Malaysians & Their Cars Again...

What is wrong with Malaysians? Are we shrouded in stupidity? For the pass six months I have heard many response towards buying a "luxury" car from proponents. I bought it because of safety features. Yay right, how many times do I actually see people comparing safety features between cars? Virtually NO. In most cases I see people comparing the additional "gizmos" within the car and how many bling bling features it has inside it. You did not ask the sales guy about how safe this car is, its safety ratings, its credentials...bla bla bla. Of course the basics e.g. air bags and ABS are now even present in local cars @ a cheaper price point. Do you know why speed crashes and test dummies are done at reduced speeds using high speed cameras? It's a high speed camera anyway; because you are most likely to die from a crash above a certain speed limit regardless how SAFE you perceived your car to be. Simply ask a car buyer who pays RM90,000 for a car how much safer is it compared to a local car at RM50,000. Close to being don't know is next to ignorance. You can ask me the same question but I do not know but why are you paying the extra RM40,000 for something you DON'T EVEN KNOW? Safety is the lamest excuse coming from Malaysians to date.

Another excuse: many Malaysians die from road accidents compared to terminal illness because we have many local branded cars on the road. If you take the statistics and weight it across brands you get roughly the same percentage regardless of make. Why is this? PLEASE, use your God given grey matter. In doesn't matter the type of car, it is because the Malaysian driver no longer respects the law. Go to NSE and you can see a car flashing you from behind every 5 minutes. Red lights are optional, motorists do not wear helmets and lorry/express bus drivers are RAJA JALAN. In fact, this laissez faire attitude towards traffic laws is equally represented in other areas of daily life in Malaysians and most notably the lack of common courtesy.

Sharon Xu

Our current public transport condition is to be blamed is another half baked excuse. Though it is not the lamest I have heard, it is certainly perplexing to put the blame solely on our transportation. Malaysians do not carpool (this is why I am a proponent of higher gasoline prices), parents fetch/drop their kids to school even when there is BAS SEKOLAH, we prefer to drive even if it is only a walk away and we usually blame the tropical weather. HELLO!! Are we the only country in the equator?? We even lose to Brazil in terms of trying public transport. Motorists in this country don’t blink an eye forking out large portions of their earnings just to pay for their car loans or upkeep. Do you own the car or does the car own you? Well it is easy to blame to government, our Proton and Perodua but not ourselves, yet we have consistently and persistently adhere to our indulgence to "Keep Up With The Joneses" and in denial of that fact.

For those scratching their heads and wondering why the government refuses to lower taxes on imported cars sold in Malaysia even for brands and models not in direct competition with national makes. I know that the import duty, excise duty and sales tax collected from imported cars range between RM 3 billion to RM 5 billion a year, which implies that there is little chance of the taxes ever going down and prices of imported cars reduced. And we are feeding this all the time by buying foreign cars with lame excuses. Out of a RM90,000 car, RM33,000 goes towards the government in terms of taxes. THINK! Sidenote:Top 10 Brand Cars In Malaysia.

Re-post: What do I find a justifiable excuse? You get what you payed for and as such the only reason people buy jacked car prices is for quality. In an industry which is plagued by x3 normal prices, the word quality is knitted closely to the word luxury. Believe it or NOT, cars have become status symbols where proud men showcase their ego and the capacity to indulge themselves while their continue to live in normal apartments. In Malaysia it has become more than a mere necessity.

Sources: MAA, AAM, PIAM and Paultan.org                   

We should start going back into:

Start a carpool group: On the way to work, fetch your neighbours kids to school etc OR hitch a ride with some pals. It's not on the way. COME ON! Since when our houses are built along one single street? Take a short detour to fetch someone and share the gasoline bill. As a proponent of higher gasoline prices, carpooling will solve the high price issues.

Buying locally made cars/used foreign cars: A reduction in AP generated profits will make the government change its stance to some extent.

Use public transportation when ever possible: Start from yourself so that your children will follow. Even if it is terrible, play a role to provide a solution rather than be part of the problem by adding more traffic in our clogged roads.