YOURSAY 'In developed countries with efficient public transport, most car owners travel to work in the cities using public transport.'

BN, Pakatan spar over car prices

Ksn: Yes, while lowering car prices by the abolition of duties is welcomed for many reasons, the most important, primary focus must be on making public transport efficient, reliable to travel to work and back within a reasonable time and at a very reasonable cost.

Most, if not all, will gain from that, while nobody loses. That facility should be for the whole country.

Retard: Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua seems well-versed with the issue of high car prices, while Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan is shooting from the hip and making general assumptions.

Accusations like "if you close a hole here, then another hole will open up" and "there are many people using buses and LRT, this means many people in Klang Valley still do not have a vehicle" are ridiculous.

Wira: Normally, it's the government who argues with figures and the opposition who articulates with desires and fantasies.

In this BN versus Pakatan Rakyat debate, we have a complete reversal where an opposition member came out with the figures and the government member kept talking about his anxieties.

I think it's time we send Kota Belud and his gang to the opposition bench.

Quigonbond: I believe Pakatan has previously explained that every family has more than one car because the people need them, and not because they have frivolous spending habits. This means the volume of cars in Kuala Lumpur will not go up dramatically.

On the contrary, instead of getting a lousy cheaper car prone to break down and needing regular maintenance, the same person can now get a better car at the same price, with greater safety features, longer warranty periods, etc.

The second-hand car market will slump at first, but I believe someone from the car dealers' association has also confirmed that it will be short term.

Really, there is no downside to this, except to Umnoputras sitting on their APs making easy money and flaunting their wealth driving Cayennes or Brabus.

ADJ: In the long term, it would be nice to move towards a society that does not emphasise on car ownership.

Gen-Y consumers in Japan are like that, it's not cool to own a car. Public transport and less conventional lifestyles (working from home, etc) will gradually move us into that direction.

Of course, this cannot be applicable to the majority of the population, but it would be nice to have a scenario where owning a car is a necessity only for certain users, not the majority.

Rakyat Malaysia: Lame excuses from BN as usual. Other countries have cheaper car prices than us and there are also people who own cars taking public transport.

We have bad public transportation. Improve on it to the level of Singapore, Japan and Korea.

Use the money from high car taxes to increase public transport services so that fewer cars will be on the road and hence more lanes for public buses and fewer people will choose to drive, or perhaps leave their car at home and only use it for outstation trips.

People get to work faster. Less stress results in a more productive life. They will also spend more hours at home rather than four hours on the road getting stuck in traffic jams.

Spinnot: In developed countries with efficient public transport, most car owners travel to work in the cities using public transport.

N H Gong: The government can easily provide free bus services in the populated centres. For example, Seberang Perai-Bayan Lepas has free bus service for factory workers (and others too, if they could), courtesy of the Penang state government.

Righteous: Aren't most new cars much more fuel-efficient? And aren't a lot of new cars either hybrid or electric?

So if more new cars are on the road versus old cars, as a nation we would become more fuel-efficient. In fact in the United States, they are seeing a fall in oil use because of this.

Malaysia should be moving away from relying on fossil fuels and yet I read more power plants are being built at massive cost that will drive up our power bills.

Why aren't we spending that money on free solar, wind, water and other forms of clean energy for our country. The air quality has been horrible here for a long time and it's not getting any better.

Oscar Kilo: We want less government manipulation of the market. Regulate but don't manipulate for Umno's benefit. We want market prices for cars and petrol.

Give us cheaper cars and more expensive petrol. Let us decide how and when we want to drive.

f I had a choice, I would take public transport to downtown Kuala Lumpur where my office is.

The problem is that I have little choice, given the unreliable buses and no car park space at park-and-ride LRT stations.

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