BMW Group Malaysia has introduced the locally assembled BMW 523i at its assembly plant in Kulim, Kedah. The entry-level F10 5-Series was priced at RM398,800 (CBU) when it was launched in Malaysia in May, but local assembly has brought the price down to RM383,800 (OTR, without insurance, with BMW Service Inclusive + Repair). This translates to savings of RM15,000 for the customer.
The 523i is powered by a 2.5-litre straight-six (N52) with 204 bhp and 250 Nm of torque, an increase of 14 bhp and 20 Nm over its predecessor, and matching the E60 525i in torque. Paired to an eight-speed automatic gearbox, this car sprints to 100 km/h in 8.5 seconds on its way to a 234 km/h top speed.
With this CKD 523i, the price gap between it and the other variant in the range – the RM598,800 535i – is even bigger, leaving space for a mid-level F10. BMW Group Malaysia has confirmed that they will be introducing a locally assembled BMW 528i later in the year. By the way, the first shipment of CBU 523i cars was fully sold within the first month of its launch.
Operational since 2008, the BMW Assembly plant in Kulim has wheeled out over 4,900 units to date. The facility employs over 400 employees who work on the 5-Series and 3-Series. It is operated in partnership with Inokom Corporation, and while both BMW and Inokom share factory space, they operate separate assembly lines.
“The BMW assembly line facilities in Kulim are as advanced as any BMW production facility anywhere in the world and has led to the introduction of superior premium quality assembly line technology, practices and standards to Malaysia,” said Manfred Zink, Production Manager and Plant Representative of BMW Group Malaysia.
For the F10’s launch story, full spec sheet and gallery, click here.
Wish that there’s an M Sport version soon!
If the difference is only 15k, i think the buyers who can afford it wont mind getting the CBU version over the CKD version….
no diff at all…only rm15k nothing for rich ppl…better cbu than ckd
I’ve always loved BMWs, its a pity that our government is taxing us in a way which we can’t afford to enjoy certain luxuries in life with our hard earned money.
blaming gov for ur incompetency? hard earned money? hard earners don’t whine…they work…gheezzz…get a life!!!
LAME!!!!
funny u… u cannot differentiate between hardworking and lazy people, or for that matter even between what is right or what is wrong, can you?
yeah sure… lazy people whine, they want money to fall from the sky so that they can afford that BMW or whatever…
people elsewhere in the world have a basic freedom to say what they want or like… r u saying here in Msia u just work like donkeys and cannot have your say whether u like something or not… such as to be taxed FAIRLY or to be taxed as if there is no tomorrow by the Govt…
but when you are lazy to change the political landscape…. do u have a term for that?… meaning u let the same bunch of monkeys run the country for donkey years…
n funny u too…
do u actually clear on things that are right n ones that are wrong? bashing tax on cars, and in the same time ignoring all the other subsidies that we people have enjoyed all these years?
do u own a car? or maybe two? three cars? and let us all see the average cars per people here in Malaysia…when u get the number, let us make one wise conclusion on it…is it fair? or it isn’t?
maybe u aren’t clear with what those words and sentences i used above implied on…i’ll point out an example. do u know about the auto industry n policy in Thai n Indo? the cars are cheaper, and way much cheaper. and let us all again see the average cars per people there? do ur math, and conclude it wisely.
and u were talking about basic freedom of speech? i bashed this guy, i said what i wanted to say, and now u came bashing me. are u fair enough talking about this freedom of speech?
these things are way bigger. when it comes to economy, it involves so much other things; currency exchange n bla bla. u have to associate all those things. in the end, whatever conclusion or stand u might come out with, i would respect that. but clearly i would never agree with it.
Looks like my dream to become ‘golongan berBMW’ will have to be delayed indefinitely. Government, please help.
BMW made in Malaysia..which you prefer?..made in Germany or here?..
A 15k discount for a CKD?
PFFFFFTTT!! That’s not even 5%.
should Auto Bavaria decides to reduce price by 50K, it will give a huge impact on resale value of CBU 5 series brought in earlier. the owners may get upset, or angry and as their cars depreciate a lot faster than supposedly.
Remember Kia Carnival back in year 2000?? 160K being a CBU. 105K only after CKD and badged as national car in 2003. All Kia Carnivals value plummet to the ground immediately after.
Just reduce the import duty only.
8-speed automatic is interesting.
The discount is from BMW dealer, no import duty reduction from the government since it is not an ASEAN product. Correct me if i m wrong
Nice
adoi,rugi 15 ribu aku aritu..
