Top selling car brands for 2012

Car sales for the year 2012 have proven that it is indeed the rise of the Continental car brands.

BMW sold a total of 4,368 cars at the end of November last year, said the Land Transport Authority, earning top place for the top car sales in Singapore for 2012.

Mercedes-Benz came out second, with a total of 4,108 cars sold during the same period.

The other three top selling car makes last year were Toyota, Volkswagen and Audi.

Local motoring journalist Leow Ju Len shared his point of view, "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."

He added that the European brands grabbing market share from the Asian brands was the single most apparent trend last year.

Corporate Affairs Director of BMW Group Asia, Sethipong Anutarasoti, thinks that customers today are looking for more advanced technology that can balance good fuel efficiency and performance power, and at the same time, delivering good safety, convenience and infotainment.

"Rocketing COE prices have ultimately affected the number of cars sold last year, and this rise of COE premium has led to more stringent purchase criteria," he added.

Prestige brands also saw a steady increase in car sales. Rolls-Royce and Bentley had their best year in the past decade with 46 cars and 84 cars sold respectively by the end of November last year.

On the other hand, Asian brands were on the downfall. Toyota, though managing to clinch third place, enjoyed a high of 35,326 cars in 2006, but only sold 3,920 cars up to November last year. Chery's car sales were down in the dumps, with just five cars sold, down from 637 in 2007.