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Monday, January 15, 2007

WORST Resale value car! (Updated 7/1/2009)

In Malaysia, typical bad resale value car have the following characteristics which are divided in 3 categories (in my book):

1) Most cars with Petrol 2.5L engine capacity and above (EXCEPT Mercedes Benz C-class and E-class). Why? EXPENSIVE Road tax, High fuel consumption fear. Also, for BIG car such as BMW 7-series, there's NO DEMAND for used ones as MOST of 7-series owners are RICH, hence few will BUY USED units.

2) LOOKS of the Car. Eg. POORLY Designed car such as Proton Juara. Few would buy a 4+2 seats (the 3rd row of seats are for KIDS as it is small, has minimal paddings and poor legroom. The car's like BRICK on wheels. Rear lights are placed VERY LOW and at the Bumper. Not practical. Engine's too small at 1.1L and underpowered... Another WIERD looking car's FIAT MULTIPLA. Another poor resale value car as it has NO Automatic gearbox and to many "WORLD's UGLIEST CAR". This is NOT my word, it's VOTED by many European and Malaysian (TORQUE MAGAZINE) Publications...

3) HUGE Discounts... How do you feel if you bought a newly launched car at RM130,000 in 2003 and the car's priced RM20,000 cheaper in 12 months time. PISSED right? Adding salt to the wounds, in 2005, the car had FURTHER Discounts of RM12,000 which makes it RM103,000. The result?
Resale Value badly affected. Which car is this? KIA OPTIMA!

4) Image/Perception of the car brand. Malaysian tends to stereotype certain car brands. Eg. Alfa Romeo and Fiat known for Overheating, Citroen = Sit-tou-long (means rugi sampai habis), and Volvo = drinks petrol. To them, most continential cars (Except Mercedes Benz) = high maintenence and spare parts costs. Own cars like Saab or Skoda typical Malaysian would question your taste or give bad comments...


I've compiled 15 worst resale value cars. BUT I'll only list out the top 5 which were very CHRONIC/SEVERE/TERUK Cases. The rest of the cars were pretty close and depreciated FAST but spread out in the span of 3 to 5 years... BUT these 5 LOST A HUGE Chunk of their VALUES at the 1st year itself... Here are the lists:

1) PROTON WAJA CHANCELLOR 2.0 V6. 43% retained value in 1 year
2) PROTON JUARA. 45% Retained value within 1 year!
3) Kia OPTIMA: 53% retained value in 1 year!
4) Kia Spectra. 59% retained value in 1 year!
5) KIA Carnival/NAZA RIA. 63% retained in 1 year.




As a comparison, see my previous topic: "Best resale value vehicles". The top 10 best resale value cars retained their value from 67% (Toyota Altis) to 83% (Mini Cooper) IN 3 YEARS!!! The 4 cars above RETAINED 45% to 63% of their resale value IN ONE YEAR!!! Again CHRONIC/SEVERE/"TERUK"/SAD Cases...

NOTE (17/1/07): These are "Volume sellers" (ie. "quite good selling" and easily available in the used market). There were brands like Fiats, Opels and Saabs and certain models such as Citroen C5, Alfa 166, Peugeot 607 which Resale value EQUALS or WORSE than the Kias above, but they were RARELY AVAILABLE in the used market AND if you found one, the price will be DETERMINED by buyers itself (ie. No FIXED Value). (END OF NOTE)


Now will I fear of getting sued BY NAZA KIA? NO! I'm just reporting the facts based on my calculations. The Kias BELONGS to Category #3. It's caused by HUGE DISCOUNTS by NAZA-KIA itself. I pity those 1st batch Kia Optima buyers! They had to pay RM130,000, only to found that the SAME CAR costs RM27,000(!!!) LESS within 15 months!!!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

PRESENTING: The top 30 best Vehicles resale value… (UPDATED 30 August 2010)

I NOW PRESENT my research on used car retained value after few years. It took me 3 months to gather and compile the used car prices from various sources of classifieds namely Motortrader, The Star Classifieds, www.Autoworld.com.my, and random visits to car dealerships/Recond car showrooms…

Here are the vehicles shown with their Retained value in PERCENTAGE (%) within 3 years… (and 5 years in bracket). This is for Local (eg. Tan Chong) AND/OR Official Distributors (eg. Auto Bavaria) cars only. AP Imports to be covered later as their New car price were determined by AP Importer themselves, Ie. It varies, so I just estimated their new price to make this statistic possible, it’ll be unfair if I mix REAL results and estimated results together.

