Perodua Enter Used Car Market TEAMCAR - Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) will venture into the used- car business in about a year to complement its car manufacturing business, its managing director Syed Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar (pic) said.

“We have been studying the used-car business over the last one year and I have made several trips to Osaka and Tokyo to look into their second-hand and vehicles auction concept that draws international buyers,” he told FinancialDaily in an interview.

He said the venture into the used-car business is a natural progression for Perodua. “In the matured markets, you will see the same thing happening in Malaysia, there will be fewer and fewer first- time buyers of new cars,” he said.

However, Syed Hafiz believes that the timing is not right at the moment for the company to launch its used-car business, especially with the high overhang of second-hand cars and non-performing loans (NPLs).

Syed Hazif said Perodua will continue with its policy of introducing one new model every year from last year until 2010 with the exception of this year due to the long waiting list for Myvi.

It has managed to reduce the waiting period for Myvi from five months to three months currently.

Perodua has also embarked on a RM300 million expansion of its plant in Sungai Choh, near Rawang, to boost its annual production capacity to 205,000 units by year-end and to 240,000 by the third quarter of 2007 from 200,000 units now.

Syed Hafiz said Perodua will also build five more branch showrooms, one each in Seremban, Melaka, Penang, Kota Damansara and the Kajang-Bangi area, bringing the total to 40. It has 139 dealers nationwide.
(The EDGE)  ¶ 5:12 PM