Driving SG registered car in Malaysia

[x9200]

I drove my car to Malaysia a number of times but it was always a short distance to JB and around. Now I consider driving to KL and I wonder what should I expect. What I mean, if I follow all the traffic regulation is it likely I will be pulled over by the police to be "ticketed" just because of the license plates?

[bgd]

Not in my experience on a Sg registered bike.

Best not to take bad Sg driving habits across the causeway.

[PNGMK]

I drove my car to Malaysia a number of times but it was always a short distance to JB and around. Now I consider driving to KL and I wonder what should I expect. What I mean, if I follow all the traffic regulation is it likely I will be pulled over by the police to be "ticketed" just because of the license plates?

No issue. I've driven there dozens of times all the way up the peninsular. If anything you get treated slightly better by the boys in blue (waved through multiple checks many times where you could see them laying into some proton driving local off on the side).

[Strong Eagle]

Never had an issue on bike or in car. Now, the drivers in KL are something else.

[x9200]

Thank you guys for reassurance. I hate being forced to the situation where I am expected to bribe someone (or whatever it is called). Happy to hear unlikely the case in Malaysia.

[Strong Eagle]

Thank you guys for reassurance. I hate being forced to the situation where I am expected to bribe someone (or whatever it is called). Happy to hear unlikely the case in Malaysia.

Well... if you do get stopped... and I never have... "accidentally" pulling out a 100 RM note out of your wallet while fishing around for your license might be the thing, I have heard. But, I've had a lot more issues with the cops in Thailand, where farang on a bike are fair game for a shakedown in every town.

Of more concern are the lunatic truck drivers that speed down E2, in vehicles of questionable shape. I have personally witnessed a large truck and trailer lose control, veer off the shoulder to the left and while trying to get back on the highway, he essentially hung a hard right across the road, crashed through the median barrier, flew through oncoming lanes of traffic, then go crashed into the palm oil plantation on the other side of the highway where it finally came to rest. Miraculously, no other cars were involved.

[x9200]

I expected this may happen but I was afraid it happens frequently.

With Thailand I had no bad experience but I drove for few days only in the Northern part.
But the driver we hired on Bali had to pay some duty to the police at least once while driving us around and I don't think it was any offense related other than of being hired by some tourists and having a decent car.

[maneo]

Thank you guys for reassurance. I hate being forced to the situation where I am expected to bribe someone (or whatever it is called). Happy to hear unlikely the case in Malaysia.

Back when I drove, I had gone to Malacca & Selangor many times, but I did get stopped once about 8 years ago. I was told that a speed camera had taken a photo of me speeding. I expressed surprise & suggested that it might have been another similar car (I had a popular model & colour from the year it was purchased), so I asked (pleasantly) if he wouldn't mind if I could see the photo. I guess this caught the officer by surprise. As it turns out another SG license car was coming up (which, coincidentally, looked just like mine), so they pulled it over & told me to just go.

Maybe it was a lead-in to some holiday period, so they might have needed some extra cash, and they didn't want much hassle, but that was the only time in about 13 years of driving that it happened.

Can't say what I did will work for anyone else, but I did know that I hadn't gone over the limit at all.
I had actually kept watching my speedometer all the way.

[nutnut]

Simple - if you do get stopped, insist on a ticket, do not bribe the police, it's illegal. Singaporean cars tend to get pulled mainly on E3 or early on E2 (depending on causeway used), after first 50KM into Malaysia you should be fine.

What will happen is, the cop will say - it's 300RM, or, cheaper if you pay here, do you want to pay here? and say, no thank you, I'll take the ticket. Chances are they won't give you the ticket, if they do, they are 150RM if paid within the first week, so, it's only $50. You don't want to be caught bribing a copper, that's for sure!

As for the drivers in KL, we are just fine SE! A lot better than the Sinkies

[x9200]

Thanks nutnut. Will follow your advice if it comes to that.

[ScoobyDoes]

I've been pulled over more times than I can count, both whilst driving the KL plate and my SG plate.

Police typically have/had different stops for local and foreign but since much of the NS was expanded to 3-Lane it is harder for them to do a physical stop. That said, their Mitsubishi Lancers are on patrol and they can pull over individuals of either plate......that was once for me so far.

It started off as RM50 fine <cough> and depending on situation is now RM100 but more and more now they are doing electronic tickets. You can actually run a very easy check on your plate via the AXS website here (https://e-station.axs.com.sg) and I would say this is now the more likely scenario in that you won't notice getting a ticket. Sadly I managed two in 10min on the same piece of road west of Ipoh on some back roads.........that's uncalled for!

From the MY point of view, though, they are less likely to get ANY money this way unless the put up regular stops at the border to clear older cases. I have another 2-3yrs left before trading plates so will see if I can make it to a clean slate again. In ~15yrs driving between KL/JB and Singapore I've only been pulled once and the border, and been witness to it twice.

[x9200]

This a bit odd feeling when you (almost) see less Malaysian motorbikes in Malaysia than every day in Singapore.

Anyway, after my first longer self-drive trip to Malaysia with well over 800km counted including rush hours in KL, I don't see anything particularly bad about Malaysian drivers that their Singaporean counterparts regularly don't do in Singapore.

Actually the Malaysian drivers got one big positive score mark on my preferences list - they don't hog the fastest lane, something notorious in Singapore. They don't hold frantically to the lane and let the faster moving cars pass. Also the faster cars are normally patient to let the slower cars to overtake at their own pace.

[bgd]

They are better drivers in my experience.

[PNGMK]

They are better drivers in my experience.

Agreed.

[jagermeister]

Just gotta be careful of the way Malaysian drivers maneuver around, pretty scary man