Thats because of import tax. Other wise cost would be much much much lower dont you agree? Imagine the mercedes SLR McClaren without the import tax. current price is 6m-7m with import tax am I right? Take away the 200% import and you'll get the price.
We're still a developing country as well. This means that our average income will not match the well developed countries.
Dollar for dollar it matches ie. here RM2k, other places.. S$2000, or AUD$2000 or UK$2000, the only thing it doesn't match is the cost of living in proportion to the salary.
Malaysia
RM2k salary BMW RM250k Terrace House in PJ RM400k
Australia
AUD$2k salary BMW AUD$40-50k Terrace house in Queensland AUD$150-200k
I always thought that developing countries by right should have lower cost of living but ours is higher. For a person staying in KL nothing lower than a 5 figure salary is enough for a decent house and car.
Also I think our country has the highest amount of tolls. The general idea of the toll system is to pay for the road, but ours even after paying for the roads the tolls not only continued to exist but even increased in price as well as increased in the number of potholes. If you drive to Thailand before there is not a single toll from the border all the way to Bangkok and no potholes whatsoever.
Certain things here are cheaper though, road tax for cars below 1.6litre only RM90.