funfer_fahrer;387292 said:
To me, parallel imports are great because
1. Most Malaysians especially in this forum can afford to maintain a BMW (or a Ferrari for that matter) but not willing to pay the ridiculous price of a brand new BMW. Those who buy from grey importers are not the ordinary tom, dick or harry. They could be smart tom, dick and harry.
2. Some Malaysians still feel proud of paying RM400K (in the name of prestige) for a car without realising people outside this country are laughing at them.
3. The risk is worth taking because even if you buy a brand new BMW from an approved dealer there is no guarantee that the car will be trouble free. And also, how sure are you that the customer service and after sales service are top notch? Conversely, the grey car importer also will try to con their way but their chances are getting slimmer nowadays. Last week, I went to visit a car dealer looking for a 2005 X5. The car looked very nice, good paint job, and nice interior. After I plugged in my diagnostic tool at the OBD slot, I discovered some serious messages. The on-board self test module was faulty. It was going to cost me a bomb to replace the module. Well, too bad for him that I discovered the fault. His final remark was "you kerja sama BMW ka?". I told him that I wanted to be a BMW technician but ended up doing something else because I never listened to my mother when I was young. Ha ha..
4. Buying a car is never a prestige thing. I call that 'keeping up with the Joneses' or 'renewing debt'. 'Prestige' means having a high net worth. Doesn't matter which car one drives. In this country, people still equate high net worth with owning a BMW, which is not usually the case. Some people just love to pay extra taxes to the Government. In Australia, the maximum import duty for cars is only 16% and an X6 is only AUD110K. And the Aussies still call the X6 expensive! The import duty for a brand new E60 525 is at least RM200K in Malaysia (thanks to D.S Anwar Ibrahim when he was the finance minister). The profit margin is around RM90K and the rest is the actual price of the car. The price of a five-year-old E60 in Japan is only US10K to US15K. What exclusivity?
1. Exactly what i mean to say. The fact is that it is EVEN an option makes one a smart guy for choosing it. Im debating whether or not there should even be the option of parallel imports and hence when there is no option at all, purchasing one thru the official channels is the only way and the only price you will ever come to know. Im not asking you to choose between the two which is quite obvious in its own.
I am debating if parallel importers should be allowed to bring in cars that are already brought in through official channels.
2. Actually having lived most of my life overseas, most of my colleagues, classmates and friends overseas dont really pay attention to our car prices, sad to say. In retrospect, we can all laugh at the employees of Lehman Brothers in US/UK that got laid off due to their impending domestic economic conditions?
Sorry but i feel that certain economies, countries and governmental policies will yield certain results and likewise, certain prices, commodities, newsbits will be either severely controlled, expensive, restricted, call it what you must but a laughing matter, i beg to differ.
3. You are absolutely correct here as the risk is still definitely very high especially with horror stories of our local dealerships not knowing what to do and trying to refuse warranty claims at any available opportunity.
Good thing is i have a very close friend who is a lawyer and runs his own legal practice and everytime the dealership refuses to warrant a claim for me, i get him to give them a ring and send them a notice that i intend to take up the matter in court so alot of my warranty claims get rectified.
To date, Steering rack and rear differential replaced. These are just the expensive items. Ive even had a windscreen crack and replaced for free before (not insurance glass coverage).
All in all, since BMW cars are "high risk" cars, with the failure rate somewhat high and the cost of rectifying said failures "somewhat high", wouldnt one want to take the necessary steps to ensure that they are protected as much as possible?
Yes its possible to get that from a parallel importer too but sometimes certain corners are cut and some workshops are not too sure what they are doing but they give it a go nonetheless and that just so happens to be the "panel" workshop of said parallel importer.
The best possible protection you can get is a warranty from BMW AG/BMW Malaysia dont you think? As there are service bulletins, specific torque rate for every nut and bolt etc etc and continuous improvements (we can only hope) on their part and on BMW AG's global campaign to improve the image of their vehicles.
So should you opt for such protection, you have suddenly become "not so smart", yearning to be proud for paying a higher price and somewhat foolish?
4. On the contrary, not many people are purists when it comes to the car in itself and buy the car purely on the basis of merits and meritocracy. In fact, most people buy the car for the sort of image it carries.
Just think about Lamp Berger and all the Lamp Berger boys and you can imagine the sort of image they try to give out by means of the vehicle. I am succesful yada yada yada.
Some people buy a BMW/Merc/Any high end car for the purpose of business? Lobbying perhaps?
Would you pass a RM100m contract to a guy that rocked up in a Proton Wira? I would be doubtful.
So essentially, said Mr Businessman bought the car for his image and his business?
High net worth is very subjective as what is high to one may not be high to another unless you use the banks standard definition of "high net worth individual" and even that can differ. And the only way for Mr Businessman to show it then is to carry his personal accounts/asset details on him.
Or he could buy himself a brand spanking new LS460L?
Essentially the fact of the matter in my opinion is that to compare the prices of cars in Australia vs Malaysia or any country for that matter is largely irrelevant. Ive lived there before and even a 3er is very exclusive. Why?
At 80K AUD, its already alot for Aussies who are used to 10k AUD Commodores. You get Lancer's for 19,999 DRIVE AWAY!
Assuming a ratio of 1:4, a Lancer here costs around RM100k or thereabouts?
A 525i is around 400k? Wouldnt you say its the same then?
Dont even need to go into the Japanese "shaken" system to understand why vehicles come out so cheap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaken
So ultimately, every economy in its own should be isolated when it comes to vehicles and the pricing structure due to certain economic policies implemented by the government but when said policies clash, and sometimes in the consumers benefit, ie: low vehicle prices out of japan due to above reasons, and high vehicle prices here due to import duties, there is a sort of "arbitrage" profit of sorts to be made?
But at what expense?
Im actually debating if parallel imported cars should be allowed in at all if the model is sold through official channels. Not about whether or not the car is exclusive, but more the erosion of the market position of any given vehicle buy opening it up to a bigger variety of buyers.
