PERODUA REMAINS IN POLE POSITION

The 2009 volume was the second highest in Perodua's history. The best year was 2008 when it sold 176,400 units for a 30.5 per cent share of the market.

Perodua's new managing director Aminar Rashid Salleh said 2010 could be another record-breaking year for the company.

"We are targeting more than 176,000 units in 2010 driven by the new Alza as well as the ever popular Myvi and Viva," he said at a media luncheon in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Aminar Rashid, who was in his 19th day in office, said Perodua performed "considerably well" last year, with a 0.4 per cent drop in sales despite the global economic downturn.

The overall market, meanwhile, contracted by 2 per cent, according to the Malaysian Automotive Association data released yesterday.

Perodua has so far received 18,000 bookings for the Alza since its launch on November 23 last year, with a three-month waiting list.

Sales of the Myvi breached 90,000 units in 2009, while the Viva volume was about 60,000 units.

Meanwhile, national carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd also saw its market share grow to 27.6 per cent last year from 25.9 per cent in 2008, after selling 148,031 units.

Toyota had the third highest sales volume at 81,785 units, down from 101,627 units in the previous year.

Honda was next with 38,783 units, up from 32,477 units previously. This enabled it to increase its market share to 7.2 per cent from 5.9 per cent.

Nissan was the fifth highest with a volume of 31,493 units, up from 30,644 units. Its share of the market rose to 5.9 per cent from 5.6 per cent before.

Rounding up the top 10 brands were Naza, Mitsubishi, Inokom, Isuzu and Suzuki.-BUSINESS TIME