KUALA LUMPUR: The Carsome Consumer Survey conducted in October 2020 found that 58% of Malaysians plan to buy a car within one to six months, far ahead of other Southeast Asian counterparts including Indonesia and Thailand at more than 30%.
This, along with other insights were recently shared in the survey report by Carsome, Southeast Asia’s largest integrated car e-commerce platform, where 1,000 Malaysian consumers shared their sentiments around buying and selling a car, as well as around usage of public transport and e-hailing services during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The survey also indicated a 32% increase in the number of Malaysians wanting to buy a car post-lockdown.
It also showed that most consumers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand do not feel comfortable using public transport after the Covid-19 lockdown for fear of contracting the virus.
Compared to the pre-lockdown period, the number of people who want to sell their cars has also increased by 133% in Malaysia as compared to Indonesia, 52% and Thailand at 15%.
The most common reasons attributed to the car-selling intentions are to dispose of old cars and to get more cash on hand.
Public transport and e-hailing services saw a drop in demand among the respondents.
About 79% of Malaysian consumers are not comfortable sharing a car ride with strangers or taking public transport during the Movement Control Order (MCO).
Online used car selling platforms in Malaysia saw a 55% increase in popularity.
The survey also found that the top three car-selling challenges during pre-lockdown and lockdown period were unhappiness with car price, financial difficulties and delay in car ownership transfer.
With MCO 2.0 in place, Carsome co-founder and group CEO Eric Cheng foresees demands within Malaysia’s automotive industry will continue to grow, in line with the survey results of more Malaysians planning to buy and sell a car within the next few months.
“With the global shortage of car parts such as electronic chips, coupled with the disruption in car assembly and manufacturing plants locally, we expect short-to-medium term shortage of new car supplies, or delayed new car deliveries.
"As such, the used car industry is a good position for growth as there is no waiting time for car delivery,” Cheng said.