What is the big deal about 15,000 savings? That is nothing. The press release is a disgrace implying that RM15k is a big deal to a person who can afford 383,800.
Don’t undermine people. People waited for the CKD hoping it would be 343,000, like the old E60.
Just because a few nonsense added, price jumps to 383,800.
Go and buy a Garmin for few hundred ringgit if you need navigation lah and back aircon vents are now standard in even japanese cars. So, what’s the big deal?
Already buyers aren’t getting the real true 3.0 litre engine (53) and have to settle for this old engine (52)
Precisely.
What is 15k to a nearly 400k car?
Stinks of a rip off.
Agree. Other countries offer 523i with 3.0L engine and here the 2.5L engine. Ask more the sales people become annoyed.
agreed….15k is too little. i think 10% discount or 40k is more reasonable for CKD.
we get the N52 engine due to our poor quality fuel in bolehland.
EURO also easily plummeted by more than that margin, correct me if i am wrong.
The Euros! The Euros depreciation! What is 15k?
RM15 k??
GREAT!!
but i still cannot afford it since i’m still a student
ahha
Wow, can save up to 3.76% from CBU price. Can’t wait to buy it.
Perli ke bro?..
‘Cant wait to buy it’ ? Mr salesman, all my friends who use a 5er never bother about the 15000.
Can we do something on this type of cheap advertisement at the blog for car lovers?
Chill out, nitro was just being sarcastic…..
15k can get you a good set of 19 inch rims and good tyres.
3.76% between CKD and CBU vehicle, no matter what kind of brand or car i rather CBU quality. At lease 20% lol worth to be CKD
Still expensive….
i dont think 15k is much different for such car, i would rather get a cbu instead of ckd.
nice~!
RM15k means dog shit when you are willing to splash close to RM400k on car.
many org kaya will consider these ‘dog shit’ as ‘gold bar’, thats why they became rich……
Our neighbourhood dato’ sri just bought a new 535i GT… what a muscular looking car..
muscular = bmw x6
that gt is simply a mutated ugly monster……
correction… both x6 and GT are mutated ugly monsters… hahahhahahah
omg.. this will be disaster. there will be gap here and there.. might be missing screws as well… the dashboard will be like plastic toys… after 2 weeks of use there will be eeekk eek sound every where.. no malaysian good at assembling a car.. even proton car assemble oversea better than local assembled.
Exactly. On top of this, u will get to see crappy local stuff. BTW, from CBU to CKD price down <4%??? WTF??? I thought the saving is 20-30% kinda thing? No? What bout the precious RM40k paper (AP)?
if you calculate the Euro depreciation of almost 20%, u will be more angry. In those HK magazine they already offer such Euro depreciation value back to the customer to increase sales…
The root cost of all this is the market freedom. With Sapura now also under AB, you see almost all BM car price is being controlled.
Local business is by controlled resources to survive.
This country has an attitude that the best and high quality thing always gives to foreign people. Locals get the lousy thing. Makes foreigners thinks Malaysians use lower grade things.
when stupid talk
So many of my friends, including myself, who have been waiting for the CKD price to come out, have now decided to go for the E200CGi.
Mercedes, not only holds its value better, comes with 3 years unlimited milage warranty.
Mercedes is the company that is going to untung most with this exorbitant pricing.
Now, of course, BMW has a lot of orders, but when the excitement dies, consumers will
be more price conscious and move towards Benz..
And of course, as usual, BMW will start giving heavy discounts or drop their prices. So, I pity the current F10 buyers, their cars will fall in value a lot.
I remember being offered the previous 523i for RM300,000 on the dot.
So, you can imagine, your second hand value of your new car.
i totally disagreed you comments. you are comparing E200 against F10 is different category. The F10 consist of 2.5L six cylinder engine and E200 only 1.8L four cylinder engine with turbo. In terms of performance and handling F10 is much much better. Let’s go for a test drive the F10 and have a feel of it. with regard to the pricing, when Benz clearing their old stocks, they also giving heavy discounts and affected their car’s value too. In addition, Do you realize that a lot of recon Benz on the road?? What happen to the cars second value?
I think its RM298K. :) I was surprise too.
lowered by 150k also wont buy, simply the worst looking 5-series, PUIIII~
as though the 15k saving will be all good for malaysian car drivers…..
chinadaily.com.cn/business: BMW is recalling 12,400 units New 5-series Sedan in the USA and China to fix their fuel-level sensors…
lol..tayar will come off kah?
