COE premiums for cars ended slightly higher in the latest exercise on Wednesday, but dealers said consumer sentiment remained relatively weak.

The main reason for the 1.3 to 5.5 per cent rise in rates was the three-week gap between the latest round and the previous one. Usually, tenders are two weeks apart.

The longer break has given dealers more time to accumulate bookings.

COE for cars up to 1,600cc, such as the Toyota Altis and Honda Civic, rose by 4.1 per cent to $14,685, while COE for cars above 1,600cc, like the Audi A4 and Mazda 6, climbed 5.5 per cent to $15,501.

The Open COE, used mainly for cars, was up by a mere 1.3 per cent at $15,661.

Borneo Motors chairman Mark Choong said this reflected the sentiment of the market.

'It shows there is a cautiousness among speculators,' he said of Open COEs, which are transferable and traded.

Like other motor traders, Mr Choong described the market as generally weak.

'It's really a soft market propped up by a three-week break,' he said.

On why COE for bigger cars rose more than smaller cars, traders reckoned this was because buyers in this segment are not feeling the effects of rising inflation as much.

But Mr Vincent Ng, product manager at Honda agent Kah Motor, said he has noticed buyers migrating to smaller cars as these generally consume less fuel.

Elsewhere, the commercial vehicle COE ended 8 per cent higher at $12,959, while the motorcycle premium shot up by 40.7 per cent to finish at $1,551 - the highest since 2000.

Industry sources said this could be the result of would-be budget car buyers switching to bikes.

Besides high fuel prices, other car-related expenses such as electronic road-pricing and parking have risen dramatically.