Kuching Car Buying Guide (For new lower medium class people)

This guide is based on my own experiences of purchasing so far 3 cars throughout my life and current intention of selling the 3rd car and buying the fourth car (I hope your not confused). The guides are as below:

1. Understand yourself truly to know which car is suitable.

-Are you a new driver? Yes? Then the best option is to buy a cheap small reliable car (possibly new if you don't know heck about cars). There are a few reasons why, first of all, that is what you can afford for the time being if you want to save your money from depreciation, interest, initial cost, operation and maintenances cost. Depreciation is when you buy a new car and the car value drops 5% to 90% (Depends on the brand, car condition, market, etc.. even if its still new and you have just drove it for a meter the value will drop at least 10%). My first car is a new car worth RM 44k and I sold it off after 2 years for RM 33k a trade in with a second hand recondition Japan car for RM 50k and I didn't get anything back. I was lucky then (at least i thought so at that time) as i did not need to add any money to trade in (it is very common to add money nowadays as the value of second hand is worse now due to the market condition). Interest is where the bank charge you for borrowing their money to buy your ride.

(Example:

X, Loan amount = Rm 50,000.00 (car price OTR) - RM 5,000.00 (Downpayment) = RM 45,000.00

Y, Interest = 3.8%

Z, Loan Term = 5 Yrs

How much you pay INTEREST ONLY = RM 45,000.00 x 3.8% x 5 = RM 8,550.00)

So think twice before you decide to increase the values of the three variables X, Y and Z.

To be continue...

Toyota Prius spotted in Malaysia

Toyota Prius spotted in Shah Alam, read here.

Hybrids in Malaysia

At the time of writing, the author Michael Tan has no knowledge of any green car incentives in Malaysia. The Honda Civic Hybrid has been available in Malaysia since 2004, but in the absence of tax breaks, sales of the hybrid have been poor to say the least. Malaysia's tax system penalizes Completely Built Up (CBU) imported vehicles, and for the 1.3L Honda Civic Hybrid, it will encounter a 50 percent import duty, 90 percent Excise Duty, and a 10 percent Sales Tax on the total taxed value of the car--10 percent of Car Value + Import Duty + Excise Duty.

The Civic Hybrid would cost RM137,280 to the dealer and lists for RM162,800. For that amount, one could buy a bigger Malaysia-assembled Honda Accord 2.4, with change to spare. A lack of public awareness of the environmental issue and hybrids in general may be stemming sales, and the situation is not helped by the confusing use of the term hybrid by local manufacturers like Naza in Malaysia which refers to dual-fuel systems as "hybrids".

There may be another regrouping of effort by Honda Malaysia to revive interest in the Hybrid, ironically riding on the coat-tails of the Honda Civic Type R. In August, the company put up full-page advertisements in the newspapers and relaunched the car on August 3, 2007. The sales target for the Honda Civic Hybrid is set at 60 units a year by Honda's top brass, which is a very small number compared with the total quantity of cars sold. The world's largest Hybrid vehicle manufacturer Toyota has not announced any plans in Malaysia, presumably until a coherent green car incentive scheme launches in Malaysia. However, there is at least one Toyota Prius in Malaysia, brought in by a British couple at the princely cost of RM251,105.832, and dubbed the most expensive Prius in the world.

On the manufacturing front, the largest locally owned car manufacturer Proton has teamed up with its subsidiary Lotus Engineering to create a Hybrid Concept, the Gen2 EVE Hybrid. With Proton's lagging sales in international markets, its success lies chiefly in its local captive market and it would do well to lobby for green car tax breaks if this concept has any chance to get off the ground.

The Malaysian Government has also given grants to local institutions to develop hybrid technology together with local car manufacturers such as Proton and Perodua.

*source http://asia.cnet.com/cartech/0,3800004381,62031847-7,00.htm