Yeap, had quite a huge rebate as the owner of the dealership was a close friend of mine.

Which bank was yours? 2.21%, awesome rate.

Can I afford it?
Good question.

Sitting on a huge chunk of cash but decided to take loan and max it out at 9 years simply because I can confidently get about 8%~10% returns per annum over a 9 years horizon. If bullish, then will be anything between 10%~14% per annum.

Doing the maths, if I were to buy the car today with cash (RM270k), after 9 years, I would have RM0k and a car that is worth probably RM30k.

On the other hand, if I were to take a 9 year loan, pay down-payment RM10k and invest the balance RM260k, which, let's say, generates an average of 9% returns per annum, while at the same time, withdrawing RM2.8k++ every month from this investment to service the loan, after 9 years, I would still have RM103k and a car that is worth probably RM30k.

Both scenarios, I take it that the RM270k is gone. One I pay upfront while one I pump into an investment vehicle and let it run by itself with the auto-debit set in place to service the loan.

Can I afford to buy the car outright in cash? Probably yes, since I do have that amount in cash.
Do I want to buy the car outright in cash then? Probably no, since I'll be better off taking a loan.

Only thing that is impacted is my DSR, since I'm utilizing a fair bit of my 'financial ability to take a loan'. But that aside, seems like it makes perfect financial sense to get a loan in my scenario.

Which better to take, variable or fixed rate?

Which ever gives lower effective rate but u can't calculate that for variable rate cos it is variable. But then can u get variable rate for car loan?

Which better to take, variable or fixed rate?

Quite common bank offer variable rate, fixed rate usually islamic loan.

In my opinion, it is best to take fixed rate at this moment, because interest is at an all time low. It doesn't make good money sense to take variable rate because when economy recovers in the long run, the interest rate would only go up.  On the contrary, if the interest rate is very high, then taking variable rate is worth doing, to capitalize on lower interest when OPR/BLR goes down.
Most banks, either conventional or Islamic loan are in FIXED rate for auto loans. Only limited banks like Maybank do offer variable rate.

I tot car loan/HP r all fixed rate, so very few r variable. Was told that car loan fixed rate wasn't affected by the reducing BLR/opr, unlike housing loan, why?

Cars are depreciating assets, so fixed rate would hedge it better against depreciation and inflation, especially those taking 9 years tenure. There are many cases of payment defaults, where banks need to repossess the cars and auctioned them, many times at a loss, even after factoring in the interest. Fixed rate would take away many uncertainties so that auto loans can continue to be profitable for banks.

The other thing is of course is, if you take a 9 year loan, but settle the loan within 2 years, you are not going to get a clean waiver of interest of 7 years under FIXED rate, unlike that of housing loan. As such, when you do early settlement of the auto loan, the fund goes back to the bank system with "added" profit and that is what drives the economy.

That's just my take.

Got an offer from HLB today for 2.28 for 9 years 100k loan while PBB offers 2.30

I've got an offer letter from Hong Leong Bank for used car

Rm40k loan, 5 years @ 3.49%

Still waiting for offers from CIMB & Public Bank

Got a few loan application approved for different car with multiple bank

1. used 2018 Mitsubishi outlander, 100k @ 3.47% 9 years - CIMB
2. New aruz, 60k @ 2.45% 7 years - Ambank
3. New aruz, 60k @ 2.62% 7 years - PBB
4. New aruz, 60k @ 2.62% 7 years - Affin
5. used 2017 serena, 70k @ 2.94% 7 years - HLB
6. used 2017 serena, 70k @ 3.3% 7 years - affin
7. used 2017 serena, 70k @ 3.5% 7 years - PBB

I bought from the used car they help me apply the loan with public bank quite fast about 5 days i can take my car already.[Kia 2017yr]