ACE 2021 – 561 cars worth RM80.5m sold in two days! - Latest Car News, Bike news & Reviews, Auto News

The inaugural paultan.org Auto Car Expo (ACE) 2021, co-sponsored by Carsome, happened last weekend and it was a successful two days of car buying and selling at the Setia City Convention Centre (SCCC).

We reported on Saturday noon that 70 cars were sold in the first few hours of the show, and from there the momentum continued all the way till Sunday evening. The final tally is 561 cars worth approximately RM80.5 million sold over two days. Of that total, 536 units were brand new cars and 25 were pre-owned cars. Each one were paid bookings, mind you, not mere registration of interests.

Most buyers made their way to SCCC to check out the deals for themselves in person, as well as to test drive and compare between rivals, all under one roof. We also opened the show to everyone who could not make it to Setia Alam with an online booking function, matching buyers with sales advisors who were stationed at ACE, and 20 of you purchased a car through WhatsApp online booking.

With 561 cars sold, we’ve broke our personal record from the paultan.org Premium Auto Car Expo (PACE) 2019, where 399 premium vehicles worth over RM91.5 million were sold. The inaugural PACE 2018 show saw 214 cars worth over RM50 million sold. PACE and ACE 2020 did not happen in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and movement control orders.

The brands that moved the most metal at ACE were Mazda (84 units), Toyota (72), Honda (70), Proton (66) and Volkswagen (64). The best-selling models at the show were the Ford Ranger (46 units, including a surprising 16 units of the Ranger Raptor), Volkswagen Tiguan (37), Proton X50 (30), Toyota Yaris (28), BMW 3 Series (27), Mazda CX-5 (26) and the Honda City (25).

A total of 819 test drives were registered. From experience, we know that with the “seed already planted” many purchases happen at showrooms after the show.

As we’re now in the new normal, strict SOPs were in place throughout the weekend. Besides basic measures like MySejahtera/temperature scanning and hand sanitisers placed around the venue, cars and touch points were frequently sanitised, and all customer-facing personnel were required to wear face shields in addition to face masks, which all visitors had to wear.

We also limited the crowd to no more than 650 people in the event hall at any one time. This is significantly lower than the allowed 1,700 people in the hall as per government SOPs.

In addition, crew were on hand to remind visitors on social distancing. We also had to turn away children below 12 and senior citizens above 60 – for this, we apologise for the inconvenience. In total, 11,000 people passed through ACE 2021’s doors over the weekend.

It was a fruitful weekend for all of us at paultan.org and Driven, and we’re glad to see visitors enjoying themselves checking out the latest models, comparing them with rivals and taking test drives. All under one roof, without having to travel from showroom to showroom. Many had the intention to take advantage of the last call for sales tax exemption savings, but there were some walk-ins as well.

By the way, all marketing and promotions for ACE 2021 were done solely on paultan.org and our social media, which means that the visitors and buyers are followers of this website. It’s anecdotal, but from what we heard from the exhibitors, many of you who visited ACE know your cars well, and knew exactly what you were looking for as well. Well, we’re not surprised!

We would like to thank all ACE 2021 visitors for the support, as well as Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Proton, Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW, Lexus and MINI for participating. A big shout out to co-sponsors Carsome and sponsors BHPetrol, V-Kool, Blueair, DK Schweizer, Dodo, Recaro and Touch n’ Go – thank you.

It’s a proven formula with a track record now, so you’ll be seeing more ACE and PACE shows from us. Stay tuned!