The Story of Porsche's Disastrous Launch in Indonesia.

"Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW." (aya-yu)
01/22/2015 at 20:45 • Filed to: Secret History

Porsche has been in Indonesia since very long time ago, dating back to the Porsche 356 days. But the majority of them is a grey import. Porsche once tried to launch their brand and opens a brand new assembling facility here in Indonesia. But it's just ended up as a dream. Here's the Story.

In 1996, Porsche was busy expanding, targeting Indonesia as their first foray to the untaped Southeast Asia market. Who knows they could sell a few of those Carreras and Boxters in here. But since Porsche was a small manufacture, they need a partner. They need somebody who knows how to market a car properly in Indonesia. And they ended up signing a deal with Indomobil in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and start selling Porsches in October 1997.

Indomobil was one of the biggest car seller in Indonesia. They had networks of dealers who sold many cars. They sold and sometimes build Mazda, Hino, Peugeot, Volvo, Renault, Suzuki, VW, and Audi for Indonesian market. So Porsche thinks they had a very good partner.

Porsche put a Indomobil lot of faith so much that they even set up a manufacturing to build a Comepletely Knocked-Down (CKD) Porsches for Southeast Asian market. This is because, as we know Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia has huge import taxes. But in Indonesia you get free import tax if you assembly the car here with at least 51% of the parts were made using Indonesian Contents. Also, to boost trades between Southeast Asia Countries, things that imported from the ASEAN member is free of import tax. So Porsche hopes they could sell the Carerras and Boxters for cheap in Southeast Asia if they build the Porsche, here.

And oh, they pick Indonesia because Indonesia is the biggest member of Southeast Asia, and ruled by a general that has been ruling the country for 30 years, so Porsche thinks Indonesia is a bit more stable than other Southeast asian countries. Plus we also has some experience building CKD JDM cars, compared to Malaysia or Thailand or Singapore at that time.

But there's a problem. First off, since despite Porsche has a manufacturing facility here in Indonesia, they still had to import the parts like body shell or engines. Therefore they get a 300% Import tax. So despite that, they had to priced the base model Carrera at 250,000 USD. In 1997.

The second problem was, that car. When Indonesian Goverment launch their very own car maker, Timor, which is essentially a rebadged Kia Sephia, every car makers gone mad. Because, despite it's still imported from south korea, it has no import tax so they could sell the Timor for less than 10 grand. And that makes everybody mad, including Porsche.

I mean, when Timor was launched in 1996, they literally launch the car from scratch. They had no factory, no dealership, no service center, nothing. Nobody bats an eye to them. Until the cars are finally hit the market and outrage everybody.

Let me put it this way. The Timor was so cheap that you could buy 4 Timors for less than 1 base model Toyota Corolla. A Timor is half of what you paying for a very basic Suzuki Carry with no A/C and radio. It was that cheap. The Japanese car manufaturer even goes as far as filing a lawsuit to WTO that they're not threaten as equally as the Timors, despite they're making cars i Indonesia and using local contents since 1970's.

But i think the final nail in the coffin was the Marvia.

Marvia is a small Indonesian kit-car manufacture that's founded by one of the Indomobil board member, Marvi Affandi. The problem is, when he had the tooling to made Porsche 911 body panels, he instead using it to build a Porsche 911 Kit Car based on a Mazda 323 Hatchback, and launch the car in September 1997 and sold also by Indomobil.

Porsche is really mad with Indomobil. They even goes as far as quit the enitre Indonesian Domestic Market. They remove all the signage from almost-launched Porsche Dealership accross the Country. They burn all the catalogue and cancel all the printed advertisement for the 911. They scrapped all the toolings and metals they originally wants to build the 911. They even nearly file a lawsuit to WTO, alongside Mazda who also mad by the fact Indomobil used a 323 parts for they own good. But this was settled out of the court, maybe with lots of monies and apologizing.

After that debacle, Porsche marketing in Indonesia were handled by PT Eurokars Companies, which is an official dealer networks for BMW and Rolls-Royce in Indonesia and finally sold a proper german-made car since 2004.

DISCUSSION (13)

Conan > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW.
01/22/2015 at 20:50

I love wild automotive cultural history stories. Nice read! -some history teacher

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > Conan
01/22/2015 at 21:12

Thank you!

Indonesia has one hell of weird car culture. If you want you can name any car manufacture and i'm pretty sure i could write a pretty wild story to read.

Justin Young > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW.
01/22/2015 at 21:32

Wow. That's a crazy story, Aya!

Now, will you excuse me, I'm looking for stories like these in the Philippines. ;)

ranwhenparked > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW.
01/22/2015 at 21:37

Wait, so the Marvia was actually produced using real Porsche 911 tooling? That's beating even the Chinese at the counterfeiting game!

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > Justin Young
01/22/2015 at 21:42

Yes you should.

Here's a starting point:

In 1997 ford almost opens a manufacturing plant in Indonesia, but thanks to Timor they move the plant to Philippines. Why?

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > ranwhenparked
01/22/2015 at 21:49

Yep, except with fibreglass instead of metal.

For extra few thousand bucks they even would fit an actual dashboard and gauges and steering wheel from a 911. Although i have to say the shape is a bit odd since it was adapted to fit in a much shorter mazda 323 hatchback.

They also made Shelby Cobra, Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, and Jaguar XK120 replica. But Marvia 911 is their top of the line product.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW.
01/23/2015 at 00:30

I bet one of those catalogs would make a crazy keepsake for some Porsche collector. Like a Bears program worth $10k

Kinja'd!!!

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
01/23/2015 at 00:54

It was. In fact, i'm looking to visit a local library to see if they still had old newspapers from the 96-97.

A friend of mine from local Porsche club says that at January 1997 Porsche put a huge ads in lots of papers.

But i think the one that worth more is the fully assembled Porsche from Indonesian Porsche manufacturing facility. Some rumours suggest that there's actually 2 porsche 911 carrera assembled in here, although it's ends up in South Africa. I'm also researching on that matter right now.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW.
01/23/2015 at 01:12

2? That would be insanely rare.

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
01/23/2015 at 01:22

Yeah. The story was, Indonesia, like any other coutries has a Car Show, Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS), held every September.

At IIMS 1997, porsche brought along 2 CKD porsches as a show car, since they're busy setting up the dealership. And Indomobil pulling the troll of the century by showing off the Marvia.

I remember going to the show and saw the porsches. The doors are locked, unlike any other cars, and you actually could compare between the Marvia and the Porsche. Marvia ended up getting 50 orders for it's 911, and Porsche, so mad at Indomobil, refuse to take any orders. They even removed the Porsche logo from the Indomobil stand.

micklich£michael > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW.
01/23/2015 at 19:04

was this translated from chinese!

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > micklich£michael
01/24/2015 at 09:47

No it isn't. I don't even understand chinese.

I do understand japanese though.

thefactory > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW.
12/04/2015 at 14:04

hi, i have been reading your post regarding Indonesia’s replica car. and i enjoyed doing so.

previously i had two of this porsche marvia. but i let go one of them and keeping the best one instead. The one with original interiors. and its numbered 33.

now i am building a mitsubishi pawma. another Indonesian car that went into paris motorshow if im not mistaken. i havent seen you writing any articles about this car. i would love to see your articles about this car.

since i see a lot of interest from you about these car, i am open if you would like to share a cup of coffee or tea while we are discussing about these cars.

just give me a note on my email : brunobella@yahoo.com. hope we can meet in person someday.