Built on 4,000+ imports
since 2013

Some businesses begin with a business plan. Carimport began with a passion for cars and a belief that there had to be a better way to buy one.

Alex took to cars young. At 14 he was already working part-time at a mechanic and car accessories shop. At 20 they took him to Japan, where he studied mechanical engineering while working to pay for his own education and living expenses.

In Japan, Alex worked at a used-car dealership in Chiba under Mr. Tsuji Toshiyuki, an N1 racer who introduced him to Japan's USS auction system. There he found a different way of buying cars, through auction reports, which gave customers more transparency and more choice.

When he returned to Malaysia in 2005, Alex began importing Japanese car parts and wheels. But he saw a bigger opportunity in bringing direct import to Malaysia. Instead of customers choosing from cars already sitting in a showroom, why not let them choose the car they actually wanted and import it directly from Japan?

In 2013 he turned that belief into Direct Car Import Sdn Bhd, the company behind Carimport. It started with one table, two chairs and one computer, and not a single car in the showroom.

It was a new way to buy a car in Malaysia. Customers chose the exact vehicle they wanted and bought it directly from Japan, rather than picking from whatever a dealer already had in stock.

The first breakthrough came when a gentleman in his 60s trusted Alex to import a Toyota Land Cruiser from Japan, without ever seeing the car in person. For Alex it was more than a sale. It showed that when every step is open to see, age is no barrier to a new way of buying a car.

From that first car, Carimport grew. It now buys direct from Japan, the UK and Australia, so a shortlist is three markets wide rather than one.

Today Alex still runs the company on the principle that started it: believe in what you are building, and keep building it. His aim is simple. When people think of importing a car, he wants them to think of Carimport.