Japanese car brands reported a climb in sales in Singapore in the first quarter of the year, boosted by cyclical trends and partly by the tweak in the COE categorisation.

That said, German brand Mercedes-Benz remains to be the nation's favourite with 1,225 cars registered between January and March.

Figures from the Land Transport Authority have shown that Toyota (including Lexus) has overtaken BMW with 1,003 units, with the Bavarian marque dropping to third with 909 units.

Mass market brand Volkswagen remained in the fourth position with 508 cars. Japan's second largest automaker, Nissan, has made an impressive climb from eighth place to fifth with 390 cars. 

A total of 5,962 new cars were registered in the first quarter of this year - a 10.7 percent increase from the same period a year ago. For the whole of last year, 22,472 new cars were registered.

A quick look at the market share reveals that Mercedes-Benz, which ended 2013 with 17.2 percent, has quickly gained and now has 20.5 percent share of the market in Q1. This means the marque makes up a car of every five sold between January and March.