After 2015’s year ending promo blitz that culminated in record TIV despite a soft economy, the first two months of 2016 saw the car industry suffer from a bad hangover. Many who were in the market for a car would have took advantage of the year-end sale, and many brands increased prices in 2016 citing the forex factor.
It was a slow start, but could the car market be flickering back to life? 48,800 vehicles were sold in March, an increase of 10,924 units or 29% compared to February. Passenger vehicles accounted for 43,247 units (up 9,121 units) from the total. The Malaysian Automotive Association attributed the spike to a longer working month and car companies rushing to deliver vehicles before their financial year ending March 31.
Year-on-year sales volume is down 28%, or 18,587 units lower than in March 2015. Similarly, March 2016 year-to-date (YTD) sales is 22%, or 37,112 units lower than Jan-March 2015. However, this is due to the high volume from last year where consumers rushed to purchase before the implementation of GST.
As you can see from the chart above, most major players saw gains in March from a dismal February, everyone except for Proton and Hyundai. Perodua tops the league by a big margin over Honda, which is now the number one non-national brand. Honda occupies Proton’s traditional second place in March, but the local brand is just ahead of Honda YTD – 19,225 vs 18,777. Should this trend continue, Proton won’t hold on to its runner-up spot for very long.
Surprisingly, Nissan is not just fourth in March over Toyota, its YTD position is also fourth, ahead of the big T – 10,773 vs 10,216. UMW Toyota Motor has a few big guns waiting in the wings though, and the IMV trio of Hilux, Fortuner and Innova should boost sales significantly. Interesting to watch.
In the premium race, Mercedes-Benz is continuing its strong form and is leading German archrival BMW 2,677 to 1,813 YTD. Both have sold more cars in Q1 than mass market players Volkswagen (1,604) and Hyundai (1,569). Kia (897) and Peugeot (397) are among the big brands that did not breach 1,000 units.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Proton and Perodua haters in 3…2…1…
With only 5500 cars sold, how to support 60000 employee’s.. Hopeless case. Means only gomen is buying P1cars. P1 must face reality, it’s car pricing is not matching market realisation. It needs to sell all cars at least 30% below current price.
I remember in recent interview with Tun M he stated that Potong need to sell at least 5K per month to make a profit. So technically they are meeting their minimum target! LOL!
Gomen staff & Menteri cadang rakyat beli kereta 2nd Harga RM 5k shj..
So boleh ambil AP import Vios, Passo kereta 2nd Jepun. (Burma, laos, Cambodia gomen crony do same thing- RHD in LHD road)
let go to 3rd world again when life was so simple.
Nostalgia
hidup SPAN botak, Ahmad maselan dll..
tak mahu naik Uber naikla bas atau basikal.
tak keluar duit pun badan sihat minum air mineral.
joke by minister
If you look at top 20 brands, all of them have increased sales except 2: Proton and Hyundai.
Everyone knows Proton no quality Hyundai no RV.
Proton is such a failure. Last month it only sold 5535 cars. And I can bet, 90% of them was ordered by Bomba, Spanco, PDRM, TLDM, TUDM and Government Ministries.
Year to date Proton has only sold 19225 cars. That is 3 months. So, we can assume, by end of this year, maximum Proton can sell is 76,000 units.
Last year Proton created biggest shame for the whoe of Malaysia by selling only 100,000 cars. This year, another shame, as the figure will be much lower. Malu betul.
We can assume that the RM1.5 billion will disappear like David Copperfield magic. That RM1.5 billion came from your pocket and my pocket. That same RM1.5 billion could have built at least 10 fully fledged Government schools and 10 fully fledged free Government hospitals for the rakyat.
How is Proton going to turn around? Mustapa did a big drama for the rakyat initially not wanting to give Proton the money. But we ll know, they sure give Proton the money free.
