So, here’s a pop quiz for you. After the two national players (Perodua and Proton), the Japanese big three (Honda, Toyota and Nissan) and fast-growing Mazda, which brand comes next in terms of the total number of vehicles sold this year in Malaysia?
We wouldn’t fault you if you guessed Mercedes-Benz, they are going great guns but are in fact just a rung below in eighth. Maybe your next guesses would involve more fancied brands such as Mitsubishi, Ford, Volkswagen, Hyundai or Kia, but that would be off the mark.
For Isuzu Malaysia to rank as the seventh best-selling brand (January to September 2016) with only two models designated as ‘consumer vehicles’ (the D-Max pick-up and mu-X SUV) is a surprise. That they are also on course to buck the downward trend of an industry that had seen a reduction of 14% in overall new vehicle sales (or Total Industry Volume) compared to the corresponding period in 2015 is quite a revelation. Many brands would do well to sell as many cars as they did last year.
According to Kenji Matsuoka, CEO of Isuzu Malaysia, the D-Max pick-up range has now assumed 15% of the segment share (an increase of 3.7% this year), and the brand is on course for higher sales compared to last year – a rare occurrence in 2016. Out of the 9,214 units of Isuzu vehicles sold (from January till September this year), D-Max pick-ups accounted for just over 50% of the total (along with a couple of hundred units of the Mu-X SUV), with the rest contributed by Isuzu’s commercial range, namely truck and lorries, of which they are well-established market leaders.
If the posh launch of the updated range of the D-Max is anything to go by, we are going to see Isuzu Malaysia put much more effort in shedding the D-Max’s workhorse image and endearing its best-seller to passenger car buyers, though this ‘lifestyle’ space is increasingly congested with competing products that are all vying for the same urban-centric customers. To this end, Isuzu has freshened up the D-Max range (launched here in 2013) with revised aesthetics and new features inside and out, as well as new premium variants called the Z-Prestige. Isuzu Malaysia is also upping the stakes where their reputation lies by extending the warranty period for both the D-Max and Mu-x from three to five years.
