6 Reasons Why Being A Petrolhead in Indonesia SUCKS #blogpost
I’m currently spending holidays in my hometown (for those of you who don’t know, I’m from Indonesia and I live and work in California) and I really like it here as a normal human being.
I’m currently spending holidays in my hometown (for those of you who don’t know, I’m from Indonesia and I live and work in California) and I really like it here as a normal human being. You have lots of destinations (Sumatra and Jogjakarta are one of the best ones, Bali is a bit dirty for me), (local) foods are absolutely cheap (you can buy porridge for less than 1 USD), and many, many things. But, as a car enthusiast, Indonesia is probably not where you want to be. And here are some of the reasons why.
1. Traffic
Oh boy. Yep. Traffics are not a big problem in other cities in Indonesia, only Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya have the biggest ones. So why not stay away from Bandung, Jakarta, and Surabaya? Well, that’s gonna be a #3 topic. On the #1 topic, traffic jams are huge here. I want to tell you a story first. Okay, so, my house is in South Jakarta and I want to visit a friend in East Jakarta. We (Me and my brother) set off in his BMW M3 F80 (a unicorn in Indonesia) at around 10 AM. It was December 24th, one day before I went to Pangkal Pinang (a place that you should visit). We went to PIM (Pondok Indah Mall) for lunch and from PIM, we went to the highway entrance in front of an Infiniti dealership and then we saw the traffic. It was….no one’s moving, no one. We decided to go through Pasar Minggu and then Kampung Rambutan and then straight to his place. Well, we encountered traffic jams everywhere we went (FYI, it was around 1 PM). We finally arrived at Pasar Minggu around 4 PM. Remember, we went from PIM (which is in South Jakarta) to Pasar Minggu (East Jakarta-ish) in about 3 hours. We were stuck in traffic. And then at 7 PM, we’re still in Pasar Minggu. I KNOW RIGHT! After that, we decided to call it a day and went home (which took another 3 hours).
2. Variety of cars
Well, unlike in Korea where everything is black and/or white, in Indonesia, we still have colorful cars (Red is the most common non-B/W color), but the variety of the cars is..a bit dull and soul-less, shall we say. Toyota Avanza and Daihatsu Xenias are everywhere. If in America, most BMW drivers are #1 ass holes on the road, in Indonesia, most Avanza/Xenia owners are the #1 ass holes. There’s a good news: Prius in Indonesia is as rare as Lamborghini Reventons worldwide. You can’t go 1 km in Jakarta without spotting at least 30 Avanza/Xenias. Look at the picture above. That Avanza picture is photobombed by another Avanza (the black one).
3. Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya are the only places for car enthusiasts
As I said in #1, Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya are full of traffic but you have to stay there. Why? Because those 3 places are the only places where you’ll find proper enthusiast community. You can go for some traffic-free culinary adventure in Berastagi, Medan, North Sumatra but you don’t find any car enthusiast community there.You’ll find M Owners Club Indonesia in Jakarta, but you’ll be stuck in traffic. In Bandung, there are good amount of car communities (mostly German cars) and some supercars too. I took a ride in an LP570-4 Superleggera there.
4. Fuel prices
The fuel price for RON 92 here is $3.04/US gallon. That’s…quite a lot.
5. Used car prices
In the US, you can easily get an E92 BMW M3 for about $35,000. Here? You must be very lucky if you manage to get one for $90k. That red BMW M3 is currently for sale. The asking price? $108,420. $108 grand, yes, you heard me. YES! $108k!!!! You can get a CTS-V and a 360 Modena in the US for that kind of money!
6. Imports
Importing a new car is easy but expensive as fck. Importing a used car is hard and more expensive as fck (as far as I know). Hey, LHD cars are illegal here unless they’re over 30 years old (as far as I know). I once saw a 2011-ish Shelby GT500 in PIM and I was confused to death on how the f*ck did the owner managed to get one here. Yes, it’s LHD. A lot of laws and import taxes are blocking us from importing some used cars.
Well, I hope you enjoy my #blogpost, everyone!
Salam kenal untuk CTzen dari Indonesia!
Comments
This is too accurate, great observation! Tapi lo ketinggalan mobil negara kita, Kijang Innova haha!
Malaysia is worse? I saw 2 Alfa Romeo 159s in one day around Kuala Lumpur. That’s a start. They might be not as extravagant as Jakarta’s supercar scene. But their regular drivers, drive better cars and are actually various. Good luck finding non-beige cars in Jakarta. Please go to Makassar, where all you can find is souped-up cheap Toyotas. Japanese brand loyalty is too strong here, and the manufacturers are exploiting it happily.
The car market itself is all wrong. A Toyota 86 is at least IDR600 million, not $27,000. Making it far more expensive than Honda CR-V. And someone say something about Minis, they are twice the price of top trimmed Honda jazz.
The manufacturers even suggested chrome “garnish” as a lux accessory. You can’t help but laugh at overly-chromated cheap cars out there. It is an offensive sight that reeks cheapness, not to mention excessive sun reflections from it.
In Jakarta, public transport actually creates more polution and traffic jam. Most of the buses other than the dedicated bus lane Transjakarta and tourist bus, are poorly maintained. The drivers also stop wherever they wanted, sometimes a bit prolonged to accumulate passengers. It drives people crazy and willing to take 30-40% loan interest to acquire personal transport such as motorcycle, which is also very dangerous to ride around the city.
You cannot be a proper petrolhead in Indonesia if you only stay local.
FYI, gini bukannya pamer, ortu ane itu militer nah gua sering disering ngobrol masalah mobil/motor ama bokap jadi beliau cerita banyak temen2nya yg maen moge sama mobil juga nah mereka biasanya ambil mobil dibatam masih bisa dibawa ke jakarta. Caranya? angkut mobil/motor ke kapal tni ampe di jakarta buat mobil biasanya langsung cat warna standar TNI trus pasang plat tni bantuan buat motor mereka biasanya langsung pake jadi kayak lepas dari jeratan hukum.
Good one XD
Don’t forget about “Emak emak rider”
“Emak-emak” sang raja jalanan sejati ;)
baru nyadar, tapi enaknya Indo kalo di jalan tol bisa kebut up to 180KM/H walaupun di kejar polisi (fckdapolish) bisa ngacir dengan mudah, mobil polisi indo masih pake Lancer EX (base model of EVO X)
setuju gaan!
Salam kenal
Lol very true