This RM1.5 billion is not a one off. Proton has been getting billions every other year from our tax payers money. Don’t forget, when Mahathir was PM and towkay in Petronas, he took billions every other year to keep his baby Proton alive.
Time to close Proton down. It is a waste of our money. I can presume Proton has sucked about RM100 billion since its inception of our hard earned money.
Satu kereta untung 500. Jual 5000 kereta, baru dpt 2.5m. Boleh byr ke 60000 pekerja?
That’s why it keep asking soft loan every 2 years. Buy Proton or not, we all Malaysians are subsidizing the company.
While the Proton fanboys only talk here and there but no action.
Potong make profit every year the problem is what under its company shrunk the money to negative like lotus
Just close proton
Proton selling 5000 cars a month, how to sustain their overbloated staff? How to sustain their mega huge workforce?
Proton has one of the largest workforce in the world of any car manufacturing plant. They follow the Malaysian style. Employ for fun. Like our Government.
Malaysian Government employs 1.5 civil servants to cater to 30 million rakyat. Australia employs 250,000 civil servants to cater for the SAME 30 million Australian rakyat.
So how is Proton going to pay their super huge mega workforce? According to Proton CEO, they kononnya make only RM500 clean profit per car. So 5000 cars sold you get untung RM2.5 million
How to pay 30,000 workers with RM2.5 million when their big gun directors alone earn 6 figures per month???
If close potong how i gonna show off my fancy conti car to other cheap cars? No use buy so expensive but can’t make my neighbors jealous
the reason for the proton car price is quite high is due to government….not proton…there is tax even to the local cars include proton…….
I hate big T also and luckily I see them fall like this. P2 is my favorite though.
P2 major shareholder is umw also
With P2, you still using our engine. It is ok, everyone knows P2 cheap and reliable, that’s why sales the best.
People now a day, buy a cheap, reliable & good RV car.. Camporn & CVT bising Punch Powertrain are reliable & good RV ka?
I hate people like u
I don’t hate people. I only hate
1. Junk quality car
2. No RV car
3. Noisy fanboys with so much talk but no actions
Wanna support Proton? Act by action buy the shit. Talk is cheap!!
Much more useless buy Toyota but break down also.Altis breakdown last weekend fix dy kah same lorr? Btw altis total tax is around 60k.. Wow! Paying so much money to gomen but still driving tak laku big T
Total tax 60k, but wait, a 3 years old Altis 1.8G with VSC can be purchased at RM65k if you really know how to haggle (the one listed in Mudah at RM70k – 75k is just a ‘harga buka’ or price before haggling).
Hahaha izz is a troll. A troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community.
OMG…Honda going to beat P1 very soon this year. Just differences 448 only… Kiss goodbye to P1. Welldone Honda and also Nissan (they beat Toyota suprisingly)
Told you already you won’t go wrong with sushi cars! Again sales figures tell.
Economy bad thus people move to Nissan/Honda instead of Toyota. They all know Toyota has the best built quality, comfort, fuel efficient and RV.
OMG…pls dont cheat urself, the sales figures tell….Spec & pricing, Honda better than T. Comfort, Nissan better than T…
Fuel efficient? Smoking pot ke? Old dinosaur vios engine drink more fuel than its class.Underpower.Long distance much horrible body roll below jepunis brand.This car good RV? U really smoking pot.Lotus handling much better on p1 than Toyota cars.Syukur Toyota masih tak sedar
Suzuki only moved 2 freaking units for the whole month of March? Darn, even Jaguar sold more than that. BTW, why is Great Wall/Haval not on the list?
Yeah, surprising…this also shows how rebadged Suzuki Artiga under Proton will perform in the future.
Suzuki is a failure brand. The best part is, Proton is marrying a failure. And they think they are going to start selling 1 million units per year now with this marriage.
People had no confidence in Suzuki from day one. That is why they failed in Malaysia. Rebadging a Suzuki into a Proton won’t make a difference.
There goes our RM1.5 billion!
