eCdD

I don´t know it

But decision is made, I will try now.

Tomorrow I visit some car dealers and will make a decision about the brand. Honda, Nissan and Toyota are in the draw, but maybe I drop in at other places, too. All car dealers seem to be in the same area or street.

My plan is to do it without an agent as the fees maybe will eat up a too big share of the discount. But if anyone knows a good agent for this, tell me. My limit I am willing to pay for this service is RM 500.

One information that I have already is that Toyota should be very professionell in dealing with MM2H customers. At a MM2H badminton meeting in KL I asked why they all drive Toyota Fortuners and the answer was "because the MM2H discount is very high (that is very true!) and you don´t need agent". Well, this car is too big for me, but let´s see.

Any recommendations about brands that do the process with no cost and hassle-free are also welcome of cause.

At the end there will be hopefully a documentation that answers the question in the title.

SushiFan

Have you read these entire threads:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/retir...ew-car-866284/
http://britishexpats.com/forum/retir...2h-car-852576/

The first lists all involved steps in buying one. The second clearly spells out that you will be paying back part of the "excise duty" when you sell it. I am pointing this out just to warn you that a (potentially large) bill awaits you by the time you want to sell your car.

eCdD

Yes, thank you, I have read and I am totally aware of the problem when selling a car bought under this procedure. But I would be quite surprised if I am going to sell this new car in the next ten years. Sure, nobody knows, what will happen. But my car track record does not show any vehicle that I did not own at least ten years

But for me also this is a VERY important factor:

I had to do the big 300k FD and I am very happy to reduce it with the car buying as I am not sure when or if I will buy a condo.

After Day 1 of my odyssey i can confirm that Toyota handles the MM2H process very professionell, more to come in the next days. Also I have to say again that the money you save by buying a Toyota Fortuners is so big, that I can fully understand that so many MM2Hs take it. Thank god that my wife refuses such a big car

InVinoVeritas

If you're not already aware, eCdD, there is a new Fortuna model hitting the streets imminently and it is apparently much, much better than the old model.

bakedbean

That's exactly what my late husband said

SushiFan

eCdD, those considerations make a lot of sense. I hope that the process will be smooth for you.

eCdD

So far it is very smooth.

But my plans to provide you all with a comprehensive guide how to handle this process, especially the Bahasa-only purchase of digital signature (which is the only real obstacle in the process), willl not come true.

Because the dealer I choose (and other dealers also) agreed to do this for me, so I don´t need to care about it.

Here are at least some of my findings. Keep in mind that every dealer handles the things different. And as you know "All rates are negotiable".

How I get a good discount additional to the tax extemption?

Every company and every dealer handles this different. For example Hyundai (my first choice) was unwilling to give me any discount. So was Proton, but they were interested in not doing the MM2H procedure and give a discount that was not to much away from the MM2H savings. Somebody else in this forum confirmed the same for Kia. So this can be interesting when you want to resell the car, it is a good argument when negotiate.

Toyota has a very good CNY promotion (huge Cash discount, many free extras like Navigation system and so on) the moment, first they said this promotion is only valid for normal price buying not for MM2H. They understood my point that this tax thing does not cost them one RM and this is not a reason and reconfirmed with the main office that both cash and goodies worth up to more than RM 6000 (depends on the model) can be combined with MM2H order. And they confirmed that they handle the process completely for you free of charge. Agents ask for fees of up to RM 1500! One more detail: The popular Corolla Altis is not qualified for tax extemption.

Nissan offers very friendly cash discounts of RM 4000 to 6000 depending on the model. No discussion about MM2H and offer to handle the process free of charge also. And they seem to have noticed what Toyota is doing right now and also give the Navigation for free, not a small thing, it costs RM 3300 normally.

With Honda my experience was a little bit strange. They said, discount yes, but not the CNY promotion, but the promotion that is valid when the car will be delivered. Who knows, what that will be and if there will be a promotion, hehe. And no discount for the extremely popular HR-V and a waiting time of up to 6 months for this model. Actually the HR-V was my favourite after excluding Hyundai, but of cause this conditions made me unhappy. For the process they said they can do it for me if I am willing to give a lot of personal details, according to them for privacy reasons most of the customers do it by themself. Overall I think you can make a good deal with Honda also, as I had other favourites after deciding that 6 months waiting and no discount make the HR-V by far not as sexy as it was before.

So the answer to the question above is: Deal with the right company and do it at the right time. I realized in Malaysia that promotions come and go totally unpredictable. A sports shop i visit regularly has sometimes all tennis, squash and badminton rackets in promotion with great discounts of up to 50% and then one week later not a single one. No reason to be disappointed, a few days later a salesperson will put the "30%", "40%" and "50%" stickers on again.

I have not enough experience to say what is the best time for the car discounts, but as you definitely also realized CNY is a great time. At Honda they said, Hari Raya will be great also, easy to believe. Keep the ads from the newspaper and show up at the showrooms. And when you happy with it, then tell them to remove the exercise duty also. If you meet a dealer that refuses to do the MM2H process to you or wants you let you to pay an agent they choose for you (this happend to me at Hyundai), just deal with somebody else.

