KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27— A DAP leader used increasing sales in the luxury car segment to claim that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s policies only favoured rich Malaysians.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming said that the country’s economic growth often cited by the government was not reflected in the reality of most Malaysians, especially the Bottom 40 percentile who may not be able to afford cars.

"Passenger car sales in Malaysia has dropped from 576,657 units in 2013 to 514,769 units in 2018, a decrease of 61,978 units or 10 per cent. This took place in a backdrop of what is supposedly a healthy and growing economy.

"Perodua, now the largest car seller in Malaysia, managed to buck this trend by increasing its sales slightly, from 196,071 units in 2013 to 204,887 units in 2017, an increase of 4.5 per cent. What surprised me was the finding that despite overall car sales taking a big hit, the sale of Mercedes’ and BMWs increased significantly during this period,” Ong said in a statement.

Citing data from the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA), Ong said that sales of Mercedes Benz cars rose by a 122.9 per cent, from 5,413 units in 2014, to 12,067 units in 2017.

Other premium brands such as Volvo and BMW also enjoyed brisk sales, with BMW selling 7,057 units in 2013 to 10,618 last year, while Volvo sold 1,021 cars in 2017.

Ong said that based on his calculation of sales of non-luxury foreign cars, manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Kia and Subaru, often touted as the more affordable foreign car range, also took a hit in sales.

"The foreign non-luxury car makers experienced a slight decline in car sales, from 222,766 units in 2013 to 211,843 units in 2017, a drop of 4.9 per cent, but the foreign luxury car makers increased their overall sales from 19,067 units in 2013 to 26,958 units in 2017, an increase of 41.4 per cent!” he added.

Ong said that BN cannot argue that there were fewer people buying cars during the said period, as the trend was already showing even before the opening of the MRT Line 1 in July last year.

"These trends were in place even before the opening of the MRT Line 1 in July 2017 so it is difficult for BN to argue that fewer people are buying cars because they are using public transportation (which is not that cheap in Malaysia either!).

"These figures reveal what the person on the street is feeling. The economy is getting bigger but it is the rich who are mostly benefiting leaving the rest of us having to struggle with increases in the cost of living,” Ong added.