Simply simply give free ammo

Someone showed me this write-up at prominent motoring site paultan.org yesterday,

Have cars in Malaysia become cheaper over the last few years?

excerpts 1;

It merited a flip to pages four and five of Berita Harian‘s Sunday edition, which revealed more examples of cars that are now cheaper compared to five years ago. According to the report, the Perodua Alza is now 14.18% (RM8,369.27) cheaper, the Proton Exora 2.25% (RM1,509.67) cheaper, the VW Golf 11.77% (RM20,000) cheaper, the Honda Jazz Hybrid 8% (RM7,650) cheaper, the Perodua Myvi 12.15% (RM6,124) cheaper, the Proton Preve 20.77% (RM15,157.19) cheaper, the Proton Saga 14.88% (RM6,220.71) cheaper and the Proton Persona (RM8,281.91) 15.59% cheaper.

excerpts 2;

Let’s start with the Perodua Alza. The 2013 price quoted (RM59,017) was for the 1.5 SE Manual while the 2018 price is for the 1.5 Standard Manual. If an apple to apple 1.5 Standard MT is made, the reduction is 2.1% and not 14.18% as claimed. At the Alza facelift launch in 2014, Perodua itself said that price reduction was between 2.1% and 7.4% depending on variant.

For the Proton Exora, the old price quoted (RM67,212) was in fact taken after a 2016 range-wide price increase, and not from 2013. The quoted price is also on-the-road with insurance (old) versus OTR without insurance (new), which of course makes a difference. In actual fact, the MPV was priced at RM63,552.54 in 2014, RM64,498 in 2015-2017 and RM65,702.33 now, but there’s more equipment in today’s car.

As for the Volkswagen Golf, the old price in the report is wrong. The Mk7 1.4 TSI was launched in early 2013 for RM157,888 (the same price as the outgoing Mk6 in final SE form) and not RM169,888 as printed byBH. The new price quoted is for today’s 1.4 Comfortline, which has less equipment. Today’s Highline is closer to the 2013 car in specs, plus a few extras. It retails for RM159,888.

Moving on, the old price for the Honda Jazz Hybrid was from the previous-gen CBU imported version. If you compare the previous-gen CKD version (launched in 2012 for RM87,404.50 OTR without insurance) with today’s CKD Jazz Hybrid, it’s a 2.9% drop, not 8%.

For the Perodua Myvi, the prices used by the report was for the old 1.3 SE AT versus the new 1.3 Standard G MT, which is not like for like. In 2013, the cheapest Myvi was priced at RM40,650.45. The most affordable new Myvi is the 1.3 MT at RM44,300, but it must be said that one gets significantly more equipment today – LED headlamps, keyless entry and start, VSA, four airbags versus two.

For the Proton Preve, the old price mentioned is from the sedan’s launch back in 2012 – RM72,990 for a 1.6 CFE Premium, OTR with insurance. The new price mentioned is for a 1.6 NA Manual, OTR without insurance. Pitting high spec auto with base spec manual will of course result in a big difference in price.

Staying with Proton, the old Saga price used is for the 1.3 Executive MT while the new price is for the current 1.3 Standard MT, both OTR without insurance. In 2013, the cheapest Saga one could buy was the 1.3 SV MT for RM32,836.50. Today, a new 1.3 Standard MT is RM35,590.29, but you get ABS.

excerpt 3;

So, it’s clear that the new versus old prices in the report were cherry picked for convenience, without taking into account variants and specifications. Based on the old prices we’ve dug up, it appears that car prices have not come down by much in general.

I tried to find the BH Ahad report but it's nowhere to be found.

This is all I got which I screen captured;

Maybe I didn't search properly or maybe they had taken it down.

But I did notice that paultan.org write-up, which was also translated into Bahasa Malaysia was picked up by the pro-Pakatan people such as this,

CELAH GELEGAR - Mencari Kebenaran Yang Sebenar

Free ammo, if you ask me.

Something like that "exclusive" lost Felda land report.

They just say it's another BN spin. A few extra votes for them lah.

I'm not sure what the BH people were trying to do coming up with that report which was shredded by paultan.org

I thought things were better now with those newspapers

after the Media Prima civil war

I was told that they have got rid of all the useless senior editors and replaced them with top notched ones...and of course that brilliant three-in-one newspaper restructure thing.

Well, guess they need to do better and not let this kind of slip-ups (or plain stupidity) happen again.

The general election is coming, okay.