Malaysia's Perodua

[tigerbeer]

with the fuel prices skyrocketing, i can't see a better option than the Malaysian Perodua models.

check this site out.:

Perodua

spent some time in malaysia and a good friend of mine has the kelisa model, roomy spacious and great on the fuel. the myvi model has got a 6 to 8 months waiting period in malaysia. makes sense no? anyone has information if they ever gonna start selling these cars in LOS?

[terdsak_12]

They have similar 600cc - 800cc small cars in Japan, would be perfect for here, but alas, that makes too much sense.

[tom yum goong]

there are a few driving around Phuket Town. I think they are Kelisas with a 1 litre engine. Would be dirt cheap to drive around town.

No idea how much one costs though.

[sbkpeterpan]

there are a few driving around Phuket Town. I think they are Kelisas with a 1 litre engine. Would be dirt cheap to drive around town.

No idea how much one costs though.

The little Malaysian made cars would be perfect for 90% of what Bangkoks car driving population needs BUT 1: cars here are needed to show other people how rich you are and 2: The Japanese manufactures here control the car policy, so unfortunatly people will continue to drive fuel sucking, polluting machines.

[tigerbeer]

there are a few driving around Phuket Town. I think they are Kelisas with a 1 litre engine. Would be dirt cheap to drive around town.

No idea how much one costs though.

The little Malaysian made cars would be perfect for 90% of what Bangkoks car driving population needs BUT 1: cars here are needed to show other people how rich you are and 2: The Japanese manufactures here control the car policy, so unfortunatly people will continue to drive fuel sucking, polluting machines.

sbkpeterpan, so true about the japanese part. what they could then do is let daihatsu sell their wonderful little cars here. but then again, no comparison to the refined perodua models. they really look very good. seriously. i would love to have one of those Perodua Myvi.

[dvk1951]

sbkpeterpan, so true about the japanese part. what they could then do is let daihatsu sell their wonderful little cars here. but then again, no comparison to the refined perodua models. they really look very good. seriously. i would love to have one of those Perodua Myvi.

This was taken from the website listed by the OP, your wish for Daihatsu appears to be addressed by the Perodua JV (albeit only 25%).

Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (PERODUA) was established in 1993. The joint venture partners/shareholders of Perodua and their respective shareholding are UMW Corporation Sdn Bhd (38%), Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd. (20%), MBM Resources Berhad (20%), PNB Equity Resources Corporation Sdn Bhd (10%), Mitsui & Co. Ltd (7%) and Daihatsu (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (5%).

Having lived in Malaysia for 5 years, it has been my experience that the national auto industry has experienced QA/QC issues (Proton comes to mind) but do not know the track record of the newer lines of Perodua. With the new trade agreements now in effect, you may see some sort of cross border sales initiated.

Edited May 21, 2006 by dvk1951

[tigerbeer]

sbkpeterpan, so true about the japanese part. what they could then do is let daihatsu sell their wonderful little cars here. but then again, no comparison to the refined perodua models. they really look very good. seriously. i would love to have one of those Perodua Myvi.

This was taken from the website listed by the OP, your wish for Daihatsu appears to be addressed by the Perodua JV (albeit only 25%).

Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (PERODUA) was established in 1993. The joint venture partners/shareholders of Perodua and their respective shareholding are UMW Corporation Sdn Bhd (38%), Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd. (20%), MBM Resources Berhad (20%), PNB Equity Resources Corporation Sdn Bhd (10%), Mitsui & Co. Ltd (7%) and Daihatsu (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (5%).

Having lived in Malaysia for 5 years, it has been my experience that the national auto industry has experienced QA/QC issues (Proton comes to mind) but do not know the track record of the newer lines of Perodua. With the new trade agreements now in effect, you may see some sort of cross border sales initiated.

I have owned a proton before. seems like they are getting better with their Quality issues. however the Gen2 that they released has big time engine problems.

perodua seems to have better Q controls from what i have seen. The JV between them and Daihatsu was the same way done between Proton and MMC. It would be good though if perodua makes it into thailand but really doubt it. Unless Malaysia starts letting Thailand ship the Toyota's and other assemblies there under the so called AFTA which still has not materialised.

