Settling in - Furnishing a unit from scratch and purchasing a vehicle

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Hello Everybody,

First of all I would like to thank Scott for this forum.  It is very informative and the members seem friendly. 

Now that we have our MM2H visa, we are now looking forward to furnishing the unit we purchased off-plan in Wangsa Maju:  we need absolutely EVERYTHING as the unit is completely empty except for a sink that needs to be replaced !

1.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to the shops you can recommend (and also which should be left aside...).  We were thinking of Signature Kitchen for the kitchen and Harvey Normans for the rest.  Does anyone have any comments, suggestions?

2.  How about after-sales services for kitchen appliances:  I was thinking of Bosch but have been told they are not yet efficient as concerns after-sales ?  Does anyone have any experience?  Any other brands anyone can suggest ?

3.  We will also need to purchase a vehicle.  Here again, does anyone have any suggestions.  All I know is that the duties are extremely high and we should take advantage of the MM2H duty free purchase scheme.  Since we will be located in KL, I was thinking of purchasing a vehicle from one of the diplomats at the Missions.  Has anyone done that?

We would welcome any ideas, suggestions if we have forgotten for furnishing a bare unit and purchasing a vehicle.

Thanks to everyone.

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Hi Sabina,

This is a major undertaking. I suggest you use an interior designer. We did this when we bought a new apartment in Penang and it certainly was worthwhile. Our designer did not charge a fee, but presumably earned commission on purchases etc. In our case the designer inspected the apartment before we had even moved to Malaysia and sent proposals and plans to us by email. Once here we agreed on the terms and the work took about two months.

Regarding kitchen appliances, all of ours were bought by the designer apart from small electric items which we bought ourselves. They are local or Asian (Korean or Japanese) makes. I presume that European makes are more expensive and not so common.

The forum has plenty of information about car buying. We did not use the tax free provision of MM2H, but instead bought a cheap second hand car for RM 20K. We have just traded it in for a new Hyundai I10 which is also fairly cheap as there are good discounts available.

Best wishes,

Alistair

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Hi Sabina, there's a whole section on Cars and Documentation here http://www.my2home.info/index.php/board,14.0.html  There are varying opinions (as always on here) as to whether the tax-free benefit is a good idea or not.  But try tagging on to one of the threads on there or start your own thread re car purchase.

We bought off plan too and, like Alistair, got an Interior Designer to sort things out.  You probably need to get a few recommendations from folks around KL.

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I would like to add  --  If you have the opportunity / ability to have a good local friend phone around to negotiate prices for you,   once you have a short list of options,    this would be a good way of avoiding mark ups in price due to 'skin tax'.     The friend could deal direct on your behalf or at least give you a better idea of the final and best price you should be looking for when negotiating on your own.

Skin Tax makes my eyes do this 

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Hello Alistain,

Many thanks for your reply.  I shall give it some thought and maybe even plan a trip.

Regards.

Sabina