THE demand for parallel imported cars has grown so strongly that the number of such vehicles registered in the first nine months of this year has overtaken the total for 2006.

From January to September, parallel importers (PIs) sold 16,997 passenger cars, according to the Land Transport Authority. For the whole of 2006 - already a record year for PIs - total sales were 16,137.

Parallel or grey imports are cars that are offered by sellers who are not authorised dealers or distributors. A large majority of these belong to the Motor Traders Association of Singapore (MTA), and in the first nine months of 2007, they collectively sold 63,652 cars.

If an estimated total of 82,000 new cars were registered in Singapore from January to September this year, that would make the parallel importers' year-to-date market share a whopping 20 per cent.

Compare this to the PIs' market share of 13.8 per cent in 2006, 5.7 per cent in 2005, and 4.1 per cent in 2004.

As these numbers increase, so does the pressure on the sales of the authorised distributors or MTA members. And not only those distributors who sell popular PI brands like Toyota, Honda and Suzuki are affected by the boom in grey imports.

Other makes, such as Hyundai and Kia, and even Ford and Proton, are also affected because their models are in the same price range as the PI offerings, thus making them face the same fierce competition as the Japanese dealerships.

Another way of looking at the relationship between the PI trade and the MTA members is the rough proportion of non-authorised cars to authorised versions. For every one PI car registered so far this year, about four were sold by an MTA member, or 1:4. However, in 2006, this ratio was only 1:6.

As expected, the most popular brand of PI car in the first nine months of 2007 was Toyota, with 7,964 units, or 46.9 per cent of all PI models registered. Also as expected, the runner-up brand was Honda with 6,937 units, or 40.8 per cent.

Together, these two marques made up 87.7 per cent, or almost nine out of every 10 PI cars sold so far this year - roughly the same proportion as in previous years.

But while Toyota was the top PI make, the top PI model was the Honda Stream, with 3,076 cars. This relatively new compact seven-seat MPV continued to trump the ageing Toyota Wish in the sales stakes.

The Wish, with sales of 2,376, was the top grey import model here since it appeared in early 2003. The Stream was launched here only about a year ago.

One surprise at the end of Q3 was that the No 3 PI model was no longer the Honda Fit, the Japanese domestic model which is available here as the Honda Jazz from authorised distributor Kah Motor.

Instead, a new car, the Toyota Corolla Axio, is now the third most popular model with 1,589 units. The Corolla Axio is the Japanese domestic version of the popular Corolla Altis offered by authorised distributor Borneo Motors Singapore. The Axio is made in Japan, while the Altis is assembled in Thailand.