I will pay 15k for cbu than kulim ckd please
DRB guy told me,assembling Merc in Pekan is such a tedious,labouring work. No redo. Minor failure,scrap the whole car.
The only different that we,layman (come on, admit it,99.99% we all here not car expert/journo), can see is spec,rubber seals installation,gap tolerance.
actually they spray Merc in the same paint shop as Suzuki Swift.So either paint quality of Swift very good up to Merc standard, or paint quality of merc is lower standard,fit for Swift.But nobody here mention they notice the different.
So, that mean we, layman by the street,can’t see the different.If you can’t verify with you own eyes, stop making stupid comment, just for the sake of making comment.
Locally assembled mercs are spray painted in their CKD plants. In my experience, I see no difference in modern CKD cars vs CBU ones except, ironically to what I reply here – the paint quality compared to German paint quality.
they paint across the street in Swift assembly area. They moved each bodyshell by a 5 ton truck, one by one. There’s no paint shop in Mercedes benz Malaysia plant in Pekan.But still in the same area controlled by DRB.
OMG!! PIG NOSE CAR>>>>>>>>>SO UGLY!!!
Agreed. 15K is nothing-most Malaysians would prefer to buy the imported version..not so sure about the CKD quality, have a lady friend with 3 year old 320i CKD bought brand new from AB always in workshop..one problem after another..she swears never to buy another BM again…
Haha. Funny.. 15K can buy you a lot of coffee and kaya toast. Probably this is their perspective.
i wonder how do their structure work on CKD~~
why so little different compare ti CBU price??
remember the PUG407 first launch ? about 170k
when CKD become 120k+
That’s call a CKD~!!!
UGLY, still prefer the previous
Some ppl think Malaysian are stupid Xp
haha…insurance about 10K, price reduce 15K….so mcm free insurancelah.
http://www.bmwclubmalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36418
paultan, im confused, according to forumers in bmwclubmalaysia. they say its a skd. is it ckd or skd?
Do owners of BMW really concern themselves with resale value? 15 is really an insult to Malaysians. No wonder Audi is now becoming increasingly popular.
Looks like I’m destined with my 20 yrs old E34…
After read all the comment (until the time i post this comment) , the conclusion is..i dare to say 95% of the reader or commentator do not have bmw or have an intend to buy 1..that all
u r a bastard !!
i dare to say 95% of the brothers here agree that too~
RM15000 difference is an INSULT to BMW FAITHFUL since it’s too little. A betray of sort if buyers demand “l wanna have a CBU BMW523i with RM398000 or 525i M Sport with RM383000 OR otherwise l’ll get other car (read E- class ).
It’s expected and understandable that HUGE PRICE DIFFERENCE between a CBU and CKD/SKD. So CONVENTIONAL that earlier birds play huge difference aš an INNOVATOR.
Has government screw up or the company aš SD infamously good in increase their car prices ?
How can a car costing only 32,500 pounds in the UK cost RM383,000 especially when it benefits from the lower CKD tax measures our government has given?
Compared to 2 years ago, the Euro and Sterling has dropped SUBSTANTIALLY. So, if the old BMW E60 was so much cheaper and the EURO and STERLING was very high then, how come this car is so expensive now?
Ask anybody who travels and they will tell you, Sterling and Euro has dropped so much.
Infact, by right, the car should be priced RM290,000.
MITI should investigate.
Quite amusing. All this anger and BMW is happily selling away. After checking with the dealers, the SKD has higher specs than the CBU, namely GPS Navi and 4 Zone climate control. That alone is worth a lot. I remember the last time a collegue wanted to install the original BMW navi in his pre-facelift 525i Sports, AB and Sapura both quoted around RM25K++!
A lot of people slamming BMW for the low specs on the CBU but when they increase the specs the same people start whining. Pleaselah people, nothing’s free in life. At this price and specs are similiar to the old 523i SE which is smaller, has less power, doesn’t have the dynamic damper control, integral active steering or 4 Zone CC. Even MB gives an old gearbox in the new E200/250CGI and an old gearbox and engine in the E300 so its not like they’re giving helluva good value with their cars. No BSRI as well and boy, that saves a lot and the key factor why my company switched our fleet from MB and Volvo to BMW. Contary to popular belief modern Mercs are not cheap to maintain nor are they cheaper than BMWs. Ask anyone owner who owns both.
