So November 23 came and passed, and we had no news or sight of the locally-assembled Volkswagen Passat, as reported by Bernama. It could be that the national news agency reporter at the International College of Automotive (ICAM) launch misquoted the Group MD of DRB-Hicom, Datuk Seri Mohd Khamil Jamil. We would have been surprised if it was true – no press invites were sent out for a “launch.”
What actually happened yesterday was the production roll-out of the CKD Passat at the DRB-Hicom Automotive Complex in Pekan, DRB-Hicom clarified. “Volkswagen Group Malaysia has submitted the recommended retail price of CKD Passat to the government and was awaiting approval before retailing could commence,” Mohd Khamil said, adding that to date, DRB-Hicom has assembled about 70 units of the CKD Passat 1.8.
“Volkswagen Group Malaysia will make the necessary announcements pertaining to availability of the CKD Volkswagen Passat and its recommended retail price in due course,” he added.
There you go, no CKD Passat for now. What you can have now is our first impressions of the CBU Passat – click here to read.
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so, it is true that gov control the price of car, directly
yup, price is control by gov. remember 508 ? naza wish to sell 155k only initially same spec, but gov say too cheap and raise the price to 170k … its not the fault of car manufacture actually
Where did you get that info from ? hearsay ?
This is our rakyat blood sucker federal govt fault. Don’t even 4get the federal govt are NFC -National Fools Corruption Agency and all are COW living in the Cow COndo.
helloooooo…this blog is for car discussions loh…wanna talk abt politic, go to Malaysiakini or Malaysianinsider meh…grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
how true is your statement? that is one serious accusation
errr its pretty true actually..
MITI decides prices for each cars in M’sia, in order to “protect local industries”
Toyota manage dto out-witted MITI once though, with. the Vios J grade…
If you remember, the Vios E grade was introduced 1st, before the J grade.. Toyota declared the E grade as a “base” model.. the proposed a price of 65K (knowing it will be rejected by MITI) which eventually become 80+k if im not mistaken.. few months later, after the E grade is out, Toyota introduce the J grade, and declared it the new “base” model, thus (with some inside help i supposed) able to sell it at 70k..
i bet due to this some ppl got fired/transferred/downgrade etc.. both in MITI and Toyota, and i haven’t seen something similar happen since..
Errr that’s still not proof. Remember when the AFTA was supposed to reduced car taxes but the amount didn’t actually come down as much as the reduction was? The Japanese cars say its because of the high yen. No mention about it being procured from Thailand…
The NAP allows CKD operations for cars of 1.8l and above with price of more than RM 150K. Prices references are based on selling prices in the ASEAN region. If sample is insufficient they would broaden the area. How much would they sell in Singapore? That would be a reference point.
You sure? I could be mistaken but I thought Singapore has a fluctuating element which is COE (which incidentally is sky high now). We do not have that kind of inhibition so how fair is it to compare against Singapore’s OTR prices?
Dude, the COE is NOT the price of the car. Punters have to bid for the COE first. This car falls under Category B (1.6 and above). COE changes not Car price.
Intersting tale about the UMW/Vios price manipulation. Only one serious flaw in the argument, namely that UMW is “on the government’s side” because it is essentially a GLC.
What a let down …. i’d guess they wanna let VGM to offload their CBU cars first ….. after all the lauch of the CBU models was just recently, and a few is already spotted on the road.
Well, you gonna pay a premium to be the first few to drive one …. more so a CBU.
My take, let’s wait and see ….
Sooner or later,this CKD will be available in our market.it is clear that VW is on the right track to dominate world vehicles manufactured.recent news shown its now move to #2 spot,replacing Toyota at third place for top vehicle manufactures in the US.it is good to have many models of VW (CBU or CKD) on our streets.Malaysian can have more option on choosing right vehicle suit to their need and desires.local car manufacture should take all this latest trend in global market as a positive challange for them to do better on R&D in order to produce better products.
why need govt approval? cannot be too cheap?
Our gov. is a joke, while sending the Internet agents to flood and blame car manufacturer and they are the one who control the price.
