The Hyundai-Kia car brand is one of the stellar performers in the global car industry, currently ranked fourth after Toyota, Volkswagen and the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
About 200,000 Kia cars have been sold in Malaysia since 1999, when the franchise was handed over by Cycle & Carriage Bintang Berhad.
However, the situation is looking pretty rough at the moment.
The Kia franchise handover is taking longer than normal because of the involvement of more companies and the additional due diligence processes.
On top of the sales and distribution franchise, a Malaysian party understood to be an independent motor distributor backed by Bermaz Auto Bhd group is keen to invite the South Korea-based Kia Motor Corporation (KMC) to invest in Malaysia as a regional auto manufacturing hub.
Until the new importer-cum-franchise holder is announced, Naza-Kia remains the official franchise holder for Kia cars sold in Malaysia.
“It should happen in the second half of the year, as we also have to negotiate and operationalise the local assembly of new and current models,” said a senior manager participating in the formation of the new Kia car franchise in Malaysia.
“The Malaysian auto industry will benefit from the supply chain for components and downstream activities like logistics and employment.”
Unfortunately, the outpouring of grief on social media platforms reflects that a lot of love has been lost in the interim as Kia car owners in Malaysia are forced to wait for a few more months until the new importer and distributor is officially appointed by KMC.
The immediate problem for most car owners, however, is that they have to pay for their scheduled servicings even though said servicings are supposed to be free of charge.
Free servicing is a commitment between the customer and franchise holder. When a car is sold by the branch or dealer, the price that is fixed by the franchise holder includes free servicing and the average warranty cost.
That being said, most dealers are no longer offering free servicing because they think that they aren’t going to be reimbursed by the franchise holder.
Secondly, cars that have approved warranty claims are still sitting in the dealers’ workshops for months because the parts are not available.
How much longer can customers wait for their cars to be repaired under warranty?
On top of all this, customer complaints are surfacing on Facebook, so much so that the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Industry has advised owners to proceed directly to the tribunal for claims that are less than RM25,000.
Mak Wai Tuck, whose Kia service centre in Hicom Glenmarie, Shah Alam is the go-to workshop for when KMC managers visit Malaysia, confirmed that he has no choice but to charge Kia customers for servicing – including alternate servicing which is supposed to be free of charge during the warranty period.
He said that this decision was made due to the current circumstances and inadequate support from the current franchise holder.
“We understand the dilemma of our customers in this interim period where we have to charge for the free service,” said Mak, who is also one of the few Kia dealers that doubles as a spare part and servicing dealer, and a winner of many “Best Service” awards.
“We try to adjust where we can, such as reducing labour charges, because we want our customers to come back.”
However, he also said that Kia customers are very different from Honda and Toyota customers, in that Kia owners are “more likely to be from the salaried class and they shop around for the best price and quality of service”.
Joseph Raj, the owner of the Kia Puchong 3S dealership, has a different view on this transitional period.
“We are providing the scheduled free service to our customers, even those who bought their cars from the Kia Red Cube branches that have shut down,” said Raj.
According to Raj, he and his team will handle everything on behalf of their clients – including the submission of warranty claims – but they still remain unsure of when the needed parts will arrive.
“We will at least tell the owners that we have to wait until the new franchise holder is appointed. We have to tell the owners the truth,” he added.
Raj, who opined that Kia is a good brand and makes great cars, is confident that the franchise will take off in Malaysia once the interim period is over.
In the meantime, here are some actions that Kia owners can take, especially those whose cars are still under warranty:
- File the receipts and job order of the car’s scheduled servicing and warranty claims, if performed.
- Keep the servicing of your Kia car within the Kia dealer network to maintain the validity of the car’s warranty.
- If any of the Red Cube branches where you bought your Kia is permanently closed, opt for the same scheduled servicing for your car at other authorised Kia dealers.
- Even if you have to pay for what is a free service, proceed with it and keep the receipt for reimbursement purposes from whichever party is contractually obliged later on.
- If you have a faulty component that has been approved for a warranty claim in this interim period and your sales dealer can’t get it fixed within a reasonable timeframe, you may have to wait until the middle of the year for the new franchise holder to take over. Otherwise, you might want to expedite it and pay for the parts and labour done by the Kia dealer under protest, and claim reimbursement.
Yamin Vong has been a journalist for 40 years and has covered the Tokyo Show almost consecutively since the early 1980s, driven thousands of test cars and met numerous auto industry chiefs. Currently, he’s focussed on the motoring industry’s land transport issues. He blogs at MotorMouth.