REGISTRATIONS of Honda cars last month overtook those of long-time market leader Toyota for the first time in almost a decade - an event which is all the more unusual because the year-end period is traditionally a busy time for top car distributors.

But Toyota remains Singapore's top brand by a big margin and there is no way runner-up Honda can catch up with the No 1 name plate by Dec 31 - much less trump it in the year-end stakes.

Honda registered 1,311 passenger car sales in October, more than Toyota's 1,288 units (see table).

This is the first time since 1998 - when Honda was the top make with slightly over 4,050 units - that it has been ahead of Toyota in terms of registrations.

But the blip is unlikely to affect the overall rankings at year-end. In fact, Honda's sales so far this year are just two-thirds of Toyota's, among members of the Motor Traders Association of Singapore (MTA). MTA registrations exclude those by parallel importers, who are set for a record year.

Toyota, Japan's No 1 carmaker and soon to be the world's top, has been the market leader in Singapore since 2002. It will be the same this year. In the first 10 months of 2007, Toyota registered 15,110 passenger cars against Honda's 9,878.

Another event apparent from last month's registration numbers involved BMW. The Munich carmaker, which overtook traditional rival Mercedes-Benz in 2005 and 2006, has lost the lead to the three-pointed star in 2007 because of the strong comeback by a new S-Class and this year's launch of the new C-Class. But in October, BMW registered 65 per cent more cars than Mercedes.

Despite the implications, industry players said that monthly registration numbers are not that significant because they depend on stock levels.

'If your stocks arrive late and registrations get bunched up, then your numbers for a certain month will of course reflect that,' said the senior manager of a big Japanese dealership. He added that this is probably what happened at authorised Honda distributor Kah Motor.

'The Civic is a popular model and some people ordered their cars as long as two or three months ago. The spike in numbers is definitely due to the arrival of new stock,' he explained. 'This just shows the seasonal allocation of stock by the factory and it is not a pure reflection of the sales situation.'

However, he acknowledged that for Toyota to concede the monthly lead to Honda is unusual.

'Toyota is the market leader and its sales are much higher than everyone else's,' he said. 'Plus, this is the end of the year, when more people usually buy a new car. For its monthly registrations to lag the No 2 brand says something about its current situation.'

Authorised Toyota and Lexus distributor Borneo Motors Singapore has been been facing stiff competition from the parallel importers. Its ageing line-up is also partly the problem.

For example, the mid-sized Picnic MPV model is close to six years old but a replacement is not due soon. The Wish MPV, which is a best-selling parallel import, was supposed to arrive from Japan in January but it is understood that its arrival has been delayed and Borneo is now looking at an April launch date.

Parallel imports are an attractive alternative because of their wider range, keen pricing and more aggressive sales tactics.