With the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) quota expanding steadily and replacement buyers fuelling demand for parallel imports (PIs), some authorised distributors' complaints about an uneven playing field are growing louder, The Business Times reported.

In good times, parallel importers cornered nearly one-quarter of the new car market. But when the COE supply shrank, market share fell to as low as 5.2 per cent in 2013.

Today, parallel importers are enjoying a reversal of fortunes with a booming new car market. Last year, their market share bounced back to 6.7 percent and in the first quarter of 2015, it rose to 11.3 percent.

The three brands most affected by PIs so far are Toyota, Honda and Mercedes-Benz. In the overall market, Toyota is Singapore's No. 1 brand and in Q1 2015, PIs made up 580 of the 2,090 new Toyota cars registered. Honda was next with 432, followed by Mercedes-Benz with 103.

The top PI model in Q1 was the Honda Vezel compact SUV, the domestic Japanese version of the HR-V sold by authorised Honda distributor Kah Motor.

The second most popular PI model in Q1 was the Toyota Harrier mid-sized SUV. The Harrier is similar to the Toyota RAV4 offered by authorised Toyota distributor Borneo Motors Singapore (BMS). Rounding up the PI top three is the Toyota Estima mid-size MPV, the domestic version of BMS's Previa.

Apart from having to contend with lower OMVs among PIs, authorised distributors are also unhappy with what they perceive as double standards. One is the regulatory requirement for all cars in the showroom to display the Fels (fuel economy labelling scheme) label prominently on the windscreen.

Another bugbear for authorised distributors is the fixed Evolution Coefficient (EC) of 0.92 for carbon emission values enjoyed by parallel imported cars. Applying this EC lowers the carbon emission figure, thus netting a higher CEVS (Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme) rebate or lower CEVS surcharge.