Oh and we were offered a brand new W211 with a RM100K discount last year prior to the launch of the W212. Management didnt find that funny at all given that we had a few W211s in our fleet. Wanna guess how much we lost over the regular depreciation? MB resale value is now a myth perpetuated by their sales advisors. They loose as much as some BMW models and even more with some.
And its SKD not CKD, the AB guys told us the body comes painted and welded from Germany so build quality is better than a CKD and they use very little local content. A lot of the stuff is imported in. Just my two cents .
When i think about it, the goverment actually drops malaysian’s standard of living by increasing the tax. i used to live in dubai where the cars are tax free(almost i think) . for the same amount of money of buying a waja here you could get a golf back in dubai, for that same price you can get better quality in safety, performance and etc. just because of proton why should the rakyat suffer? if they want the rakyat’s support they should earn it not force it
The long essay by the little boy put me to sleep. Cannot believe how illogical they are. Lets see how many thumbs down he gets, that alone will show how illogical his comments are.
Only fools will get excited with slightly higher specs. So sad.
If SKD then one should not benefit from CKD tax incentive. So, assuming its 30,000, then 30,000 pounds x 5 = RM150,000. RM150,000 plus 300% tax should be RM600,000.
So how come the car can be sold for RM383,000? What are they really CKD, SKD or CBU? The little boy can’t really say?
here in Msia, most people are not good in maths or numbers hence they dont have a clue of what you are trying to prove to them…. all the best, mate!!!
That’s why Govt, businesses or even individuals can get away with practically everything… even daylight robbery (pun intended)!!!!!
The F10 523i uses a 6 year old engine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_N52
You want to pay so much for a 6 year old engine?
I don’t mind paying that much if it was the newer N53 engine. At least I know I am getting the latest technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_N53
Malaysians need to remember, all reviews of the F10 in various auto magazines was made based on the N53 engine and not the N52 engine.
BMW Malaysia should have sold the car cheaper since Malaysians have to compromise and use an old 6 year old engine technology.
We buy BMW because we want the latest technology. I am not just interested in a change of body look.
Agree. Already fed up with this kind of helping car manufacturers clearing old stocks.
ask our government to push for Euro 4 (or better yet Euro 5/6) fuel. prepare to pay a higher price for cleaner fuel…
oh yeah, we still get the N54/N55 engine cause the turbos can handle the higher sulfur content in our fuel.
better yet, ask our government to change our road tax regime into something that based on g of carbon released per kilometer. we can then use higher displacement but more fuel efficient engines…
if you read your link properly, even in australia this N53 engine is not installed due to higher sulfur content in petrol . pleazeee lah..dont just hantam. read first. bmw has done our fuel stusy and think n53 is not suitable here. so…after reading this, do you still want n53 engine in malaysia and make frequent visits to the bmw worksho????
I mean why bother to do CBD or CKD when the price is only 15k difference?
EIther the company is ripping off more profits or the whole CKD is just too disappointing.
If i have money, I rather buy the Germany made imported for an extra 15k, what are they thinking?
They are saving more and not transferring the saving.
Little boy don’t over euro-ringgit exchange rate that favor rm.
I was waiting for this CKD to come out. The sales staff all promised price would be far cheaper. Now, this is like a slap on my face.
I think BMW Malaysia has slapped me on my face showing little disregard for me and others who were waiting for cheaper CKD prices. If they had warned me about the close price difference, I would have made an effort to buy the CBU at RM$399,000. Also Sales had taken a lot of orders for CBU lying to customers there were ample supply of CBU cars. They assured there was a second batch of CBU coming in also. But now suddenly, they tell customers that our CBU orders would be converted to CKD orders.
On principle basis, I am not buying the F10 nor any other BMW ever. No ethics at all.
BMW Germany should apprehend and tick off their Malaysian division.
the spec is much better than CBU
We buy BMW for its drive not the spec. I feel that if i am to buy a high spec malaysian vs a basic spec german made CBD for a mere 15 k difference, i will go for CBD, anyway, this means AUDI is more worthwhile buying now.
where is your car made? made in malaysia. ..response : ok
where is your car made? made in Germany, fully imported…response: dont tell me the other wont be impressed.
so if i buy BMW, i want people to be impressed. for a mere 15k difference, i want CBD.
Just get the new e-class or the previous gen 5series then u get head turn, this? dont think so.
Far out, at that kind of price RM15k savings is peanuts. I’d rather have a CBU than a CKD, they can keep the RM15k.
good topic thxxxxxxxxxx