Ford survey shows Malaysians mostly want one thing in a new car

Ford recently did an interesting survey which concluded in June 2016 which asked the big question – what do buyers want in a car? The survey covered 9,509 drivers across 11 markets in the Asia Pacific region that include Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Out of the total sample, 786 Malaysians took part in the survey.

Source: Ford

Of the Malaysians who took part, 83% said that fuel efficiency was more important than power when buying a new car. This is oddly contrasted by an emphasis on performance. 68% of respondents considered performance as a factor when buying a car.

87% of respondents from Malaysia cited the need to save money while 63% expressed an interest in being environmentally friendly. 60% said that they were concerned about high fuel prices. Interestingly enough, 38% out of the Malaysians interviewed said that they owned a powerful car but regretted not purchasing a more fuel-efficient ride.

To save as much as possible, Ford’s survey discovered that Malaysians already had tactics to save cash when filling up at gas stations. 55% visited gas stations where they would get points for filling up while 31% waited for lower fuel prices before refuelling. About 20% endeavoured to use a discount coupon whenever possible. Other fun factoids out of the survey are:

-More than 47% will change their driving habits to save on fuel
-36% are aiming to drive less over the course of the year
-68% said that they don’t trust fuel prices to remain stable over the next year
-37% would invest more money when buying a new car to get a more efficient engine to save on fuel costs
-52% plan on buying a car with a more fuel efficient engine
-39% plan on buying a hybrid or electric vehicle
-21% plan to downsize to a smaller vehicle

This keen need for power and efficiency was why Ford came up with their EcoBoost line-up of engines that are currently seeing service in the Ford Fiesta, Fiesta ST, Focus, S-MAX, Mondeo, Kuga and Mustang for the Malaysia market. The EcoBoost engines integrate a host of efficient tweaks and tech to offer significant fuel efficiency gains and reduction in CO2 emissions without compromising on performance which serendipitously addresses the majority of the concerns of Malaysian drivers. To date, Ford makes over 100,000 EcoBoost engines a month with their 2,000,000th engine produced in September 2013 at their Louisville assembly plant in the US. For more about Ford and their range of vehicles swing by their official site here.