About Those ‘defecting’ Honda Dealers
In order to clear public confusion over the issue of Honda dealers alleged to be ‘defecting’ to Oriental-Hyundai to sell Hyundais, DRB-Oriental-Honda (DOH) and Kah Motors (KM) have jointly issued a statement which explains that some KM outlets will, from this Thursday, be selling Hyundais.
This development is not the result of the outlets switching suddenly but these outlets were not included when DOH signed new distributorship agreements with Honda dealers on July 2nd 2001. Only 12 existing KM branches signed the agreement to be official Honda dealers at that time.
The remaining KM branches which did not sign the agreement will become branches of Kah Bintang Sdn Bhd, which is the new company retailing Hyundai vehicles. Kah Bintang is a unit of the Oriental-Hyundai which is the distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Malaysia. It will officially launch the new Hyundai Elantra on Thursday, August 23rd 2001.
The KM branches which will become Kah Bintang outlets are located at Jalan Ipoh (Kuala Lumpur), Jalan 223 and Subang Jaya (Petaling Jaya, Selangor), Sunny Point (Penang) and Johor Bahru.
Commenting on the dealership network it has established, M. Takano, General Manager of Sales & Distribution at DOH said that it actually has more dealers than what would be required, given the present sales volume.
“Compared to the period before the economic downturn, the number of Honda vehicles sold today by each dealer is about half the number,” he told AUTOWORLD.COM.MY at the time the dealership agreements were signed. “Nevertheless, we assure our valued customers that the quality of services at our 34 showrooms and 41 authorised service dealers nationwide will remain of a high standard, as we have a “Customer Driven” philosophy of ensuring quality after-sales services.”
