Will car dealers be offering much more discounts this week when they fully re-open or not?
It has been a very trying time for the whole Malaysian economy during this recent strict lockdown. All areas of our economy have been hit in one way or another. For us, since we are in the automotive business, we are highlighting the automotive market only in this article.
With car showrooms and also car factories closed in Malaysia, the auto business came to a grinding halt. The used car business continued quietly via online classifieds and car loans were still being discussed as financial institutions were still open and working hard to lend out money.
However new car showrooms were not allowed to open and were under strict guidelines not to entertain customers and test drives. Yes, we heard about a particular state chief minister who took a pickup truck for a test drive and was photographed doing this and the video went viral and he was charged together with the showroom manager who just wanted to earn a sales commission during this trying times.
Good news finally and car showrooms can open and the road transport department (JPJ) is in full operation, even on weekends to process all the pending used car transfers and new car registrations that have been concluded during this lock down.
So, many Malaysian new car buyers who have been waiting for new cars showrooms to re-open might be wondering if there will be ‘extra’ discounts right now.
Well, our quick check with a few brand owners and also sales people we known personally, it looks that only some brands will be offering extra discounts right now and the rest will keep to just the current government sales tax discount.
For auto brands that were already very low in stock due to factory closures before this lockdown and parts supply issues from overseas, they are moving fast to bring in new stock into their showrooms.
For some other brands who were already having stock sitting in their stockyards and assembly plants, yes there will be some good discounts being offered and a few others, you will be able to push them even more as their stock is ageing fast.
When vehicles sit in a stockyard under the sun for weeks, there can issues. Flat-spot tires, weak batteries, rodents living inside the engine bay and even roof lining issues. Yes, we have heard of these issue with vehicles that are not stored under a shade.
We suggest a do some research or you can contact us to get some tips on which brands are offering discounts and which brands can be ‘pushed’ for further healthy discounts.