I thought U turn policy, reporter wrongly quote my speech, empty promises, only in politics now it even got into car industry. :-)
Wonder would they remove certain gadget from the CBU to make it cheaper or increase profit margin ?
U SEE PEOPLE ….
Do not believe whatever you read in the news and papers
Some journalist just simply Taruh and make them look good while you readers out there are in the dark ….
Real bunch of unprofessionals ….
“Volkswagen Group Malaysia has submitted the recommended retail price of CKD Passat to the government and was awaiting approval before retailing could commence,”
remember this next time you wanna start bashing foreign car makers for selling their car to expensive
guess new model, someone in the gomen trying to fix the fart tax, which is how many times u fart inside the car during ur car ownership… it is 5k a fart, so if u fart 200 times, this will cost u 1,000,000 lor
Some numbskull reporters from a malay daily also reported that the Nissan Fuga will become Perdana replacement…mana ada? Since CKD production roll out happened, expect Passat CKD launch in about 2 months time, just before CNY laa…
Our government don’t want we got more affordable car?
our government wants us to ONLY afford Proton & Produa
The worse part is we voted for them. Why shouldnt we vote for someone who listens to us rather than make use of us.
how do you know ‘they’ will listen to you? All politicians are the same or worse..
So are you implying that sticking to this one is better?
i would rather trust a stranger than trust a liar. but back on the topic, it is a good move to not do the CKD version just yet. It will make the current owner feels bad.
too much focus on this recently. looks like people are putting hope on VW car. if VWM not satisfying enough, this car will be disappearing again from our road.
Not the first time reporter got it wrong…… anyway, no real damage done to DRB or VW in this case. The damage if any is to Bernama.
maybe gomen get the 70-units to replace their potong-banana 1st……… :-D
……..so no launching anytime soon.
lets see how strong VWM’s connection with umno@government is..if their connection is stronger than UMW or Naza or Tan Chong, then maybe the passat will be priced lower.. if not, they will have to sell it higher than toyota, peugeot etc..
before any of you condemn my statement, please open your mind and dont just read utusan or watch tv3.. even Alstom got fined in switzerland for paying bribes in malaysia..thats how the system works guys..10% for me or I find someone else..
How strong they are depends on how much $$$ they give.
omg just let proton and produa die already. what a pain in the butt for msians. produa please die first.
If government or industry players really concern over the fate of this industry, starting 2007 they must reduce the price of their cars gradually until we liberalized our market by complying to AFTA’s requirement in automotive tariff.
IF WE FOLLOW: By 2010, buyers and everybody from manufacturers, distributors, finance companies, used car dealer, buyers etc already expected that price of cars, new or used will drop gradually and we can avoid SHOCK, PANIC and market meltdown or NPL.
AS WE DIDN’T COMPLY: We’ll never adjusted our behavior toward market and industry reality. If we suddenly reduced the car price, market will react very badly and imagine how our economy will stand if buyers not paying their loans?
BECAUSE of having score of local brands, we’re left with fewer alternative if any. If we reduce the car price, our indigenous brand will suffer (so do with the entire supply chain). If not. people will suffer most.
MY SUGGESTION: we need to do Korean’s thing. While we support local brands, the local brand too must support us with cheaper and better value car. Give them till 2015 and no more chance. Above all, bloated Chinese car companies started facing little difficulty in auto industry. (FYI, China follow Malaysia business model in their industry but they have exception, their population is super massive and unique like India or maybe Indonesia, Russia and Brazil markets.
IF WE CAN’T DO THE ABOVE SUGGESTION: Perhaps, we can get rid these local companies?
Whether we like or not, we’re ready to compromise our scarce resource to sustain this industry. Our policy-makers must behave like mature adult since making poor policy will lead to bad FDI.
Breaking news.. Malaysia has the worst budget deficit in ASIA… IN RELATION TO GDP GROWTH…politicians and their interest.. Who suffers the most in the end of it ? Question and reflect all the time, do not take things at face value.
VW connection is with DRB Hicom. DRB is VW’s partner and CKD manufacturer.
You bet all the cronies of DRB is going to be their vendors…..and who is DRB connected to? Anyone know who was there at the Supplier’s Day?