Perodua prefers standard interest rates for car loans

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RAWANG, April 30 — Malaysia’s second national car manufacturer, Perodua, prefers banks to impose standard rates for hire purchase loans for all of the company’s models.

Managing Director Datuk Syed Abdull Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar said: “Perodua prefers standard car financing rates from all our business partners rather than having finance companies fighting over lower or higher rates.” He was responding to reports of banks raising their car financing rates in an interview with Bernama here today.

“We prefer standard rates and as long as you give the customer 3.8 per cent including an extended warranty period of three years. To me that’s good enough,” he added.

Last week, the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) called for interest rates for national cars to be lowered as these cars were mostly purchased by the middle and lower income group which make up a large portion of the population.

It said that any increase in interest rates for the higher purchase business would not contribute to stabilising and sustaining the economy during this difficult period.

However, Syed Abdull Hafiz said that with the current crisis, the banks were already offering attractive rates.

“During the 1998 financial crisis, the interest rate for hire purchase loans for cars was around 8.0 per cent. However, today, rates were not even reaching 4.0 percent, so interest rates have gone down a lot,” he said.

Syed Abdull Hafiz said that the main issue now was not so much the interest rate but rather the availability of loans and the approval ratio.

On their 2009 sales forecasts, he said that Perodua aims to sell 157,000 units, slightly down from the 167,000 sold last year.

In the first quarter of 2009, Perodua sold 39,000 cars, which was the biggest market share of 33.3 per cent, overtaking Proton which sold 30,738 units with a share of 25.9 per cent. – Bernama