Honda Family Road Trip at Setia City Park

I almost missed this event.  Reached there Sunday Evening and it's Raining Heavily.  This is the last stop of 10 such Honda Family Road Trips nationwide since October 31 Last Year.

Here's the FULL Location lists below.

What WERE in Store:

- Honda Merchandise 50% off.

- All Models display

- All Models test drive test drive

- Sponsor or Vendor booth

- Photo contest

- Kids Play corner

- Face painting

- ALL Brands Free 22 points checkup

- Concert by local celebrities

- Free Popcorns

- Clowns

- HISTORY and Heritage of Hondas (photo below)

- And MUGEN and MODULO Bodykits showcase.

Well, there's a saying a picture's worth 1000 words.  Enjoy the photos:

Marketing 101: How to boost your Car brand Resale value

In this blog entry, I'm dedicating it to Car Distributors and Franchise holders.  It's about How to improve your car resale value.

I have 12 things that needs to be done...  Here goes in no particular order...



1) Introduce Brand loyalty program (eg. Honda to Honda, extra discount trade in). 


2) Set up a Used car division to "regulate" your used car pricing.  Eg. Topmark Toyota, Nissan MUV.


3) Give AT LEAST 5 years warranty, unlimited mileage with 3 years free maintenance.  Make it Transferable. 

 Hyundai did a good job on their Sonata LF recently with 8 years Engine and Gearbox warranty.  But the setback is the Warranty's not transferrable to 2nd owner.


4) Improve your Service centre.  Hire a good service advisor which Fluent in English and knows your car.  Maximum tolerance, 10 days wait for Spare parts inventory.  An ideal service centre is:

a) Neat and tidy with Multiple service bays.

b) State of the Art Customer Waiting lounge with ASTRO, Wifi, Snacks, Complimentary Vending Machine, Kids Playroom, Clean Toilet with Bidet, Reading Area with latest Newspapers and magazines.  Photo Example below: Lexus Canada.

5) Give courtesy car if customer's car in workshop for more than 24 hours.


6) Setup an official Car model Club.  Eg. Lanun Darat (ford Ranger's club), Mazda CX5 club, Porsche Club Malaysia (logo below).  

If your car's good, club members will help you "Evangelize" and Promote your car to their Families and friends.


7) Hire a Presentable Sales Executive who speaks proper English, Malay and Mandarin.  Try not to hire Ah Beng, La La girl, or Mono-lingual sales Consultant. Eg. Speak Malay only, Chinese Only.   As 1st impression customer meet is Sales Executive. 


8) Established a Common CI.  Corporate Image in ALL Showrooms across the nation.  BMW and Honda Did a very good job in this.

9) Try not to make this mistake like Naza-Kia.   Eg. Cerato.  1st batch priced higher and comes without AVN (Audio visual Navigation) Player.  2nd batch onwards, price few thousand cheaper and Comes standard with AVN Player.  Also, by Naza Kia.  But this case studies is dated back in 2003.


Their Kia Carnival 1st batch priced at RM165,000 back in 2000.  After 1st year it dropped to 135,000.  By the 3rd year, the same car Dropped further at RM99,888 and Changed name to Naza Ria.  The result?
Your "Early Bird" customer feel cheated, won't buy your brand again.  Also your resale value affected badly.


Proton Also make the same mistake by introducing Saga FLX SV.  These also impacted the resale value of Saga BLM.  Eg. A 3 years old Saga BLM Hi-line was RM41,000 now depreciated to RM21,000.  Ie. Almost 50% gone.


10) Handle Recalls like a Boss.  Don't sweep under the carpet.  Car maker like Lexus and Honda handles Recall swiftly and like a Boss.  Volkswagen tends to drag their feet when oversea recall happened.  Especially their DSG issue.  Hence, Image and resale value affected.

11) Make up your mind on the specs of your car.  Stick to it for at least 2 years.  Toyota made this mistake in 2012.  Their 1st batch Camry have no VSC.  11 Months later, they decided to add back VSC.  the consequence?

Unhappy 1st batch Camry Owner and Resale value of the,1st batch Camry affected.  

12) introduce special edition / limited edition color or specs.  E.g. Back in 2005, Toyota introduced Jade Green metallic Edition on all their sedans.  The jade Green Camry (Photo below), Altis, Vios fetched 10% higher than the normal specs.  True story. 

That's all for my Marketing 101 lesson to All New car Distributors and Franchise Holders.  An original Jefferson Lim's production.  Copy like a man, Don't plagiarise.