Safety and comfort were also the other motivating reasons behind the government’s decision to replace its fleet of ageing Proton Perdanas with Toyota Vellfires as its official cars, said Minister of Finance Tengku Zafrul at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Zafrul was replying to a question by Bayan Baru’s Member of Parliament Sim Tze Tzin.

Zafrul also reiterated his earlier reply that the government can no longer extend its lease for the Proton Perdana because Proton no longer makes the model, and also that the leasing cost for the Toyota Vellfire is cheaper than for the Proton Perdana.

The Ministry of Finance has previously said that the monthly leasing cost for the Toyota Vellfire 2.5 is RM 4,851.61, versus RM4,854.41 for the Proton Perdana.

Also read: Support Malaysian products, so why is the Toyota Vellfire our gov's ‘official car’?

The Proton Perdana referred to here is the stretched limousine variant, which will certainly cost quite a bit more than the regular model, which was last sold for RM 113,888 for the 2.0L variant and RM 138,888 for the 2.4L variant.

The Toyota Vellfire 2.5L is currently selling at RM 367,881 but without tax, the Vellfire sells for RM 218,746 in Langkawi.

It should be noted that the leasing cost includes maintenance, insurance, and an agreed buyback value, and that the prices were not quoted by either by Proton or Toyota (or even local distributor UMW Toyota Motor), but by Spanco, who holds the monopoly to supply vehicles to the government.

Also, government-registered vehicles don’t pay taxes.

Also read: MoF said a Toyota Vellfire is cheaper than a Perdana. What?

“The cars used by members of the government administration has reached the end of their lease period and is due for replacement, which also needs to consider aspects of safety and comfort of the vehicles’ users, as well maintenance cost.

“Besides, maintenance cost is also increasing and the supply of spare parts is getting lesser because Proton no longer makes the Perdana.

“This affects the maintenance operations of the government’s vehicle fleet,” said Zafrul during yesterday at the Dewan Rakyat.