KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 16): Vehicle sales in October 2016 dropped by 14.2% to 47,879 units from October 2015’s record of 55,788 units.

On a quarterly basis, vehicle sales contracted 0.6% (or 321 units lesser) from September 2016.

“[The decline] was attributed to consumers adopting a wait-and-see attitude pending announcement of the Budget 2017,” said the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) in a statement today.

Budget 2017, which was announced on Oct 21, provided a rebate of RM4,000 to buyers intending to purchase a Proton Iriz for ride-hailing purposes. Save for this, there was no major incentive for both the automotive industry and car buyers.

MAA said that from January till October 2016, the number of vehicles sold stood at 466,208 units, down 13.9% from 541,277 in the same period a year ago.

Vehicle production in October also suffered a drop of 4.8% to 53,084 units versus 55,783 units that were manufactured in October 2015.

Year-to-date, the national automotive industry manufactured a total of 440,049 vehicles. This was, however, 15.2% less than the 519,171 units produced in the first 10 months of 2015.

On the outlook for November, MAA expects sales volume to be “slightly better” than October on the continuation of aggressive sales and marketing campaigns by car companies.