> Fees and procedures below were re-checked on 29 August 2026 against the MyGovernment service listing for transfer of ownership, Puspakom's own inspection page, Carro's M.V.15 page and centre locator, and Transport Ministry announcements reported by Bernama, RTM and Paul Tan. Dealer charges, runner fees and insurance premiums are separate and are not part of these figures.

What the state actually charges

The part people brace for is the smallest. The MyGovernment listing for Permohonan Pertukaran Hak Milik Kenderaan by the registered owner sets the charge at RM100 for a private vehicle and RM3 for a motorcycle, payable by debit card, credit card or internet banking through FPX. The service runs on mySIKAP, and the sequence matters: the registered owner or seller files the declaration first, and the transfer completes once the buyer confirms it. MyGovernment describes processing as immediate after that confirmation, lists the service as a hybrid one, and shows it last updated on 6 March 2026.

Everything else you have heard quoted — the four-figure "transfer package" numbers that circulate on classifieds — is somebody's service charge sitting on top of these fees.

The inspection number nobody quotes correctly

Almost every guide, including the first version of this one, prints the transfer inspection as RM30. That is the fee Puspakom publishes on its own page, and it is the fee in the schedule. It is not what you pay at the counter.

Carro's M.V.15 page sets out the full breakdown, and because these fees are set by government rather than by the operator, the same arithmetic applies at Puspakom:

  • Inspection fee RM30.00
  • Booking processing fee RM5.00
  • SST at 8% on RM35, which is RM2.80
  • Total RM37.80

The RM5 is the piece that moved. Bernama reported on 2 January 2026 that Puspakom would revise the vehicle inspection booking processing fee to RM5 from RM3.50 with effect from that Sunday, 4 January 2026 — the first revision since online booking was introduced in 2017. The stated purpose was to fund a new booking system with automatic integration into the mySIKAP portal and a better refund process. The booking app was rebranded from MyPuspakom to GiCheck in the same exercise, which is worth knowing if you go looking for the old app by name.

So the honest arithmetic for a private sale is short:

  • Cash sale: RM100 to JPJ plus RM37.80 at the inspection lane, so RM137.80.
  • Financed sale: add the RM60 hire purchase inspection, before that inspection's own processing fee and tax.

Still small against the price of the car. But if you budgeted RM130 and paid RM137.80, this is where the difference went.

The inspection you cannot skip

Before ownership can move, the car must pass a Transfer of Ownership Inspection, coded M.V.15 and known for years as B5. Puspakom's own page cites the Road Transport Act 1987 as the source of the requirement, and states the purpose plainly: protecting the new owner from buying an unlawful vehicle such as a cut-and-joined car.

The inspection is narrower than most sellers expect. Puspakom lists three items and no others. Identification, confirming the registration, chassis and engine numbers are original. Tinted glass, measuring visible light transmittance on the windscreen and windows. Cut and joint, examining whether the body has been welded together from more than one vehicle. Brakes, emissions and suspension are not part of it. Bring the original vehicle registration card or Vehicle Ownership Certificate. Carro puts the whole appointment at roughly 20 minutes.

The report now lasts twice as long. Following a Transport Ministry directive, the M.V.15 report's validity doubled from 60 days to 120 days with effect from 1 July 2026. Puspakom announced it on its own Facebook page, saying it welcomed the directive to ease matters for customers and advising owners to complete the transfer within the validity period. For a private seller this is the most useful change of the year: you can inspect the car before you list it, and still have four months to find a buyer and file. If you lose the report, a reprint costs RM10 and has to be collected from the branch that carried out the inspection.

If the buyer is financing the purchase, a second and much broader inspection applies. The Hire Purchase Inspection costs RM60 and is required under the Hire Purchase Act 1967. It covers above carriage, under carriage, suspension, side slip, brake performance and imbalance, emissions, speedometer accuracy, tinted glass and identification. It is the inspection that tells a lender whether the asset it is financing is roadworthy, which is why it is the buyer's financier, not JPJ, that insists on it.

Fix the tint first, and know the actual numbers

Visible light transmittance is one of only three things the transfer inspection measures, which makes it a disproportionately common reason for a second visit. Most guides tell you to check your tint without saying against what.

For an ordinary private car with no exemption, JPJ's limits are:

  • Front windscreen: at least 70% of light must pass through.
  • Front side windows: at least 50%.
  • Rear windscreen and rear side windows: no limit.

Film darker than that on the front two positions is an offence in its own right, not merely an inspection failure: a fine of up to RM2,000 or up to six months' jail on a first conviction, and up to RM4,000 or twelve months on a subsequent one. JPJ does grant exemptions on medical grounds, for conditions aggravated by sunlight such as lupus, and on security grounds — but the exemption has to already exist when you arrive, not be argued at the lane.

Four things that stop a transfer before it starts

The fees are the easy part. Transfers fail on eligibility, and all four common blockers are the seller's to clear:

Outstanding summonses. JPJ will not process a transfer while summonses stand against the vehicle or the owner.

A blacklist. A JPJ or PDRM blacklist stops the transaction outright. Carro adds a wrinkle specific to the inspection stage: if you have been inspected before and failed, you may be blacklisted there too, and you have to return to the same branch that carried out the original inspection to resolve it.

An unreleased bank claim. If the car was ever financed, the financier's ownership claim — e-Hakmilik — must be cancelled once the loan is settled, before the car can move to a new owner. Paying off the loan does not cancel the claim by itself, and this is the step private sellers most often discover late.

