We think it is a good decision…..here is why.
In the past week we have been reading all the online remarks, mostly negative about the recent announcement from the Finance Ministry with approval of the Cabinet on the decision to replace the current fleet of official vehicles for ministers and senior government officers.
The Decision
The decision is to purchase 32 units of the Toyota Vellfire MPV for ministers and about 3,000 Honda Accord sedans for the use of senior government officials.
Now these cars will be purchased directly from the individual brand owners in Malaysia. Which means, the Toyota Vellfire MPV will be purchased brand new from UMW Toyota at a duty free price (this is a government vehicle so there will be no import duties) of about RM185,000 and the Honda Accord will be purchased from Honda Malaysia at about RM168,000.
Reasons Why
Now let us explain with 5 reasons why this is a reasonable decision from the Malaysian Finance Ministry.
- A duty free Toyota Vellfire makes sense against a luxury sedan like a Mercedes E-Class or BMW 5 Series as it is spacious enough to ferry visiting counterparts from around the globe and the running and maintenance costs is also lower in the long run.
- A Honda Accord is an acceptable purchase against say the current fleet of Proton Perdana’s which is actually a rebadged old model Honda Accord. So, better to buy the actual manufactured product than to look at a rebadged vehicle.
- Until recently, all government owned vehicles were maintained by a company called SPANCO Sdn Bhd. This company have been making billions from the government in maintaining the large government fleet of vehicles for the past 25 years (it all started in 1993). With this new fleet purchase, all maintenance can easily be done by UMW Toyota and Honda Malaysia with no ‘funny business’ in between as these new cars come with a strong manufacturers warranty and after sales program.
- The decision to purchase the Toyota Vellfire makes sense as Ministers are constantly on the move from meeting to meeting, event to event and so on and the Toyota Vellfire offers very good comfort on long interstate journeys and it can even be faster and more comfortable than taking a short plane trip within the country.
- Some Malaysians reading the announcement were under the impression that the government were buying used reconditioned Toyota Vellfire’s from Approved Permit (AP) holders and this was an issue of course. Well this is not the case as we explained in the first reason above. So, buying brand new with warranty and after sales saves money in the long run as these new vehicles (including the Honda Accord) will not be subjected to high maintenance fees from SPANCO Sdn Bhd like before.
Final Word
Now, this above is just our thoughts and looking at the decision, we think the choices made are actually quite reasonable. If the Malaysian Finance Ministry was buying European luxury vehicles (like the ones pictured below), then of course we and you have ample reasons to be upset as Malaysian taxpayers.
