It has been talked about a million times. When you buy your car, always look at the manufactured date because you want the car to have a ‘shorter’ life when you sell it later. In other words, you want your car to have a good ‘second hand value’.
With so many brands in the Malaysian market today, which car has the best ‘second hand’ value? Suffice to say, in the 1990s, the rule of thumb is to either buy a local brand (Proton or Perodua) or go for a Honda. Even the Toyota then was not as popular as how it is today.
But Malaysia’s automotive industry has changed so much that there are now Volkswagens, Peugeots, KIAs and Hyundais which are pretty much made around the region (in Malaysia as well) while all other brands are now more affordable.
So what would your concern be about the second-hand value? If you are buying a car and worried sick that it might not have a good used-car value, then you should follow our 3 tips/ advice.
Get everyone’s favourite
Malaysia has a very peculiar market because the Honda Civic has been the most popular car for many years. In fact, the 1980s and 1990s saw Honda Civic rising from the small compact car to become a racehorse and now a sedan with a powerful engine. It is still very loved by Malaysians and has one of the best second hand value among all other cars in Malaysia.
Go Local
Despite what everyone says, our local cars do have quite good second hand value. In fact, the top selling car in Malaysia is the Perodua MyVi where it is among the most sought after used cars in the market. It is known to have one of the best retained value of more than 50% which means that if you bought the car for RM48k, you can still get back about RM30k five years later.
Go for the top manufacturer
This one refers to Toyota. In Malaysia, Toyota cars are now more popular than any other brands mainly because they are economical, affordable and because they are involved in Perodua (through Daihatsu).
The likes of Camry, Altis, Innova and the super-popular Vios all have more than half in retained value. When you have more than 3 models in this bracket, you know your brand is doing extremely well.
