Singapore April 2012: Toyota reclaims leadership

Toyota Wish

* See the Top 25 best-selling brands by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Michael *

In Singapore at this stage I only have access to brands ranking but the trends are interesting enough to deserve a full article on here… 2,272 cars were sold in the country in April, bringing the year-to-date total to 9,782. While over the full year 2011 BMW ended 9 years of domination by Toyota to lead the brands ranking, over the first Quarter of 2012 it was the turn of Mercedes to hold the pole position with an outstanding 18.4% market share.

BMW 3 Series

However the situation looks like it’s getting back to normal albeit very slowly, with Toyota reclaiming the #1 spot in April with 431 sales and 19% share, ahead of BMW at 16.3%, Volkswagen at 12.3% and Mercedes at 12.1%. Year-to-date, Mercedes is still king with 17% share, just above BMW at 16.4% while Toyota rounds up the podium at 13.5%. Note Toyota sales include Lexus.

This astonishing evolution of the Singaporean market is due to the Certificates of Entitlement (COEs), a government program meaning residents of Singapore have to bid for the right to buy a motor vehicle, with the number of certificates deliberately restricted. In April 2012 COEs prices went up again, to S$91,000 for cars over 1,600cc, roughly the same as the car price itself, and only the very rich can afford to buy a new car in Singapore these days…

Lamborghini Aventador

And this is illustrated further down in the brands ranking. Notice Audi at #5, Porsche at #12 with 1.9%, Land Rover at #13 with 1.6%, Jaguar at #19 and 0.9%, Lamborghini at #24 and Ferrari at #25, both with 7 sales in April.

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Previous year: Singapore 2011: BMW ends almost a decade of Toyota domination

Full April 2012 Top 25 Ranking Table below.