Should I buy a car when I move to Malaysia? This question often comes up in forums and expat groups. Everyone wonders if it is possible to live their daily life only with public transport and e-hailing apps and thus avoid this big purchase at the beginning of the stay. But above all, we all know that buying a car to resell it a few years later is never a good investment.
The concerns are often how to obtain or convert your foreign driving license, you also have to search and find the car! Then resell it in a fairly short time when you leave. I hope to be able to provide you with more concrete elements with this article to help you make a decision?
I arrived in Malaysia in August 2020, this is my second stay in the country. I had a car during the first stay because I worked in the industrial area quite far away, and at the time, public transport and e-hailing apps were not as developed or did not exist. Buying a car was a no-brainer. But today! In the middle of the pandemic, working completely from home. I was in no rush to make this major purchase. And I decided to use this time to study the economic reality of living without one.
Some information about my travels:
I can reach my office by public transport; the nearest train station is less than 10 minutes walk from my home.
I can walk to a decent supermarket, although I usually prefer to go to a larger supermarket about 4km away.
As soon as restrictions were lifted and things became a little safer, I was going to see friends and eating out at least twice a weekend.
I visit a mall once every two weeks. (I’m not really a shopping person) or even less. I use Shopee much more readily.
The general idea was:
Rent a SoCar when I need to go to the mall for half a day / or do lots of small errands during the day (50/80 RM per half day)
For long weekends, I used the long distance bus to get to my destination (Malaysian buses are very comfortable and cheap) or rented a car for the weekend (RM1,500 on average)
I’m far from super social; I usually go to 2 places max on the weekend. A lot of my friends would also pick me up/drop me off most of the time after a late meal.
What does a year of moderate Grab usage look like?
As you can see, my expenses in November and December have decreased. In fact, we bought a car in November. December is basically just the Grab to the airport for our annual Christmas commute (which is about RM100)
A good estimate would be around RM350 per month if you don’t go to the office every day. If you went with a Grab during peak hours, the bill would add up very quickly!
What about SoCar expenses in one year?
Well, in the end, I only used SoCar twice. Either because we were a group or I had many stops to make and I spent a total of RM150 for two half-days. But let’s keep in mind that interstate travel has been banned for most of 2021. So I really didn’t have many opportunities. But if you are in a group, it is definitely worth renting a SoCar.
So when is it wise to buy a car in Malaysia?
As I mentioned before, we ended up buying a car. This decision was based more on convenience than financial factors. The choice of car and its resale value, however, was largely influenced by this little experiment of the year.
Estimating the cost of owning a car.
We bought a simple and easy to resell grey 2009 Perodua MyVi automatic for RM17,000 from a local car dealership. We know its value is around RM13,000 today (the rest was the seller’s commission, first year insurance and all other services related to the purchase). And we are quite confident that we will sell it for at least RM10,000 when we leave.