No insurance in the buyer's name. The buyer must hold a policy or cover note for the vehicle in their own name before they confirm the transfer on mySIKAP, and the road tax must be valid. The relationship runs the other way afterwards: once the transfer completes, the seller's road tax and insurance on that vehicle fall away. That is precisely why a claim later made in a former owner's name — someone who no longer has an insurable interest in the car — can be refused.

The monopoly is over, in four postcodes

Puspakom Sdn Bhd, registration 199401000307 (285985-U), inspected Malaysia's vehicles alone from 1994, across a network the company describes as 53 inspection centres. That ended on paper on 16 July 2025, when the Transport Ministry appointed four companies to run Motor Vehicle Inspection Centres (Pusat Pemeriksaan Kenderaan Motor, or PPKM) for the M.V.15 check specifically: Carro Technology Sdn Bhd, Carsome Academy Sdn Bhd, Wawasan Bintang Sdn Bhd and Beriman Gold Sdn Bhd. Each was given 12 months to prepare against the conditions in the licensing guidelines for PPKM M.V.15.

Carro got there first, opening on 16 June 2026, with Transport Minister Anthony Loke touring the Kajang centre on 25 May. The announcement named eight locations — Glenmarie, Wangsa Melawati, Kajang, Klang, Bayan Lepas, Melaka, Muar and Johor Bahru — and most coverage, this article's first version included, reported all eight as open.

They are not. Carro's own centre locator, read on 29 August 2026, returns four:

  • Kajang — 1, Jalan TTDI Grove 7/1, 43000 Kajang, Selangor
  • Wangsa Melawati — 14 Jalan Wangsa Setia 3, Wangsa Melawati, 53300 Kuala Lumpur
  • Klang — 7, 11-1, Jalan Ramin 1, Bandar Botanik, 41200 Klang, Selangor
  • Glenmarie — Temasya Square, 24 Jalan Penguasa B U1/53 B, Temasya Glenmarie, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor

All four are in the Klang Valley, on one contact line, +6016 299 6736. Bayan Lepas, Melaka, Muar and Johor Bahru were described at launch as opening progressively and have not appeared on the locator yet. If you are in Penang, Melaka or Johor, Puspakom is still your only option today — worth confirming before you drive across town on the strength of a headline.

Booking at Carro is also not a self-service calendar: you submit a form and Carro calls back to confirm the slot. Hours are Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm with the last slot at 4.30pm, and Saturday 8am to 12pm with the last slot at 11.30am, closed on Sundays and public holidays. Payment is cashless only, handled by branch staff on arrival. And if the name is unfamiliar to you, myTukar is now Carro — same company, rebranded.

The Ministry was explicit that none of this is a lighter standard. Operators must meet JPJ conditions covering infrastructure, integration with the mySIKAP system, authority approval and the certification of inspectors, and must provide dedicated inspection lanes and separate personnel in line with ISO/IEC 17020:2012, the international standard for bodies performing inspection.

Who is next, and where

The other appointees are still building. Reported development work covers Carsome Academy Sdn Bhd in Sungai Buloh, Selangor; Car Medic Sdn Bhd in Kajang and Serdang, Selangor; and Beriman Gold Sdn Bhd across Kuching, Miri, Sibu and Bintulu, Sarawak.

Read that list geographically and the picture is blunt. The competition arriving first is concentrated in Selangor, and the only announced expansion outside the peninsula is Beriman Gold's four Sarawak sites. Sabah has nothing announced at all. For most of the country, "you no longer have to go to Puspakom" remains a headline about somewhere else, and Puspakom's 53 branches are still doing the work.

The May scare, and why the order of filing matters

For part of a day on 25 May 2026, none of this was available online. JPJ suspended every digital ownership-transfer channel — its own public portal, its kiosks, and partners including MyEG and eAuto — after complaints, many of them circulating on social media, that vehicles had been transferred without the knowledge of the registered owner. JPJ Director-General Datuk Aedy Fadly Ramli described the suspension as an immediate control measure while the reports were examined.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke instructed JPJ to restore the service the same day, and it came back within hours, with a standing arrangement that future system work be scheduled over long weekends rather than during business hours so counters do not fill up. Online transfer has run normally since, and the counter route at a JPJ office remains available either way.

The episode still deserves a seller's attention, because it explains why the process is shaped the way it is. The seller declares and the buyer confirms, in that order, and each step is tied to that party's own JPJ credentials. A seller who hands the entire job to a runner, or who shares login access to save an afternoon, is giving away the one control standing between their car and a transfer they never authorised.

What this means when you sell

Inspect early, now that the report lasts 120 days. Get the M.V.15 done before you advertise. A clean, current report is a selling point, and you have four months to use it.

Budget RM137.80, not RM130. RM100 to JPJ, RM37.80 at the inspection lane. Add RM60 if the buyer is financing.

Check your tint against 70 and 50 before you book. It is one of only three things measured, and the cheapest failure to avoid.

Clear the summonses and the bank's e-Hakmilik first. Neither is something you can fix at the counter on the day.

Only chase Carro if you are in the Klang Valley. Kajang, Wangsa Melawati, Klang and Glenmarie are live. Everywhere else, Puspakom is the route.

Do the mySIKAP declaration yourself, in the right order. The seller declares, the buyer confirms. Until the transfer completes, the vehicle is still registered in the seller's name, and the road tax, summonses and liability that follow a registered owner stay with them.

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*Cover image: Puspakom.*