Sometimes i must admit i am quite ignorant with the things happening in our country or already prevails since Day 1.

As usual, every morning @ 0900, i will have my international buffet            ala carte breakfast (either chinese, nyonya , indian or mamak food) at Ah Keong kopitiam with my fellow team mates nearby our company. Today, one of my colleagues Tay who usually speaks less than 10 sentences a day, suddenly asked if he can buy car in Langkawi and bring it here. With much surprise, i wondered why he asked this question,buying car from Northern region and bring it down to Melaka. Was him joking or trying to break the ICE in the early morning.

Then he told me car sold in langkawi is tax free! Toyota Estimas costs slightly above RM 1ook, almost half  of the price in mainland.other cars prices as follow:

TOYOTA ALTIS at a price of RM 67,000,

HONDA CITY at a price of RM 50,xxx.00

Honda Type_R= On-The-Road Price with Insurance 123,800.00

What is this? How can this happen in Malaysia’s Langkawi only? but then, some complications entail if you are planning to bring the car out from there.

According to my sources, it is not as easy as what you think to buy a car in Langkawi. You have to go through a lot of procedures as follows :
1. If you bought a car in langkawi surely it will be Registered with a Plate No. start With KV <NUMBER > and last with an aphabetical such as ‘C’ or ‘D’ as up to date.

2. You are allowed to take the car out of Langkawi for a maximum period of a month only in every year. If you broke the rules you will be charged a penalty or may be marked as a black list by the Imigration…

3. You can bring your car out from there after 5 yrs as those tax will be waived after the yrs in Langkawi/Labuan. Nevertheless, still need to declare to customs, etc. and get that “Pindah ke semenanjung” stamp on your Registration papers. Should u decide to bring the car back to the mainland before the 5th year then you will be charged import duty and tax at a depreciated value for that particular year.

On this, one critic even gave his opinion as follows:

It’s not a very smart move, in fact its pure stupidity . Car price depreciate yearly, by the time u can enjoy driving ur dream car on mainland, the price may already depreciate by half.

eg. You buy a car in langkawi for RM50k, and park there for 5 year (assume its still working). Mainland new car priced at RM80k, after 5 years it become RM50k. Why not just buy a 2nd hand 5 year old car here. Right?? Bear in mind u still need to pay installment for the 1st 5 year u park there.
It will only work if u spend most of your time there, working or waiting to die.

In my opinion, what this guy said is making sense to me.

Couple of years back, with AFTA implemented in malaysia, everybody especially those car enthusiasts was expecting lower car prices but unfortunately government damn ‘keling’ in this….

BEFORE: High Duty Import, Low excise duty

AFTER: Low Duty Import, High excise duty

We know all these measures are meant to protect our national car interests. Sometimes, I questioned if Mahathir really made a good decision to have our national car in the 1980s.After > 20 yrs, till now, the perception about Proton car quality is still not up to our expectation. Why rushed to spend millions RM to have our home grown brand when we don’t even master the car assembly techniques back  then in the 80s.

Unlike Thailand, its automobile industry has been the main assembly hubs for Ford & GM. Till now, they still haven’t started its national car. But the industry has brought much glory and employment opportunities to its people, which to me this should be the main agenda in our country leaders mission….