Declining Motor Vehicles Sales. Reflecting The National Mood?

With so much of bad and worse news this year it really isn't a big surprise that vehicle sales dipped steeply. Where is the mood to buy a new car when everything related to it has skyrocketed? For the average person the fuel hike itself has put a damper on purchasing a new car. Add to that all the other tariff hikes and the indirect increases as a result of these hikes and the environment for declining sales was inevitable.

The total industry volume of motor vehicles sales in Malaysia for the first six months of this year declined five percent to 248,407 units compared with 261,111 units in the same period last year. The decline was the first recorded since 1998, said Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) president, Datuk Aishah Ahmad at a press conference to release the motor traders and manufacturers performance for the first half year 2006. She said the drop was due to weak used car prices coupled with the higher interest rates and oil prices.

Aishah said the association has revised the forecast of vehicles sales for the full year to 520,000 units from 565,000 units. For the first six months 2006, she said passenger car sales also dropped to 184,725 units compared with 199,554 units previously. The national car recorded sales of 144,060 units in the first half of 2006, she said.

Proton car sales for January-June 2006 stood at 60,246 units compared with 75,983 units in the same period last year while Perodua car sales increased to 78,396 units from 61,152 units previously. "This is the first time that the sales of Perodua is higher than Proton," she said.