Honda Malaysia hints for car prices increase in 2016

Kuala Lumpur: Honda Malaysia, one of the prominent automobile company selling its products in the country, may increase the price of its car models if the ringgit continues to depreciate against the US dollar, as stated by the New Straits Times report. The fluctuation in the ringgit has increased the cost of operation for the brand and other local and foreign carmakers.

Honda Malaysia Marketing Director, Akhbar Daniel said, “If we were to raise the prices, it should be in early January. But at the moment, we are still analysing the total impact to the business and looking at the right percentage if there is an increase.”

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He further added, “(It’s) possible that prices will be raised as we have trouble coping with a lower ringgit against the US dollar, despite having 80 per cent local content.”

Earlier this month, UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) has announced that the prices of Toyota and Lexus vehicles will go up from 4% to 16%. The price increase will only be effective from January 2016. However, UMWT haven't disclosed any figures along with the statement, but expect the cheaper cars to have the smallest jump (eg. Vios 4%) and the costliest CBU models (eg. Alphard) to have the most significant impact.

“As a benchmark, completely-built-up (CBU) cars are impacted directly compared to locally manufactured cars (CKD) cars, so it is expected that CBU cars will be priced much higher than CKD cars,” Akhbar told theBusiness Times.

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Even Mercedes-Benz has also announced about its price values for the year that it will maintain its current prices, despite the unfavourable value of the ringgit. More recently, the company also announced a price reduction across its locally-assembled W205 C-Classrange. The base C 200 Avantgarde is now listed at RM248,888 (RM21,000 reduction), while the new top-spec CKD C 250 AMG Line retails for RM287,888.

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Talking about the prominent local car manufacturers, Perodua might rise the prices of its car models, while the Proton has taken a better judgement to market its products with no change in the price tag. BMW Group Malaysia has also confirmed that it will not make any changes in the price range for its models, as reported from earliar news. Berjaya Auto (Mazda) and Edaran Tan Chong Motor (ETCM) are yet to make any official announcement on this price range issue.

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