Toyota returned to the podium spot as the best-selling car in Singapore in the first half of 2014, overtaking Mercedes-Benz, which was in top spot in the first quarter following a best-selling year in 2013.

Toyota returned to the top spot as Singapore's favourite brand for the first time since 2010, after spending nine consecutive years at the top of the charts.

However, Certificate of Entitlement (COE) quotas started shrinking sharply that year, forcing COE premiums to rise and converge demand towards more expensive models.

This resulted in luxury makes such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz overtaking popular Japanese brands. BMW held the favourite brand here in 2011 and 2012.

According to The Business Times, an increasing number of car owners have started replacing their ageing vehicles this year, and in the first six months of 2014 alone, 12,311 passenger cars were registered, up 5.3 percent from the same period last year, according to figures from LTA.

Toyota recorded a 19.1 percent share or 2,352 units of new car registrations, with Mercedes-Benz and BMW following suit after registering 2,264 units and 1,680 units respectively - to capture 18.4 percent and 13.6 percent of the market share. Volkswagen and Audi took fourth and fifth place with 1,179 and 747 units registered respectively for a 9.6 percent and 6.1 percent share.

The business daily believes sales of Japanese cars in the first quarter of 2014 were partly boosted by the reclassification of Cat A COEs in February. However, the effect seemed to ease off in the second quarter, probably because luxury marques remained active in the small car category.