Post-GST: Toyota Cuts Prices By Up To RM4,000, Guarantees Transparency

Following Honda Malaysia's announcement that it will be cutting prices for all of its locally assembled models by up to RM2,500, UMW Toyota Motor has upped the ante by announcing that it will slash up to RM4,000 off the list price of some Toyota and Lexus models. 

Of course, one has to remember that the most expensive Toyota model can reach up to nearly RM400,000 (Toyota Alphard 3.5G) so it is not surprising that the absolute value of the price reduction is higher than Honda, whose most expensive model is the RM229k Odyssey.  

At the point of publishing, UMW Toyota's website is yet to be updated with their revised price list so we are unable to confirm the new prices for all Toyota and Lexus models. It will be interesting to see if imported Toyota/Lexus models see an increase in prices (as experienced by Honda) or will their prices move in another direction.

Update 9:45am

There is a slight increase in prices for some variants of the Toyota Vios, but prices for all other Toyota models have been reduced.

Similarly with Lexus, prices have been slashed across all Lexus models except for the ES 300h, which saw a nominal increase of RM201.26.

President of UMW Toyota Motor Datuk Ismet Suki also stressed that the company will pass 100 percent of the cost savings derived from replacing the previous 10 percent SST with a new 6 percent GST to its customers.

“There will be price reduction up to RM4,000 or 2 percent for Toyota and Lexus models. UMW Toyota Motor vehicles will pass 100 percent of the cost savings to the customers upon purchasing any Toyota and Lexus models during the new tax structure’s implementation,” he said.

Ismet also stressed that UMW Toyota is very serious about maintaining full transparency in its business transactions and assures customers that the company strictly adheres to Malaysia's Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2014.

He also said that although UMW Toyota still have some carryover stock whose SST have already been paid (which will still be taxed with another 6 percent GST when a customer buys the car), Ismet assured customers that UMW Toyota will absorb this temporary increase in cost.

"I'd like to confirm here that nett nett, the car prices excluding insurance will definitely go down. Even though we have some carryover stocks from pre-GST, we will definitely not transfer the cost to our customers in doing our business," he said.

"I am sure that 100 percent of our savings from the GST will be passed over to our customers," he added.

Below is an infographic prepared by UMW Toyota. Note that the 10 percent SST is applied to ex-distributor value of the car, which does not include dealer margins, transportation cost and handling fees, accessories and other miscellaneous distribution costs.