Car prices

The hot news these few weeks has been the reduction in car prices due to the NAP. After the initial round of reductions, the government hinted that prices should be even lower.

Of course, this is all not so good news for those who just bought their wheels or those thinking of selling. In fact, I noticed a significant shrinking of car for sale ads in The Star Metro nowadays. I guess everyone is waiting for the dust to settle before deciding how to pitch their cars.

Lunch time yesterday, I went to the Toyota and Honda websites to see if they have posted up the new prices. Well, the answer is that they haven't, but one thing caught my eye. In the price list they also have prices for Labuan and Langkawi. Yes, those two tax free havens where you get cheap booze and smokes galore.

I was astounded to find out that a brand new Camry or Accord will set you back all of 80 to 85k in these two places.

And here we are, paying 85k to squeeze into a teeny City or Vios (no offence to owners of these cars, I think they're damn fine cars :) ) in all other parts of Malaysia.

Anyway, after taking out my calculators, I decided it is not worth it to change for at least the next four years. It just doesn''t make financial sense to keep upgrading something that depreciates all the time. Not to mention the fact that I'm way behind schedule in my savings and investment plans. As long as my current ride doesn't hit me with enormous repair bills (which my old Wira did), I guess I'll keep the car for as long as I can.

For those of you who are in the market for a new car, congratulations! When the dust settles in the next few months, you'll be spoilt for choice.

My recommendation of the current crop - Nissan Sentra. This one was selling for less than 100k pre-NAP, and with another 5% reduction, its the best value Japanese saloon at the moment. For not much more than a Vios or City (again, apologies to owners of these :) ), you get a 1.6 with plenty of space. Not bad.