BMW BEAT MERCEDES

[ACELLENT DETAILING]

BMW car sales come out tops for 2012

By Zul Othman

 

SINGAPORE - For the second year running, BMW and Mercedes-Benz held the top two spots for car sales in Singapore.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said BMW came out tops with 4,368 cars sold at the end of November last year.

Mercedes-Benz sold a total of 4,108 cars in Singapore during the same period.

In 2011, BMW and Mercedes-Benz sold 4,959and 4,166 cars respectively.

The other top-selling models for the first 11 months of last year are Toyota, Volkswagen and Audi, registering 3,920, 3,358 and 1,561 cars respectively.

Together, the five brands made up some 67.3 per cent of the year's total new car sales.

This also means that out of the five top-selling new cars in Singapore last year, four were European marques.

This trend of buying luxury cars emerged some three years ago, when rising certificate of entitlement (COE) prices drove away buyers of bread-and-butter cars because they were unable to compete with the luxury and premium brands for COEs, said motoring journalistLeowJu Len, 36.

"All the prices of cars have increased, so this means the people who can afford a car now tend to have the budget for luxury cars," he said.

Current COE premiums are about $82,000 for cars up to 1,600cc, and about $95,000 for cars above 1,600cc.

The system has have been in place since 1990, limiting car ownership and the number of vehicles onthe roads.

Mr Leow added: "I would say the single most apparent trend last year is that the European brands have grabbed the market share from the Japaneseand Korean brands."

Another reason: As the euro is cheaper than the yen in value, this could be contributing to the decline for Japanese cars.

"Looking at the brands on top, it has becomea luxury car market," said Mr Leow.

"For example, the best-selling model (last year) was the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, where the prices go from $189,000 upwards."

[Berrie]

   

[WazzupDad]

Hmmm... so I am not bruffffing when I claimed I drive a common car here!!! )

[Odessus]

It just means Merc is more exclusive than BMW. 

[Old-MAN]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Odessus" data-cid="163037" data-time="1357708886"><p>

It just means Merc is more exclusive than BMW. </p></blockquote>

Nice... I like.... Maybe 1 day we shld jio the bmer club to go NS to run.... Hahahahaha

[Tigershark]

time to get a non-common japanese car! woot!

[Berrie]

time to get a non-common japanese car! woot!

 

time to save monie! market not goooooooood!

[Tigershark]

time to save monie! market not goooooooood!

these years... every year also not good leh..

[Cloud]

these years... every year also not good leh..

Ya lor...every year since 2008, i have not heard anything good on the following year from the analyst or economist....it has more or less becoming a norm....

 

With the bipartisan system in US, dont think we will have any good news anytime soon...with so many problems in US and Europe still looming to explore...