that there will be challenges for the auto sector.“Based on the previous economic crisis, it took more than 24 months to recover. However, our economy is much more resilient now compared with previously.”
“Nevertheless, the challenges are still there due to some other parameters that are beyond our control, such as the movements of currencies and commodities. Therefore, we hope that the next 12 months should show some rapid performance recovery. Nonetheless, we are already embarking aggressively on cost-reduction activities for a few months on improving efficiency of our operations and processes,” he told the publication.
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Better than Proton iriz, isn’t?
Yes and EEV qualified status car too. Iriz habuk pun tarak.
It looks cute. More are running on the road lately.
This car not halal lah. Better we don’t import it. Sure got unsur najis and haram
I dare not buy this car lah. The workers who assembled it makan pork and then touch the car seat to assemble it
Compared to superstition RBA john, I rather doubt the material quality of the parts used to build the car
You better don’t breath as well. As the air was inhaled from people who eat pork. So hold ur breath till you died. Don’t talk this kind of shxt anymore and the world will be more peaceful without idiot like u.
Sound like ISIS is your only choice. Go dump your malaysian citizenship and join them. Remember walk and swim there naked since most of the things on your body and things around you are made by those people who eat pork.
Guess the Wall is not that Great on this one then.
dont be stupid la this ceo.
bodoh YTD only 1600 units sold and wanna blame economic.
6k to 2.6k at this moment is such a huge gap.
I actually agree with you.
A revision from 6k to 2.6k? This CEO should get fired.
The car doesn’t look too bad, the price seems competitive enough… but still the accuses.
Selling AP is not the same as selling isn’t it?
Becoz right or wrong everybody now blames Gov for everything. Even haze from Indon also salah Najib. So this guy see opportunity to absolve himself from being chopped by blaming Gov. Just like the taximan blaming SPAD for their own created problems.
all the best
Any GW m4 driver here? Can share some experience here? I saw so many this car on the road nowadays. Price is quite good as well.
Bro, which city do you live in lah ?
I only saw like 3 units since 2014. All in Cyberjaya.
It is a decent car indeed for this kind of pricing. I saw people who intended to buy myvi also consider this m4. The main good thing about this car is the car body which is much much solid that the double “P”. But don’t expect you can get a car with comfy level compared to those 80k and above cars. Every penny worth its value.
Me. I owned this little car for 10 months now (manual of course). Except some minor problem (engine sound a bit louder) basically everything still up to my expectation. FC around 7.5-7.8 ltr/100km but this is for 100% city drive with traffic. If run highway can get around 6.5 lit/100km. This is a good choice if you don’t prefer those local brands.
To M44M, is your m4 til function well? Any awareness should bear for those thinking buy a new M4 instead of others? Is your engine and oftenly they called “6AMT” troubles you?
GWM M4 YTD sales is just slightly behind Subaru if not mistaken.
Thats why i dont like Kimchi. Bad design..
What kimchi? Are you still dreaming? This is dumpling.
ST spent too long eating toyota salesman bullshit, he doesn’t even know which brand comes from where. lol..
Big joke lah. We all thought this Great Wall M4 would threaten Proton and Perodua… not even close.
What Great Wall/ GAM/ GoAuto won’t tell you is that they’ve not sold/ registered a single M4 SUV in the last few months. The so called 2,500 bookings is a lie, I’m sure many prospective customers would have long cancelled their bookings due to the excruciatingly long waiting period. For some reason, local production of the M4 is not going smoothly. Even before GST and the Ringgit plunge, they were struggling.
Where is this so-called 1,600 YTD sales coming from ? It better be from other models, or from exports, or 2014 backlogs, because according to my sources, GoAuto only sold 186 units of the M4 SUV from January to June 2015. The last few months, they’ve not sold or registered a single M4.
Good luck GoAuto… you guys have a long, LONG way to go.
I don’t know about your source of info but I can verify that your info is wrong. Contrary to your claim, the last few months saw a big delivery of M4 to those who were on the wait list & to new buyers. Go Auto indeed managed to clear most of the backlog orders. New owners who took delivery of their cars were posted over at several GWM fb sites.
If the reliability is as good as its looks and price the distributor will have a winner.
This M4 is a reputable and reliable car in China but unfortunately the marketing and sales by GO ruin all these. Shame on them.
lol 6k? if dont have such a big head, pls dont go and wear a humongous hat.
Surprise. Surprise. Take 1 month to deliver?? You don’t have the parts to assemble?? Reasonably priced products but you can’t sell. Give the dealership to Berjaya Auto and see the result.
I was only an inch away from buying an M4 back in Jan & Feb, but the sales person never got back to me.. and I ended up taking a new Jazz instead.. improvement on the sales team would really boost the sales i presume
Undoubtedly the GO management are such a failure. Their sales might be much higher but since they delay and delay the delivery of the car. I guessed more than half of the pre-owners decided to cancel the bookings and go for something else. Serve them right.
They could be lying about assembling it locally it.
Angkat cbu then declared as ckd like naza kia always do.
That the only way to clear the backlog.
I read from the comments in their fb, even the salesman were not sure how long to wait. Thus, many cancel their orders
I book one unit of M4 last week and took delivery today. I like this car for its built quality and pricing.
Is your m4 functioned well? Any problems occur n let those think of buying a M4 know ? Is your engine and 6AMT car system bother you?
Pls send me the great wall M4 1.5 price RM45000 catalog n detail