[Japhrodisiac]

I just returned from a few day trip to Penang, and rented a little Perodua for 2 days there. I wonder why they don't sell these little gems here. I spent 20 ringitt for fuel for driving all over town in the 2 day period that I rented the car for (160km) and that is roughly 200 baht. The car was four door with a hatch and a perfect little easy to park city car. With manual it had enough guts to navigate traffic easily, just too bad you can't buy a new one here. I understand that the basic Kancil model goes for about 22,000 ringit or 220,000 baht brand new. I have looked online, and a few come up used now and then on one2car.com under the heading "proton" but I was wondering about importing a new car from malaysia. I searched the site and it seems that the only documents pertaining to this are importing a car for a short period of time, then returning it to malaysia. Any thoughts on how to bring in a new car permanently from malaysia and how much duty/tax/under the table fees would be involved? Thanks

[Plus]

Japs would be happy to sell their own small cars here. It's the governement's screw up. Years ago they announced "little car" project and Japs jumped on it. But the government wanted them to design completely new cars, to make it a niche thing, only Thailand would have it. Japs of course have a million models they could relocate production for here, but the government set the specs that nothing would fit.

No tax incentives were offered at all, specs kept changin, and the project was finally abandoned.

Suzuki is one of the car makers who got totally confused. They stalled their investment completely - no one knows what the policy next year would be. Ford made ethanol 20 Focus and got nothing for it. What if Suzuki invested in developing e-20 engine and it was useless. They were hoping to break into the market with somethin special - like a small car.

It's not entirely fair to blame Japs for the lack of small cars - it's the government that sets up the policy, and people who don't want to buy Yaris with 1.3l engine.

[tom yum goong]

Japs would be happy to sell their own small cars here. It's the governement's screw up. Years ago they announced "little car" project and Japs jumped on it. But the government wanted them to design completely new cars, to make it a niche thing, only Thailand would have it. Japs of course have a million models they could relocate production for here, but the government set the specs that nothing would fit.

No tax incentives were offered at all, specs kept changin, and the project was finally abandoned.

Suzuki is one of the car makers who got totally confused. They stalled their investment completely - no one knows what the policy next year would be. Ford made ethanol 20 Focus and got nothing for it. What if Suzuki invested in developing e-20 engine and it was useless. They were hoping to break into the market with somethin special - like a small car.

It's not entirely fair to blame Japs for the lack of small cars - it's the government that sets up the policy, and people who don't want to buy Yaris with 1.3l engine.

Talking about Suzuki, its such a shame they don't sell the new Swift in Thailand. Really nice looking car and i fancy it could give the Jazz and Yaris a run for their money.

[Japhrodisiac]

There was a pretty cool little Hyundai called the Getz in Malaysia too, and a small Proton that looked nice. I just don't see the point in buying a huge SUV unless you absolutely need it. Given the fact that there are a few used Peroduas online, and I have seen some on the roads (with Thai plates) in the south there nust be a way to bring one in. ??

[tigerbeer]

There was a pretty cool little Hyundai called the Getz in Malaysia too, and a small Proton that looked nice. I just don't see the point in buying a huge SUV unless you absolutely need it. Given the fact that there are a few used Peroduas online, and I have seen some on the roads (with Thai plates) in the south there nust be a way to bring one in. ??

you could buy the ones that are already for sale here. dont know how they reached thai roads but at least u dont pay the hefty taxes. forget about bringing one here from malaysia. if they started selling them perodua's here, id go for the Kelisa. (mini lookalike).

The Suzuki Swift is available for sale here. Just with the CBU price tag. ie. 1 Million baht plus. WHatever said and done, malaysia seems to be opening their auto industry a lot more compared to thailand. Thailand has its Toyotas to protect. Daihatsu is not even bringing their cars in here. Sad.

Oh well time to go back and look for my Honda C70 Supercub. Hope I can a good deal somewhere.

btw the small proton is called Proton Savvy. Renault engine. Proton is a dying entity though especially after they started changing all the proton engines (mitsu) to their Crappy Malysian made Campro engines. Long live the Peroduas. A perfect Bkk car.

[Plus]

They used to sell Daihatsu Mira here, and some Euro makes, too, but not anymore - unless they are assembled locally they are not competitive. Toyota surely doesn't want any competition, but it can't bring its own Aigo or what's it called. Mitsubishi and Nissan have their own small cars - I believe Japan is full of them.

Thailand needs to seriously reconsider its auto policies - privileges, taxes, auto imports, all of it. They just got their taxes updated last year, all it did was stregthten pickup industry. Now they can make 3.2l diesels for the same tax.

