How to sell your car in Malaysia
If you remember, I did some research to know whether it was best to buy a car, use only e-hailing service? Well we ended up buying our car, and now that we are leaving this beautiful country again, I went through the process of selling a car for the second time (first time was 12 years ago).
Surprisingly, it’s the exact same way as before – there are just some new players.
Administrative process to sell a car in Malaysia
Disregarding to whom you sell the car, the process is the same. It’s in two step:
1. you need to have it undergo a Puspakom inspection. ( be aware that in 2024, Puspakom monopoly is bound to be broken, so you might have more options in the future. ) The inspection for a small car ( Myvi ) was RM 35. You have to book an appointment; it can easily be done via their app MyPuspakom. You have to bring your car registration card with you and your ID.
The purpose of this inspection is to ensure your car follow regulations and is not an absolute danger on the road. They will check that your engine / car number matches the car registration, how dark your window tints are etc… It’s really not an in-depth evaluation and it takes (excluding the waiting time ) 15min.
If you booked via their app, the Puspakom report will be send to you by email.
2. Once you have found your buyer. You have to go to the nearest JPJ office and proceed to the change of ownership. You both need to be there as the officer will take both parties fingerprints.
You have to bring with you: your passport and a copy, the car registration card, the Puspakom report. Your buyer needs to bring: insurance for the car, his passport and a copy of it. There is a form to fill JPJK3 – it can be downloaded here on the JPJ website.
- Do note that in many JPJ, they are now starting using a queuing system via their app JPJeQ, with a QR code that you have to scan at the entrance. It’s quite smart. Arrive approximatively 1h before the opening of the branch and the queuing online system will open for you to get a number.
- The cost of change of ownership is RM100 for Malaysian and RM200 for foreigner ( new owner nationality ).
- A runner to get all the above done (Except the JPJ transfer) cost around RM 1,500. It’s an easy process, so I don’t personally really see the need.
For Malaysians, there is now an online way of transferring ownership, but the website is totally in Bahasa Malayu and I believe you need a MyKad to register, so to the best of my knowledge, it’s not available for foreigner.
Finding a buyer for the car
It’s best to work with a concrete example:
I owned a plain grey 2009 Myvi EZi 1.3 with low mileage and in excellent shape. The car was not in any sort of financing. I had bought it cash myself. Please note that old cars do not qualify for loans from banks, so you would need to find a buyer who can also purchase cash.
The market price on platforms like Mudah, Carsome, MyTukar was between RM 14,000 and RM 16,000.
Selling a car using traditional car dealers and platforms such as MyTukar or Carsome
I had many of my Malaysian friends rave about Carsome ( MyTukar being a similar other well known one – but I didn’t contact them ), said they got good value from their car there.
Carsome promises good value for your car, as well as handling everything for you ( paperwork and process ). Pretty much, you walk in and leave with the cash within a very short amount of time.
The process online is quite easy. You log in, write down the information from your car registration card and it gives you a selling price estimate and offers you to book a visit in one of their garages to go through their checks and get an official offer.
Here is my personal experience with them and for my car:
1. They informed me that my car market price was maximum RM12,000. While when I researched online we were much higher than this. They prepare you mentally to think that your car is worth less.
2. Upon visiting their garage, and before we proceeded with the inspection. I asked the teller:
- For how much have they bought 2009 Myvi for the past month:
- Answer from the manager: we don’t buy a Myvi like yours more than RM 7,000.
- The radio system was worth on its own RM 900. They said, that I can remove it at my own cost and replace with the original part ( that I had kept) , it will not add any value to their buying price.
- I had kept my 3 years of service and maintenance invoices. To prove the state of the car. They also said it will not be accounted for in their evaluation of the value of my car.
3. They also informed me that I had to do the Puspakom inspection by myself. Because as a foreigner, I had to prove that the car was genuinely mine ( it’s one of the check from Puspakom )… while my name was on the car registration card…
4. They also informed me that because I was a foreigner, they would only make me an official offer 5 days after inspection. Because they had to re-check that I was the real owner of my car...
5. Then, you have 48 hours to accept or reject their offer.
As you can imagine, I refused to waste more time with this process. I understand an intermediary needs its own margin. But I think what they were pocketing was too high, and also since I still had to do most of the administrative process – I didn’t find the service aspect of value to me.
I will note though, that the online system and all the people I spoke with at Carsome were nice, courteous and friendly. I would understand that they are a good solution for anyone needing money fast. But if you have the time, you would get much better value finding your buyer on your own. Hence the next section about Mudah.
Selling your car on Mudah
Mudah is just one of them, you have other classified website that are specialized for cars. But 12 years ago, I had success in selling my Kelisa via Mudah, so I just gave it another go. I also advertised it on various Facebook groups and Facebook Marketplace with nearly no results.
Mudah will drive to you a lot of traffic and its own lot of scams and rubbish messages. I got a lot of offers from car dealers themselves asking for between RM 7,000 and 10,000. But within 48 hours, I had two serious buyers booked for a viewing of the car.
In the end, the first person who came bought the car and within 2 weeks we had completed the overall administrative process. ( the longest part was finding an available slot at Puspakom ). I put the car at RM 15,000 and I sold it for RM 13,000. About double what Carsome and car dealers offered. My buyer got a price slightly below market price without all the extra runner fees and fluff a car dealer will usually add on top of the advertized price. Win-Win for everyone.
Moral of the story, many Malaysians ( and expats ) are afraid of the administrative process, or are in need of money quickly. Therefore, they go to car dealers because of how convenient they are. Selling directly can be quick, more profitable and certainly not as difficult as everyone told me at first!
Happy selling.
Credit for the picture: Photo by Rapha Wilde on Unsplash