Why are Malaysian car prices so expensive?

The recent car prices issue made me curious. Having been totally unaware of such huge discrepancies between Malaysian and world prices, I surfed the Internet to see what real world car prices were. I was shocked.

These are US car prices with US duty and import tax paid, which are just like Malaysian car prices with duty and tax also paid, but here, you will see, they are much lower and less exorbitant than in Malaysia.
Bear in mind all cars are CBU (complete built up) Japan, CBU South Korea or CBU Germany.

The following cars we get here are CKD (complete knocked down) cars with more than 50% Malaysian content and “supposedly” are cheaper due to their being CKD and supporting Malaysian manufacturers.

I cannot understand, we support our own Malaysian manufacturers and beli barang buatan (buy local) Malaysia too, and yet the prices can be higher than barang buatan (made in) Japan or German, which is usually higher in quality.

And yet, to make matters worse, US people’s GDP per capita is higher than Malaysia’s and the average American earns five times more than the average Malaysian.

Mainstream car prices

Honda Accord 2.4     US$21,480 (RM64,440)         RM175,000

Honda CRV                US$22,495 (RM67,485)         RM150,000

Honda Civic               US$15,955 (RM47,865)          RM115,000

Toyota Altis               US$16,130 (RM48,390)          RM112,000

Toyota Camry            US$22,055 (RM66,165)          RM180,000

Kia Sorento                US$23,150 (RM69,450)          RM160,000

Hyundai Tucson        US$19,245 (RM57,735)          RM140,000

Hyundai Sonata         US$20,895 (RM62,685)        RM150,000

Hyundai Elantra 1.8  US$16,695 (RM50,085)        RM118,000

Luxury car prices

BMW 328i           US$36,500 (RM109,500)       RM300,000

BMW 528i           US$46,900 (RM149,000)       RM400,000

BMW 535i           US$52,500 (RM157,000)        RM600,000

BMW X5              US$47,500 (RM142,500)        RM580,000

Mercedes E350   US$51,000 (RM153,000)       RM400,000 (In M’sia for only CKD E250)

Jaguar XF             US$53,000 (RM159,000)      RM500,000

Jaguar XJ             US$73,700 (RM221,000)       RM1,000,000

Porsche Cayenne US$48,850 (RM146,000)      RM570,000

Every Malaysian must realise they are being cheated on car prices and have been cheated for the past 30 years.

Most Malaysians pay close to 50% of their salary for their monthly payments for their cars.
Not only do the banks get an easy ride (cause everybody is “forced” to take loans), we have to live in debt for over seven years, depriving our family of better food and clothes.

Answer is higher tax being levied by the Govt for 2 reasons.
One - use the tax as a source of income for the govt and
Second - to protect the local industry - although not necessary in that order.

The money have all ended up in BN and Cronies pockets! Also since we pay so much more for cars and why is that we STILL have to pay so much for Tolls to maintain the roads? Why pay to some cronies who will keep collecection for the next 200 years? Dump them all this GE and save our money!