We looked at the gap between official industry sales and JPJ registrations across the whole market, an estimated 49,575 grey and recon imports in 2025.
UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) sold 102,417 Toyotas in 2025, its fourth straight year above the 100,000 mark. Yet JPJ registered 129,085 Toyotas over the same period. That leaves a gap of 26,668 vehicles, or 20.7% of every Toyota registered, that did not come through an official UMWT showroom.
In plain terms, better than one in five Toyotas on the road in 2025 was a recon or grey import. The figure is not a one-off either; the same calculation for 2024 gives 24,902 units, or 19.6%, so the grey share is not only large but growing.
Where does all of it come from? The poster children of the Malaysian recon scene are the big luxury MPVs. UMWT does sell the Alphard and Vellfire officially, but JPJ registered 17,601 Alphards and 3,551 Vellfires in 2025, 21,152 of the pair between them, far more than the official channel alone could account for. The difference is made up by reconditioned units brought in by independent importers.
Then there are the models UMWT does not sell here at all. There are many JDM people-movers that never had an official price list, including 1,498 Voxy and 424 Noah, along with curiosities like 199 units of the Japanese-market Crown (a very good looking car that many consider the lower T20 man’s Purosangue) and 89 of the tiny Roomy. We even saw the flagship Toyota Century SUV here!
Toyota is the most visible case, but it is far from alone. A quick scan of the data turns up plenty of other grey-only Japanese models that Malaysians clearly want: 851 Honda STEPWGN, 452 Honda N-Box, 92 Nissan Elgrand and even 86 Nissan GT-R were registered in 2025, none of them sold through official channels here.
Add the occasional Daihatsu kei car and the odd Nissan Skyline or Fairlady, and the picture is of a thriving parallel market that quietly supplies the models the official distributors choose not to.
A note on the method. The gap is an estimate that compares UMWT’s reported sales with total JPJ registrations, so it also captures any registration-timing differences. But the order of magnitude is clear, and the models behind it, are exactly the ones you would expect.
What is your take on the scale of Toyota’s grey market? Let us know in the comments. You can explore more insights like this on our car sales data tool.
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meetee should ban CCP from dumping their junk recond secondhand cars without warranty into malaysia. sorry wait my mistake, i mixed up china with japan .
M are proud to drive recond Toyotas which the previous Japanese owner used to carry dogs pet and pork from the market.
all the crap second hand recond Japan junk without warranty dumped here. MITI must ban all jap recond car for good so rakyat no suffer!
Something sime Darby should do something about.
UWM Toyota does actually sell brand new Toyota Alphard and Vellfire, both models are CBU Japan,
Come with good promotion, 5 yrs warranty with unlimited mileage, as long as you keep servicing at the license dealer
at such price, sane human will all choose second hand vans, only companies that earn too much will buy some vans from umw year end.
what “good promotion” ? UMW is selling those cars at half a milion ringgit with mediocre spec. no self closing doors no air suspension no self-driving no PHEV .
One of the best choice of robbers, burglars and criminals in Malaysia and also entitled drivers
Msian & asians loves their minivans but those minivans sold by UMW toyota is too expensive. So the majority bought the recons minivans which are waayyyy more cheaper.
reCON job
1 SUV’s AP Permit=RM 30K
20k vehicles= RM 600M
why would MITi cronies allow cheap EV cars to come in?!
It will be good if we have more details of the brand/model of recons car/trucks being sold yearly in Malaysia. Seems like can’t get this info from years back as no ones seems to have the compilation.
Despite many saying Crown Sport is a poor man’s Purosangue, let it be known that this car was birth first before Purosangue.
Great insight.
UMW took ages to finally deliver Estima.
Then they officially distributed near to end of production.
Why do they not distribute alphard and vellfire?