Suzuki already ceased operation in Malaysia, the 2 units sold are probably old stock. All future Suzuki Vehicles will be sold under the brand of Proton
Walao eh how those Susuki Chevy Peegeot salesman survive, think have to do part time Uber or pasar malam sell goremg pisang
Those salesman part-time Perodua and Honda.
That’s normal. Plenty of SA actually sells multiple brand. Proton SA can also sell Perodua, Honda, Toyota, Nissan usually.
wait proton is not 2nd? lol
Toyota not 3rd??? LOL
Honda vs Proton
Let’s predict who’ll be at 2nd place for total 2016 sales?
Thumbs up for Honda.
Thumbs down for Proton.
Yes, especially with the imminent launch of the 10th Generation Honda Civic. Even Toyota won’t stand a chance.
Toyota doesnt stand a chance? Hello… All perodua cars are Toyota models. And Toyota is earning hefty revenue from royalties.
Toyota motor Corp has 3 divisions in Malaysia – lexus, Toyota and perodua.
Can’t you tell the difference between Toyota the car brand and Toyota the company? We are talking car brands here, smart aleck.
either way, DRB laugh behind your back.
Both under DRB HICOM LOLOLOLOL
Yes both under the same taukeh, but the taukeh don’t want to cross subsidy, he ask the G for 1.5B development funds for the P1 (only fools belief this is soft loan) instead.
Let us hope the soft loan doesn’t morph into a gift, a gift from taxpayers.
Don’t say it man. Later DRB can just rebadge 1-gen/facelift-earlier of the entire Honda line-up.
That time your Honda sales lol.
Halo abg polis, apa pasal thumbs down proton? sudah bosan bawa inspira kah?
Proton said theey target 2016 sales will be 150,000 units.
Hewhewhewhew
For sure Proton and UMW under achieve this year, eatimate proton will hit 80k and Toyota 40k…so Proton will request another billion and UMW probably got sacked by Toyota …lol
Toyota can’t sacked UMW because that is their only allowed legal entry point to Malaysia appointed politically and racially.
Otherwise I could just go kickstarter.com and start selling *real* Toyota.
GST to increase a few more per cent to support P1?
learn from perodua, cheap, cheerful & reliable car…it is not about patriotism when you want to move from A to B
Perodua not reliable, sama sebiji dgn lama Proton kereta
Wow. Straight to the point. Need more comments like this!!
Yeah! P2 cars are the champion of middle to lower income Malaysians.
Keep it low, then goods news for consumer will keep pouring in. Reduce in car price is slowly taking show. Keep it low, then consumer is king
Keep it low, then good news for consumer will keep pouring in. Reduce in car price is slowly taking shape. Keep it low, then consumer is king
dare to dream.
our bang-sat minister will say, “kami perlu meningkat cukai eksias kereta kerana jualan kereta turun telah menjejaskan kutipan kerajaan”. :P :D
Where is your vsc vios, UMWT?
I said it here, and I said it again: wait until 0 monthly sales to Vios first. Then only they will add VSC. (airbags remain at 2 yo).
Then have to wait for 2nd wave of 0 monthly sales, only then +2 airbags (total 4).
You want 6 airbags and VSC on Vios? Wait 3rd wave. Or by estimation, roughly 3 facelifts (or 1 new gen and 2 facelift).
Close shop aje lah senang
yup, bought Honda City because Toyota didn’t put this stability control into consideration…
where naza brand.i cant see it!!!
NAZA = Some models of Hyundai and Kia
Why can’t we have the data based on each model? i.e axia, iriz,myvi, city, vios, almera, preve, hrv, asx, camry, accord etc…pls get it..
Toyota, Honda, Perodua, Proton, dun want gv the data, so others juz follow
too much testing for proton upcoming car, people cant afford to choose soon-to-be-old model and cant wait further for the new car that we dont even know yet when to launch.
or this can be sign that many malaysian become poorer. just buy cheapest car axia with fuel consumption as cover reason, and cheapest mpv alza.
