Malaysia - The new mecca of high end detailing?

[David Fermani]

Seems like more and more great stuff is coming from this interesting country. Stuff that is mind blowing to say the least. The shops, the detailers and the cars!! Malaysians chime in......

 

[seech]

Hahaha.... Must be due to my buddy KC's efforts!!!

 

[MarcHarris]

With booming populations and economies, I have no doubt we'll see more and more outstanding and awesome work / facilities from Asia. What I've seen so far has already been great.

 

[WAS]

Hahaha.... Must be due to my buddy KC's efforts!!!

KC does some very amazing work. Definitely one of my favorite detailers.



I do agree, Malaysia is a very quickly growing economy, and with that comes the desire for nicer personal possessions, such as vehicles. When that happens, all the facilities and business surrounding those industries get to grow as well (ex: tuner shops, wheel shops, detailing shops).

 

[gigondaz]

In the Asian region, when it comes to the speed in embracing new approaches/innovations, it's usually and generally Taiwan and Hong Kong that lead the pack.



Their car magazines (Chinese) are loaded with adverts/writeups on the latest high-tech Japanese offerings, and enterprising individuals in Taiwan and HK adopt these innovative Jap products, becoming agents/dealers. Then, the Taiwan and HK car-related websites (also Chinese) start featuring these Jap products.



Singaporeans and Malaysians (most are Chinese) peruse these Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Japanese websites and magazines, and eventually embrace the high-tech Japanese products. These new products (mostly coatings) are given a captivating marketing story, and serves as excellent innovative platforms to offer novel products to car enthusiasts at a high price.

 

[KrisMas]

Seems like more and more great stuff is coming from this interesting country. Stuff that is mind blowing to say the least. The shops, the detailers and the cars!! Malaysians chime in......

I don't know about the shops/detailing products here as there are not even half of the the products I'm reading in this forum are available in Malaysia.



But detailer and facility wise....well...we do have one person that is highly respected and very well known around here (not to mention quite a low profile person)....mcdude



And about the cars....yeah...there's been quite an influx of imported high end cars recently, maybe it's got something to do with the new AFTA regulations - the market is now more open for car imports.



But, other than that, we are still some way behind as compared to you guys :drool: and the awareness about detailing is still mediocre to say the least.



One thing for sure, about the 'coatings', thanks to the Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese (not to mention the scorching sun and high humidity all year around), we've got quite a few types of coatings available here that would rival (if not better) those that's been mentioned here in this forum. And just to give a rough idea how harsh the weather here, I've personally tested Colly 476S and it can only last 2 weeks at most on my DD before the beading starts to wear down.



Regards.

 

[David Fermani]

mcdude is for sure one of the big dogs in Malaysia. His shop is top notch and worthy of bragging about.



I wasn't aware that there was a shortage, or should I say a limited amount of mainstream high end products there? I wonder why this is the case?

 

[KrisMas]

Two words....SHIPPING & TAX. People like me, normal weekender/hobbyist/enthusiast can afford the shipping, but for retailers/suppliers they also need to factor in the tax for bulk purchases and it can reach up to 35% of the purchased price. Imagine paying around $150 for a gallon of M105, and that's how much its retailed here.



This is just from my personal observations and *very* limited experience, being a non-pro weekender/enthusiast. A few of what I understand to be the mainstream high end products that are available here are Meguiars (of course), Sonax (limited line), Optimum, Mothers, Duragloss, 3M , Menzerna and....errr...that's about it....oh...and some limited line from Swissvax and Dodo Juice.



For the general consumer with a very low 'true detailing' awareness - those that don't even know the difference between a wax and a polish, the above are no match (in term of price) against the established names here like Turtle Wax, Soft99, etc. which are way cheaper and more commonly available OTC. So I guess the market/sale volume is not there and it'll take a lot of investment to bring in and market a 'new' product line.



So, it's not really a mecca for people like us weekender/hobbyist, but for those very very few who ware able to 'connect' with the right people, charge the right price whilst maintaining a high quality details/job, I would agree with you about being the mecca for detailers as the number of high end cars on the road here are really on the rise.

 

[KC@detailien]

mcdude is for sure one of the big dogs in Malaysia. His shop is top notch and worthy of bragging about.



I wasn't aware that there was a shortage, or should I say a limited amount of mainstream high end products there? I wonder why this is the case?

Yupp....but there is no shortage of detailing supplies here -we have almost everything generally - froms Megs, Optimum, Swissvax, Mothers, Autoglym, Zaino, ...many many more



but there is only one shortage - train person to handle the job - the favourite thing here is to hire foreign workers with long hours of labours & leaving the cars to the untrained hands to do the job.



But with internet things are moving fast & generally most Malaysia would know the necessity of taking good cares of their rides but always ended in the wrong hands again

In the Asian region, when it comes to the speed in embracing new approaches/innovations, it's usually and generally Taiwan and Hong Kong that lead the pack.



Their car magazines (Chinese) are loaded with adverts/writeups on the latest high-tech Japanese offerings, and enterprising individuals in Taiwan and HK adopt these innovative Jap products, becoming agents/dealers. Then, the Taiwan and HK car-related websites (also Chinese) start featuring these Jap products.



Singaporeans and Malaysians (most are Chinese) peruse these Taiwanese, Hong Kong and Japanese websites and magazines, and eventually embrace the high-tech Japanese products. These new products (mostly coatings) are given a captivating marketing story, and serves as excellent innovative platforms to offer novel products to car enthusiasts at a high price.

Nope - although generally advertiser would promote their high end & expensive details



but on the other hands we have been bringing awareness to the general public by educating them - infact last 2 months we got our basic car care article publish in Cars magazines - and we have conducted over 1/2 a dozen of hands on clinics & open detailing seminar - some of them even held in shopping complexes



Car detailer: Our 1st detailing article published in malaysia

KC does some very amazing work. Definitely one of my favorite detailers.



I do agree, Malaysia is a very quickly growing economy, and with that comes the desire for nicer personal possessions, such as vehicles. When that happens, all the facilities and business surrounding those industries get to grow as well (ex: tuner shops, wheel shops, detailing shops).

Thanks buddy - for yr kinds words - i am only doing my bit to this greater awareness campaign....My desire is to see more owners rising up & taking ownership of their ride, esp Malaysian - not leaving their ride to be thrashed by road side detailer:scared: