January vehicle sales down 15%
By YEOW POOI LING
The country’s total vehicle sales in January dropped 14.9% to 35,047 units compared with 41,207 units a year ago, the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) said in a statement yesterday.
The decline was due to a significant decrease in sales of commercial vehicles, which slumped 75% to 3,060 units from 12,368 previously. Passenger car sales, on the other hand, rose almost 11% to 31,987 units against 28,839.
Sales of national passenger cars for the first month of the year slid 11% to 19,110 units from 21,505 in January 2006. Meanwhile, non-national passenger vehicle sales surged 64% to 12,877 units compared with 7,334 a year earlier.
MAA attributed January’s weak performance to the lack of consumer confidence as well as the sentiment of “no big rush for Chinese New Year.”
TA Securities automotive analyst Rosnani Rasul said despite the huge drop in commercial vehicle sales, the brokerage was expecting “good numbers” for the segment this year, as demand would be buoyed by activities under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP).
The decline was probably due to consumers “holding back purchases” as at least three new models were anticipated to be launched this year, she said.
“It’s only the first month. We are expecting better economic numbers with the 9MP as the catalyst,” Rosnani added.
MAA also reported a year-on-year drop in production volume to 29,180 units in January against 40,857 previously.
Production of passenger cars slowed to 25,971 units from 35,553 a year ago while commercial vehicle output decreased to 3,209 units against 5,304 previously.
There was a huge drop in production of national passenger cars, to 13,263 units from 24,677 last January. In contrast, production of non-national passenger cars increased to 12,708 units from 10,876 a year ago.
MAA said it expected volume this month to be affected by the shorter working days due to the Chinese New Year break. Furthermore, consumer confidence was still lacking and buyers were likely to face difficulty in obtaining hire purchase loans, it added.
My Opinion: Most people are holding on their purchases waiting for the NEW "Kelisa/Kancil replacement", new Vios, new "Nissan Latio", Nissan Cefiro AND OTHER NEW CARS... Hence, lowish vehicle sales...
Low New vehicle sales = LOW USED VEHICLE SALES. As typical Malaysian would sold or trade in their existing cars to upgrade to new/newer cars hence USED car also experienced turnover... Also, Hire purchase (HP) loans are getting more and more difficult these days. This will turned away many perspective used car buyers. I went to a used car dealers and overheard them talking about "LOSING" 1/3 of potential SALES "About 6 units Last month" due to them UNABLE TO GET LOAN.
I expect to see used car prices going down after chinese new year. March to April is the BEST TIME to buy USED CARS as prices of ALL USED cars will dropped from March (ie. adjusted to 2007 value)... The only difference is the percentage dropped. Often, from RM3000 (for Kelisa) to 100,000 (eg. Jaguar XJ) year to year.
That's all folks... Oh! HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR. YEAR OF THE BOAR 2007!!!
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