HONDA continued to dominate the parallel import (PI) market in the third quarter of this year as Nissan, a marque less commonly associated with the PI trade, raced further ahead with its premium sports car model.
In the first nine months of 2008, Singapore parallel importers sold a combined 8,870 units of Honda passenger cars, according to the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
Toyota grey imports were the runner-up with 7,573 cars.
This contrasts with sales during the same period by the members of the Motor Traders Association of Singapore (MTA), a grouping of authorised distributors, where Toyota is the top marque while Honda is second.
From January to September, Borneo Motors Singapore registered 11,186 units of Toyota and Lexus cars, while Kah Motor registered 10,074 Honda cars.
Tan Chong Motor is currently No 4 on the MTA list with 4,443 Nissan cars, after Cycle & Carriage's 5,413 units of Mitsubishi.
The Nissan nameplate does not usually figure high on the PI list. The situation remains the same although the 254 units for the year-to-date PI volume is relatively high.
This year is different, however, because of the impact of the Nissan GT-R, an iconic sports car that has seen 170 parallel imported units sold since it was first introduced here in January 2008.
Strong third-quarter sales of this cult car with a 3.8-litre turbocharged V6 engine accounted for almost half of the total sales so far this year. And despite being a premium model, the GT-R made up two-thirds of all Nissan PI models registered this year.
The sports model is not cheap. It has a list price that ranges from $245,000 to $265,000, depending on the trim level. It used to be higher, but the original $260,000 to $280,000 price range when the car was first introduced here has since been forced down by competition.
The popularity of the non-authorised GT-R is due to the fact that official distributor Tan Chong will only launch a homologated GT-R in the second quarter of 2009.
The listed company brought in one unit for a preview at the recently concluded Singapore Motorshow 2008, though.
As for the ranking of PI models, there is no change in Singapore's most popular PI model from three months ago.
In fact, the top three models are still the same ? the Honda Fit with 3,688 units; the Honda Stream at 2,723 units; and the Toyota Corolla Axio with 2,130.
The Fit is the domestic version of the Jazz, which Kah Motor will start registering later this month. Kah Motor already has the Stream compact MPV.
Nine out of the top 10 PI models are either a Honda or Toyota. The lone outsider is the Suzuki Swift at No 7.
Overall, PIs collectively registered 18,571 cars in the first nine months of the year, versus the MTA's 53,576 units.
This means that the ratio of PI to MTA sales ? about 1:3 ? has remained steady all year.
Among grey imports, the Honda brand accounted for 47.8 per cent of total PI sales while Toyota made up 40.8 per cent.
In 2007, Toyota was the top PI make with 46.9 per cent market share, while Honda was second at 40.4 per cent.
This article was first published in The Business Times on Oct 16, 2008.