This is a clear sign that going slightly higher priced vehicle yields nothing. i.e. the gap from 70k to 150k are shithole of non-luxurious useless expensive vehicles – you either got expensive tin can with plastic interior or vehicle full of problems. Only very few winner are in this region.
In the end,
* low-end market is 170k.
* 80k~100k class can have only two winner. Right now for sedan is Honda City, and ‘SUV’ is Honda HRV.
Sooo happy to see P1 and the big T finally getting their due for milking the rakyat for the wrong reasons. The creation of P1 had forever ruined the entire automobile industry in Malaysia and dashed millions of the rakyats dream to own decent vehicles of quality and variety. It also lined hundreds or thousands of cronies pockets while making the G high on easy tax money by milking guess who – the rakyat. Now generations will not get to own decent vehicles. All the while the policy makers or the cronies are driving luxury vehicles and not P1 or even T. Those who kept them in power, stop mourning coz u deserve it if you can’t afford a decent vehicle!
Now the big T, riding on its partnership with the devil, (the big g) T thought it can ride on giving us sub standard level products and watered down specs at sky high prices. It has finally seen people power in play. Like P1, it too to a lesser degree suffers the perception issue that there is a new generation of people that are just anti P1 and T regardless. This are the next generation of people who will only see their purchasing power increase and influence the trend for the next decade who remember well how P1 and the big T treated them in the 90’s and 2000’s.
For both of them karma is a B****!!! Enjoy the show peps!
When times are hard ppl are generally more careful with money, hence sales of overpriced products like toyota will drop. Now lets see if nissan can maintain its place till december
I belief that in Thailand toyota have come out with vios with cvt and engine of 1.3litres. I bet they will be selling them in Malaysia them in before end 2016. I also bet that they will also comes with VSA and likely selling at around RM70 to RM73k. Those with 1.5litres engine + cvt + VSA would expect to be matching Honda City pricing to about RM2k lower. Otherwise toyota passenger car sales will unlikely exceed 48,000 units for whole of 2016.
May P2 should be given the 1.5 billon on condition that they take over P1!. Then hands off from the gov on how P2 runs the new P1.
Proton RM1.5 Billion = 50,000 unit of RM30k Axia?
Proton close shop? hahahhahaha
Sebab Proton kereta jadi mahal?
Civic Thailand Top spec RM139k. Thailand got Proton?
Proton close shop. Heard this long ago but still dint close shop lolololol. Hidup Proton!!!
Pergi matila Proton
Just wondering, what kind of mitsubishi people are buying nowdays?
Triton, ASX, Attrage and maybe Outlander. Mostly Triton.
ASX, Pajero sport, Outlander, Triton, a little bit Mirage
Triton. ASX.
While the ASX looks dated inside and out, it does seem like an incredible value for money in that segment…which is why it is quite popular.
For passenger car… ASX and Attrage.
Granted that both are not attractive cars, but Attrage and ASX, even Mirage, is quite heavily discounted now.
In fact, currently many brands offer discounts in various forms and methods just to ‘keep the ball rolling’.
Current economy + future economy lookout isn’t good (no matter what the G said) so this is a necessity.
I am interested to see Haval data.
Why it isn’t on the list?
Lol look at Suzuki
So sad.
i think people waiting New proton Design lunching that why proton sale drop….
Maybe once every foreign brand stop selling in Malaysia will our people get angry enough at gov to abolish crazy AP tax…
Toyota and Daihatsu in advantage when Perodua sales figure is good. The more Perodua makes, the.more they gain too.
Some malaysian are waiting the new saga and persona. That’s why the sales was drop. I believe the sales will raise after the persona and saga were launched. It’s normal.
lol i like how there’s only 1 lambo sold per month
better allow me to build my own car la. i can buy parts from kedai kereta potong.
What happened to Hyundai?