[geoffphuket]

I just returned from a few day trip to Penang, and rented a little Perodua for 2 days there. I wonder why they don't sell these little gems here. I spent 20 ringitt for fuel for driving all over town in the 2 day period that I rented the car for (160km) and that is roughly 200 baht. The car was four door with a hatch and a perfect little easy to park city car. With manual it had enough guts to navigate traffic easily, just too bad you can't buy a new one here. I understand that the basic Kancil model goes for about 22,000 ringit or 220,000 baht brand new. I have looked online, and a few come up used now and then on one2car.com under the heading "proton" but I was wondering about importing a new car from malaysia. I searched the site and it seems that the only documents pertaining to this are importing a car for a short period of time, then returning it to malaysia. Any thoughts on how to bring in a new car permanently from malaysia and how much duty/tax/under the table fees would be involved? Thanks

A small car dealer on the airport road in Phuket sells 'as new' delivery mileage Perodua cars. I'm interested myself but suspect a Honda Jazz would be a better bet for spares and service...Surely buying a Perodua is fine until somthing goes wrong and you're left without transport until parts arrive from Malaysia

[nikster]

Japs would be happy to sell their own small cars here. It's the governement's screw up. Years ago they announced "little car" project and Japs jumped on it. But the government wanted them to design completely new cars, to make it a niche thing, only Thailand would have it. Japs of course have a million models they could relocate production for here, but the government set the specs that nothing would fit.

No tax incentives were offered at all, specs kept changin, and the project was finally abandoned.

Suzuki is one of the car makers who got totally confused. They stalled their investment completely - no one knows what the policy next year would be. Ford made ethanol 20 Focus and got nothing for it. What if Suzuki invested in developing e-20 engine and it was useless. They were hoping to break into the market with somethin special - like a small car.

It's not entirely fair to blame Japs for the lack of small cars - it's the government that sets up the policy, and people who don't want to buy Yaris with 1.3l engine.

Yeah, the intention is and was to make Thailand a production hub for pick-ups, and everything - laws, taxes, incentives - is rigged in that direction. I think the small car project went too much against that idea and so - poof! Out the door. PR-gag, nothing more.

I was just trying to imagine BKK traffic if there were nice small 220,000 BHT cars for sale everywhere. Trying, unsuccessfully

[Plus]

It was Michael Porter, competitiveness guru, who recommended diversifying Thai auto industry as global demand for pickups is limited and there's little room left to grow.

I have no idea why exactly the project was scrapped. My understanding is that Thais wanted something like a national car - choose one car maker to build cars with a Thai brand name and then force everyone oto byt it, and then export it all over the world and make shitloads of money for Thailand.

Car makers wanted some concrete promotional ideas to make sure that they could sell the cars and recoup investment - small cars never sell well in Thailand on their own. Thais than started fiddling with the specs so that none of the existing models would fit in their project, they needed completely new car developed for them, and I bet they didn't want to take any responsibility.

It was never about introducing small engine cars to save on gas imports, improve environment, or reduce traffic jams. If they thought they could find a niche for Humvee like SUVs, they'd go for it instead of little cars.

Thais paid good money for Porter's advice, btw.

[Japhrodisiac]

I just returned from a few day trip to Penang, and rented a little Perodua for 2 days there. I wonder why they don't sell these little gems here. I spent 20 ringitt for fuel for driving all over town in the 2 day period that I rented the car for (160km) and that is roughly 200 baht. The car was four door with a hatch and a perfect little easy to park city car. With manual it had enough guts to navigate traffic easily, just too bad you can't buy a new one here. I understand that the basic Kancil model goes for about 22,000 ringit or 220,000 baht brand new. I have looked online, and a few come up used now and then on one2car.com under the heading "proton" but I was wondering about importing a new car from malaysia. I searched the site and it seems that the only documents pertaining to this are importing a car for a short period of time, then returning it to malaysia. Any thoughts on how to bring in a new car permanently from malaysia and how much duty/tax/under the table fees would be involved? Thanks

A small car dealer on the airport road in Phuket sells 'as new' delivery mileage Perodua cars. I'm interested myself but suspect a Honda Jazz would be a better bet for spares and service...Surely buying a Perodua is fine until somthing goes wrong and you're left without transport until parts arrive from Malaysia

Any Phuket folks out there who might drive by this place, I would love a phone number and/or name of the shop. The spares I'm not too worried about, one trip over the border to an auto parts store and you could stock up on all the forseeable consumables for the next year or 2.