3 Reasons Being A Malaysian Petrolhead Sucks

Inspired by recent posts about being a petrolhead in different countries;

Korea
Indonesia
Philippines

I decided to tell you why I think being a petrolhead this year in Malaysia would probably suck. I’m aspiring to be an automotive journalist soon so I figured that this is a good place for me to start.

1. The roads

Malaysian B-Roads often took the most beating and least care. Mainly it’s because not many people are using them as much as the main roads. I can’t find a single perfectly smooth road throughout my journey around Malaysia. Even when there is, it’s often short and not very exciting. The Karak highway leading to Genting Sempah to Genting Highlands is one of the few exception to this but still, not as good as I thought it would be.

Said destination is one of the most common places where tuners had our own touge and drift battles as it is a winding mountain road. Even so, it’s still has it’s own fair share of speed bumps due to the fact that that particular road has seen numerous accidents occurred.

2. Tuning Laws

Unlike our neighbor country, Singapore, we can tune and modify our cars here in Malaysia. But we do have a ridiculous laws covering it.

A good friend of mine drives a Proton Wira/Persona. He swapped most of the parts of the car from a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III due to the fact that the Proton is basically the Evo with a few changes.

The parts swapping includes Mitsubishi’s 1.8 4G63t engine. I asked him “why didn’t you just swapped a 2.0 4G63 from the Evo IV or onwards instead?” and he said “Because the transport ministry doesn’t allow it. If I insists, it won’t be road legal.”

Really? 200cc difference between the two. And it’s illegal?

There’s more. Full Proton Wira to Mitsubishi Evo 3 conversions are also illegal because the law states “visual modifications that distinctively change the original appeal of the car is illegal.”

Sure. As if the Proton looked so different from the Evo.

Another baffling thing is that rollcage are illegal in a road car unless they’re from the factory. Even if you argued that it’s for safety reasons, it’s still illegal.

3.Car Prices, Road Tax, Insurance and Maintanence

The Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT-86 is priced at a whopping $56,681.98 if the Malaysian Ringgit were to covert into US Dollars. How about a Lamborghini Aventador? $665,496.90.

Cars are absurdly priced here in Malaysia. Jalopnik even listed Malaysia as the 2nd most expensive country to buy a car with Singapore claiming the top spot. Here’s the full list

In Singapore, cars were absurdly priced (without considering the COE(Certificate of Entitlement)) because that’s how they control the car population on such a small land. In Malaysia, cars are insanely priced due to the fact that our government wanted to ensure that Malaysians would still buy Protons and Peroduas. Even those cars, despite locally made and assembled, hell, it’s our own brand, are still at a price higher than what an average Malaysian could afford. That’s before you consider everything else.

Road taxes in Malaysia will vary on whether the car is imported or locally assembled and the engine displacement. Long story short, if you own a local car with an engine lower than 2.0L of displacement, you’re fine. Other than that, you’ll have to fork out at least $85 yearly on road tax alone.

Allow me to give you an idea of how expensive owning a high end sports car in Malaysia is. My dad owns the pre-facelift Audi S5 (the one with the 4.2 V8 Engine).

Car price = $114,740
Road tax = $1675 yearly
Insurance = $2295 at least
*all currencies are converted from Malaysian Ringgit to US Dollars

That’s a few points that I can make about being a Malaysian petrolhead. Feel free to express your opinions and add further points to my post.

To all Malaysian CTzens, terima kasih banyak!