Scrapping 15 year old cars.

Last night's TV3's news program, Buletin Utama, ran an interesting sms poll. It asked - with regards to banning cars that are more than 15 years old - whether the ban will unduly benefit "certain parties" (pihak tertentu).

Firstly, what does an age-scrapping policy mean? It means that anyone who intends to use a car for anything more than a 15 year period, will now have to buy 2 cars, instead of one. For eg. where I can now derive the use of a car for 30 years from just buying 1 car - this policy will force me to buy 2 cars in order to derive the same 30 years of utilisation.

If all Malaysians kept their cars for 30 years, this policy will effectively double the current car market from 500,000 units a year to 1,000,000 units per year. But of course, there are many of us who change cars more frequently than once every 15 years and won't be affected by a scrapping policy. That's why a post-policy car market will lie somewhere in between the extremes of 500,000 and 1,000,000 units. What is certain though, is that the car market will grow tremendously.

And it really annoys me that the car (and car loan) industry would make such a bare-faced proposal in order to boost their sales... instead of looking at improving their own practices like pricing and service or increasing their productivity. You fuckers are businesses. Why don't you act like one? Nobody owes you a living. I don't see you giving your customers discounts when the times are good.

What irks me even more is that the govt is giving their proposal the time of day. Has the govt even thought of the impact of such an inane proposal on its citizens? Has the govt thought of how the additional costs will need to be defrayed or does it expect the public to shoulder the additional burden entirely? Does the govt realise that this is no more than an attempt to rob the public in order to keep these inefficient and unviable businesses in business? Does the govt see as I do, that this is a golden opportunity to weed out and terminate all those leeches and parasites in the car industry? Can anybody tell me how many directors and shareholders of these businesses affiliated to the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Car Dealers and Credit Companies Association - are also UMNO/BN office holders?

No decision yet on scrapping of 15-year-old cars
Pauline Puah
http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=17737

KUALA LUMPUR (April 25, 2007): The government has not made a decision on a proposal to scrap cars that are more than 15 years old, Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ng Lip Yong said.

"What was reported in newspapers was only a suggestion. A meeting held at the Transport Ministry on March 16 to discuss the proposal by the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Car Dealers and Credit Companies Association did not make any decision.