GEORGE TOWN: The Federation of Motor and Credit Companies Association of Malaysia is revising its forecast of used-car sales for 2009 to a growth of about 7% from last year, due to better sales in the third quarter, from a 10% drop earlier.

In July, the federation had forecast a 10% fall in sales for the year because of poor sales in the first quarter.

Its president Datuk Tony Khor told StarBiz recently that the used-car industry had performed well in the third quarter with an improvement in sales of about 20%, compared with the corresponding period of 2008, and this was expected to influence the industry’ performance for the remainder of the year.

“The third quarter registered about 140,000 in sales of used cars nationwide.

“We are expecting the fourth quarter 2009 to perform as well as the third quarter.

“For the whole of 2009, the used-car industry in the country is expected to achieve about 480,000 in sales, compared with about 450,000 sold in 2008,” Khor said.

“The sales of 480,000 used cars translate to about RM14bil in revenue for the used-car industry, based on the average used-car price of about RM30,000 per unit,” he added.

Due to the global economic crisis, sales of used cars were affected starting in the third quarter of 2008.

“The drop in sales continued till the first quarter 2009,” he said, adding that there was a slight recovery in the second quarter of 2009.

The improved performance in the third quarter was mainly due to stable petrol price, according to Khor.

Khor also called on the Government not to discontinue the voluntary scrap scheme which was introduced earlier this year. The scheme allows car owners to turn in vehicles more than 10 years old for a RM5,000 discount to buy a new Proton or Perodua.

“I hope the Government will provide participants of the programme with a wider choice of car makes to buy,” he said.