Kia Sales Malaysia (KSM), the Korean brand’s new principal-led national sales company, held a splashy launch on Wednesday, during which it revealed its plan to “Be Unstill” and combat the stagnation of its local presence. Its managing director, ex-Omoda & Jaecoo Malaysia vice president and Mercedes-Benz Malaysia (MBM) veteran Emily Lek, is under no illusions about how much of an uphill task this is, given the customer sentiment on the ground.
Aside from the steady rise of car prices and the sluggish new model introductions by past distributors, the Kia brand has also been beset by perceptions of high maintenance costs and parts prices and low resale values, which have caused buyers to retreat to familiar Japanese rivals. The recent onslaught of Chinese makes – led, ironically, by Omoda & Jaecoo – hasn’t helped.
Speaking to us immediately after the launch, Lek said that at the end of the day, resale values are rooted in supply and demand – if the latter falls, so do used car prices. She added that the influx of Chinese competitors, with their attractive prices and technologies, have disrupted resale values not just for Kia, but even “very strong marques.”
Hence, it’s no longer enough to simply enter as the principal and offer competitive products. Lek contends that Kia needs to stand out by improving its aftersales services, laying down a strong foundation on top of which customers can buy its cars without worrying about what’s next.
“Our journey is really to look at every single customer touchpoint, how we can make it better. Can I guarantee that tomorrow your [car’s] secondhand value will suddenly go up after [this launch] that we threw? No, that’s not going to happen. How it’s going to happen is, basically, by strengthening the foundation, and that starts with our leadership,” she said.
Answering our query regarding maintenance costs, Lek said that this is something the team is looking into, along with the full range of sales and aftersales services KSM will offer. She added that customers are meant to enjoy the car; it’s meant to bring them wherever they want to go, as Kia’s global tagline ‘Movement that Inspires’ suggests, not to “stay in the workshop for long periods of time.”
“What does the customer get when they purchase the car, and as what you said, the total cost of ownership, we are looking into that. Everything we’re looking into, at the end of the day, is to make the customer happy when they buy a Kia, and the simple answer to ‘Kenapa beli Kia?’ [should be] ‘It’s a good car, good service, I’m very happy; I can actually drive out of the showroom without worrying about anything,'” Lek said, referring to KSM’s new marketing strategy of “Why Kia?”
Lek did not provide any details on how KSM plans to achieve all that, but it is notable that the company has hired three people to individually head up sales, aftersales and the wider dealer network, these being Victor Chan, Rafhan Saiah and Phang Chee Wei respectively. All three have had stints in companies such as MBM and Perodua, so they do have experience working with brands with historically strong resale values.
The strong focus on aftersales support is in service of KSM’s goal of sustainable growth. As president and CEO Hyung Ho Kim put it, “Our target is to grow at a sustainable pace for the long term. For us, it’s not so much about being the fastest growing brand; rather, it’s more about being a brand that cares about our customers, our dealers and the Malaysian automotive segment.”
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Too late. Korea cars have been replaced by China cars as alternatives to Japan cars.
As long as Hyunkia use the european Bosch/Siemens ECU, it will forever be a ‘kajiao’ car. This is one of the reason no one wants to buy these used. Always kacau with sensor problems, ECU rosak want to clone also need to find specialist and pay $$$…
Seriously, car ECU should be something tank-like indestructible.
Not surprisinglah, they imported a former VAG employee as their chief designer, what else would happen. The resemblance in HVAC and centre console design between these marques from that era gives it away.
Do you know that most car manufacturers uses Bosch/Siemens ECU as they are the global supplier player ? Go ask toyota what ecu they uses ?
Hire blackpink as ambassador..sales will shoot up in no time
Should have been earlier, now if Kia wants to continue with premium pricing. Confirmed same situation as b4, more maybe worse than that.
Yeah so far hearing right things here.Aftersales part is one of the most important part,VAG and BMW car parts is way more cheaper and easier to source than a KIA/Hyundai.Example,aircond compressor for 10k is a joke and not acceptable for mass market car..And for vag car u can even use obdeleven to mod,diagnose and do some simple reset of sensors and tweaking..They are more friendly and pro right to repair..
Easy, just have a big parts warehouse here lower your prices for spare parts then only your brand RV will go up because it’s now cheaper to maintain your vehicle.
Good car and awesome design but bad after sales services and high spare parts prices already kill the brand in MY
Kia is a reliable brand. I bought an imported Kia Forte SX 1.6 back in 2009 for 83K. It did give me many years of driving pleasures. It’s among the first few models to offer push-start button n auto dimming rear view mirror. Over the years, it didn’t encounter any serious mechanical problems and as far as I could remember, the total cost of changing faulty parts was less than 2K. But the resale value sucked. When I traded in for my next car in 2018,the most I could get was 15K.
If that considered low RV with 9 years used, you should look for P2.
Hope Kia does not suffer the problems that plague it’s parent company Hyundai like such as
1)ICCU kong
2)needing a specialize 2000 USD diagnostic tool to release the brake to change a simple brake pad. Normal workshop need special software just to change a brake pad
3) super expensive repair to ioniq 5 due to a water bottle in the back seats leaking
4) ioniq 5 have to be total loss due to minor damage
Must be easy to repair like it’s japanese rivals.
to be fair, many other brands also use their own special OBD tool which costs thousands of ringgit a piece
I used to drive a Forte 2.0 Cbu loved it.. switched to a CLA.. this Why Kia is weak, not good enough. The brand has lost almost all value over years it needs an aggressive switch up full blast. Why Kia when no one knows the answer. They make great cars but no brand recognition here. Fight, fight properly. This is too weak
I bought a Naza Citra SE in 2.0 at 60k in 2011 and within 6 months I planned to trade the car back for the Citra Rondo selling at 85k.
When I asked the same salesman whom I bought the car from, he politely say the max trade in value he could take in was 18k. Because that’s what the used car dealer said so.
I was like.. WOW even your own salesman have no respect for the cars you sold and earned comission of. Imagine 66% value gone in less than 6 months.
If you want your cars to have good resale value, you must start with your own self!!
Perhaps, your own used car division?
After all that’s what some brands like Proton (EON Automart, way back before Mitsubishi), Toyota (Top Mark) and BMW were doing (Premium Selection). If not mistaken, Volvo and Merc also have that as well to tackle the same issue.
I love kia. Now isuing 8 year old Kia picanto. I want to add one more kia. Waiting Emily lek bring in k5 . We want kia
I see no point to buy a Kia. It is priced the same as equivalent Japanese models but is less reliable, has heavier fuel consumption and much lower resale value. Kia need to bring down their premium pricing to lower than Japanese cars. Otherwise no amount of marketing is going to work.
Kia, if someone from Omada and worse, MB, is the only person you can find to head your sales. good luck. talks tough, zero execution. RIP.
how ironic because historically mercedes and more recently omoda have been doing rather well in malaysian market