What are the best tax savers?

Here I am not the right person to ask, because I did not want a very big car. As I wrote before, many MM2Hers buy the Toyota Fortuner because the tax saving is about 50k. Don´t expect that you can negotiate a big discount or goodies additional. Also a Malaysian who pays the full price gets almost nothing compared to the offers from Toyota for other models.

I will write a final statement here when I got my car

InVinoVeritas

I can't actually figure out what car you decided to order in the end, eCdD?

eCdD

There was a Toyota and a Nissan in the final decision. The model I will reveal in my next statement. There is no ink on the contract yet

InVinoVeritas

I can't cope with all this excitement. Anyhow Toyota seem to be the MM2H'ers favourite, they are very quick and efficient (the people not the cars).

bakedbean

Yes cannot wait to hear

bakedbean

in case of misinterpretation

eCdD

So, after my car arrived, let´s end the story now.

Step 1: Negotiating with the car dealers (February 2016)

Best time is CNY and Hari Raya when the discounts are readily available and published everwhere. Don´t just check your favourite brand, check all. That will bring you a good position a la "But Toyota has also free GPS and tinting". Cash rebates depend extremely on the model, as was written here before, if you want Malaysias favourite car, the Honda HR-X, then don´t expect too much in terms of discount. Don´t think if you visited one dealer of this brand in your town, all other will be the same. Every dealer handles everything different. OK, that is samesame with everywhere elso.

What I finally got at Nissan on top of the tax extemption: RM 5000 cash rebate and free DVD-Navigation-System worth RM 3350.

Step 2: Ink the contract (1st March 2016)

Insist that the car dealer handles the MM2H tax process completely alone and you have to do nothing on this. You can do it by yourself, the process is not difficult, but you at least need a malay speaking friend to help you to create the digital signature. MM2Hs are not the only persons who can enjoy this tax incentive, so all car dealers should know the process better than we. Not to mention the later discussions with Putrajaya about the status.

Talk seriously about the delivery, especially if you need the car at a certain point (friends and family coming). Make a plan B ("If the car not arrived, can you borrow me a test drive car?")

Step 3: Wait

Now the things are in Putrajaya and you all know what this means.

Step 4: New documents (Mid April)

The Ministry of Finance had interest in my tenancy agreement and my MM2H fixed deposit. Provided immediately to the car dealer. Also I provided my claim free years certificate from my old insurance in Europe to get the Claim Free Years bonus (around 50 percent!).

Step 5: Family will come to visit soon, push car dealer so that he pushes Putrajaya

Step 6: Hurray, Ministry of Finance confirmed exemption of excise dury (23rd of May)

Step 7: Stop the party, now these documents go to the customs departmant. Start to wait for approval again.

Step 8: The family is arriving (4th of June). Car dealer keeps his promise and even brings the test drive car (exactly the model I did the test drive and bought) to my home. Totally appreciated this service.

Step 9: Now I have a car and don´t pust anymore. Anyway, maybe it is better to get used to drive on the wrong side and with automatic instead of manual not with my brandnew car.

Step 10: Sometimes I already use the blinker when I want to turn and not the windscreen wiper. And more and more I drive on the left side of the road even in the night with no other cars around.

Step 11 (last week): Car dealer asks me to make the payment as customs is cleared and the car will arrive after the truckdrivers are back from their extensive Hari Raya break. I pay the car, the On-the-Road-price is even cheaper than I expected, because to my surprise the insurance is included already. I don´t ask any questions about this.

Step 12 (9th of July, four months and one week after I signed the contract): Car can be picked up, returned the test drive car (which with I became very good friends already, but that had no navigation) and drove home happily.

Conclusion:

1. The Nissan dealer kept all promises and gave me a very fair deal better than I expected (if you have interest to buy a Nissan drop me private message and I can give you the contact).

2. If your dealer tells you that you should handle the tax extemption by yourself or hire an agent then he is a LIAR and simply too lazy to deal with Putrajaya (which I can understand, but not accept). Just make clear "If you don´t deal then no deal".

3. If your dealer tells you that if you get the tax extemption then you can get no other discount, then of cause this is not true, this things have nothing to do with each other.

4. Yes, the whole process took really long. Samesame than MM2H. It was not done in the three months as expected, but as I had a test drive car for free for the last four weeks I have nothing to complain at all.

5. Overall I am a totally satisfied customer, Thumbs up for Nissan and this car dealer. Hope I can say this about the cars also after some years.

6. This is really a incentive for MM2H! Nowhere in the world I would have got this car for this price. And apart from the waiting time everything ran totally smooth.

SushiFan

Congratulations on your new car.
Coincidentally I recently talked with a car dealer about a new car. He looked with fear in his eyes when he asked : "do you want to apply for the MM2H tax exemption?" He clearly was not a fan of this and said that nowadays the whole procedure takes up to five months. He was apparently not that far off, seeing your experience.

eCdD

Thanks alot, SushiFan. By the way, do you have a Sakae Sushi over there in Penang? I really like their stuff

Hope you enjoy your new car as much as I do mine. Finally something went really well for me and true love can wait