Malaysia’s car market has set new records in 2025, with robust economic growth, strong domestic demand, and recovering exports contributing to the performance. The country’s strong buying power is evident in the high per-capita car purchase compared to its neighbors. However, the economy and affordability concerns persist, with the government facing challenges in implementing incentives and the public expressing dissatisfaction.
Malaysia ’s appetite for cars is just… unbelievable. In a land of not even 40 million people, we bought 820,752 new cars last year (yet another record), or 0.5% more than 2024’s December.
December 2025 was a record month (90,716 new cars found homes, beating the previous record of 81,735 units in December 2024), while Q4 2025 was a record quarter (241,416 units). MAA attributes the performance to robust economic growth (GDP +4.7% in first three quarters of 2025), strong domestic demand, recovering exports, and favourable financing.
Driven by SUV mania, passenger vehicles expanded 13% to 228,572 units in 2025 compared to 2024’s 201,565 units, while commercial vehicles contracted for the second year running (-11% versus -14% in 2024) as the non-nationals were down 0.6% to 309,258 units (311,058 in 2024). MAA forecasts a slower 2026 with 790k units, but it was just as pessimistic last year. Malaysia officially became ASEAN’s No. 1 vehicle market by sales volume for the first time, surpassing Indonesia.
Under Madani car prices going down the wazoo because of his election promise to lower car prices. He kept his promise so he must be reelected! Malaysia per-capita car purchase is 8x compared to neighbour Indonesia. So our strong buying power is thanks to which PM and which gomen?
Yes, too many Wira, Waja, Myvi and Kancil with V12 sounding exhaust, 2nd hand tires, glue on bodykit, and 50sen brakes are prowling the roads. I asked some of the P1 & P2 sales advisers about the RM4k govt incentive to trade in a 20+ year old clunker for a new P1/P2 car, which was announced during parliamentary budget speech last year, and they told me that they’re still waiting for the memo/announcement from their respective HQs.
Its interesting that rakyat keeps complaining about the economy and drop in affordability- we losing purchasing power, but we generated more spending than ever on cars
Malaysia Car Market Sales Demand Exports GDP Strong Buying Power SUV Mania Government Incentives Economy And Affordability Concerns
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