Aside from slashing prices of its cars by as much as RM52,000, Kia Sales Malaysia (KSM) also announced it will be making prices of its spare parts cheaper by an average of 15%. This comes as part of the takeover of the Kia distributorship from Bermaz-owned Dinamikjaya Motors effective January 1.
The move addresses one of the key issues that have prevented the wider public from getting into its cars – the perception of expensive parts and thus, higher maintenance costs. The principal-owned company’s managing director Emily Lek previously told us that KSM was looking into reducing the total ownership costs for users and improving its after-sales services.
It’s worth pointing out that as yet, KSM has not released any details such as a price list, and anything concrete will have to wait until the new Kia Malaysia website goes online on Thursday, January 8. That also means that we do not have a list of dealers under the KSM banner, and we still do not know if there are any carryover outlets from the previous Bermaz-led network.
We do at least know that the after-sales network will be supported by a dedicated parts warehouse in Shah Alam. This, KSM said, will enable “speedy availability of spare parts,” as it won’t have to fight with other markets to get them.
Another often-overlooked aspect of the KSM takeover is the warranty coverage. Although it still spans five years, the mileage cap has been increased from Bermaz’s standard 100,000 km to 150,000 km – putting it it in line with Kia’s global standards, the company added. The improvement does come at the cost of the previous five-year free service package, which appears to have been discontinued.
All this goes hand-in-hand with the significant reduction in its car prices, with the Sportage being a big beneficiary. Previously starting at RM147,219, the C-segment SUV’s base price has been cut by over RM17,000 to RM129,639 with a 2.0 litre naturally-aspirated engine, while the 1.6 litre turbo variant drops by the same amount and now starts from under RM160,000 (RM159,320).
Even bigger savings are in store for the Carnival MPV, which is now cheaper by up to RM52,027, such that it starts at under RM200,000 for the eight-seater, 2.2 litre diesel model (RM193,861). As for the EV9, that remains at the same prices as before (RM370,183 for the seven-seater, RM375,183 with six seats, now with road tax included) despite excise duties now being applied this year.
The post Kia Malaysia slashes parts prices by 15% – warranty boosted to 5 years/150,000 km, up from 100,000 km appeared first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