1) Mini One/Cooper: 84% (72%)
2) Honda Civic 1.8 IVTEC/2.0IVTEC 80%/75% (65% -> Civic 1.7VTi)
3) Toyota Avanza: 80% (68%)
4) Perodua MYVI 1.3 SX/EZ: 76%/75%/ (66%/65%)
5) Toyota Vios: 75% (65%)
6)Toyota Camry 2.0/2.4 VVTI 75%/74% (55% => Old model)
7) Honda Jazz 1.5 IDSI/VTEC 74%/72% (66%)
7) Toyota Innova 2.0G 74%/(NA)
7) Honda City 1.5 VTEC 74% (60%)
7) Mitsubishi Lancer GT 74%/(NA)
11) Suzuki Swift 1.5 73% / (63%)
12) Toyota Hilux 2.5D4D 73% / (58%)
12) Proton Saga BLM M-line 73%/(NA)
14) Nissan C22 Vannete 71% (52%)
15) Honda Stream 70% (55%)
16) Honda CRV 70% (54%)16) Mazda 6 2.3 (2.0) 70% (54%)
18) Mazda 5 (Premacy): 70% (52%)
19) Mercedes C200K 69% (57%)
20) Nissan Frontier 68% (NA)
20) Proton Persona 1.6 Hi-line 68%/(NA)
22) Honda Accord 2.0/2.4/3.0 72%/69%/60% => Average 67%. (60%/54%/46% => Average 53%)
22) Toyota Altis 67% (60%)
24) Nissan Sentra 67% (51%)
25) Perodua Kenari 66% (57%)
26) Nissan Serena 65% (63% - old model)
27) Perodua Kelisa 65% (50%)
27) Perodua Kancil 65% (50%)
29) Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo 63% (55%)
30) BMW M3/330i Coupe (69%) &
BMW 325i CKD (55%) = Avg: 61% (49%)

OTHERS (Selected) - (5 yrs retained value in bracket)

- Chevrolet Optra 50% (35%)
- Proton Satria GTI: -NA- (60%)
- Proton Wira: 1.3/1.5: 58% (53%), Wira 1.6 -NA- (50%)
- Waja 1.6X: 56% (50%). [74% retained value - 1st year).

Note: Wira and Waja = RM3,000 per year depreciation 3rd year onwards).


AP/Grey Imports (TOP 10 best resale value vehicles):

Again, I can’t determined the Actual new car prices of these cars as it’s Determined by the AP Holders/Grey importers. But I found that it’s safe to say for example Toyota Alphard 2.4’s New car price: RM280,000 with 5% +/- allowance depending on specs (ie. RM266k to RM294k), hence I used this as my estimation to come up with the percentage (%) of retained value results in 3 years (5 years in brackets).

1) VW GOLF GTI 80%/(70%)
2) Mitsubishi EVO 9 (8/7.5) -NA- 73%/(63%)
3) Honda Odyssey 70% (65%)
4) VW Beetle 2.0 70% (64%)
4) Toyota Wish: 70% (NA)
6) Toyota Altezza -NA- (60%)
7) Toyota Harrier 2.4 67% (55%)
8) Subaru WRX STI Ver 8 66% (59%)
9) Mazda RX8 65% (57%)
10) Toyota Estima 63% (51%)
11) Toyota Alphard 61% (59% for recond 5 yrs old)

THAT’S ALL FOLKS! Hope this STATISTICS will be helpful for you in shopping for your ideal used cars… Again, it took me 3 months to come up with these statistics… You should thank me for it…

NOTE: 30 August 2010, Proton Saga BLM, Persona, VW Golf GTI, Mazda 5, Mazda 6 2.3, and Mitsubishi Lancer GT Added

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Time flies! It's already 2007. I remembered 1997 clearly as if it's yesterday... I was studying in Hong Kong back then. MAN! 10 yrs have passed! I was 17 yrs old back then, finished my YEAR 11 (Cambridge GCE O' LEVEL) in June 1997 and proceeded to year 12 TWO months later. Back then, I stayed in a HSBC Apartment in Victoria Peak. I studied at the prestigeous Island School (International British school), Mid Levels, Hong Kong.

I followed my Business Studies class trip to Shanghai, China AND worked 2 weeks in Star Cruises, Hong Kong as a Clerk during the Summer of 1997.

I bought Nike AIRMAX 97' with my 1st paycheque. The most expensive sneakers I ever bought (till today) at HK$1149 (RM500)... Spent a lot of money buying Quiksilver Merchandises, most are still in my wardrobe...

THE HIT Movie back then was TITANIC. A friend of mine watched the movie 20 times. Hit Hong Kong Movie are "YOUNG AND DANGEROUS IV" (Ku Wak Chye) starring Ekin Cheng.
So hit that my INDIAN and Korean classmates also follow.

The hit dance was MACARENA and YMCA. Hit band(s) was Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys (Nick Carter was only 16 then), OASIS, and Hanson. Hit Cantopop singers were Sammi Cheng, Andy Lau AND Nicholas Tse. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera just started their singing career (both are only 16). Oh! Leann Rimes too just launched her 1st album at 13 yrs old!

SPORTS: Pete Sampras are world No 1, Manchester United won the 1997 English Premier League, Tiger Woods won his 1st Masters (at 21 yrs old), Our Men's double badminton players Cheah Soon Kit/Yap Kim Hock were world no 2 (behind Rexy/Ricky), Nicole David won her 1st World Junior title at 14 yrs old...

I learned driving at that year, though I failed 3 times before giving up eventually (Hong Kong driving instructor's very strict). Got my license in Malaysia 2 yrs later (1999).

Also, I "witnessed" the Handover of Hong Kong from British Colony to China. Lady Diana was killed in a High Speed Car Crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. It's the 1st week of September 1997 when RECESSION came... Currencies and Stock markets worldwide came tumbling down... In Hong Kong, Car prices also went down by up to 20% at the end of 1997. Lots of people were retrenched BUT strangely, my DAD got a promotion in the midst of recession...

Again, TIME FLIES!!!