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Business Times - 09 Jul 2008 Toyota speeds up to regain top spot for first half of year By SAMUEL EE AFTER starting the year in an unfamiliar position as runner-up, Toyota finally pushed the pedal to the metal in June to wrest the No 1 ranking back from Honda by the end of the first half of the year. Toyota has been Singapore's top brand since 2002. From January to June 2008, Toyota, including luxury division Lexus, registered a total of 7,346 passenger car sales among members of the Motor Traders Association of Singapore (MTA). The world's biggest carmaker overtook Honda's 7,212 units after trailing the latter for the first five months of the year. MTA is a grouping of authorised distributors. Their sales do not include those of parallel importers, who have recently been experiencing record business. The key to authorised Toyota distributor Borneo Motors' turnaround is the Corolla Altis - the company's best-seller and a former perennial winner of Singapore's most popular model award. A new version of this stalwart was unveiled earlier this year and it was only from the second quarter that deliveries to customers began. 'The Altis was launched in late March and we didn't have any equivalent models to sell during that period,' says Mark Choong, South Asia chairman of Inchcape Motors, which owns Borneo Motors Singapore. 'But once it started to take off, it was only a matter of time before we caught up with Honda.' With average monthly deliveries of more than 600 units of the Altis, it was no surprise that Toyota raced back to the top of the sales charts. Mr Choong says other models that did reasonably well in the first six months of this year were the Camry mid-size saloon and the recently-arrived Wish compact MPV. 'They helped to contribute to the volume,' he says, adding that the 1.5-litre Vios sedan also did 'pretty well because it is in the smaller-car range'. 'It is affordable and economical. All these are critical factors in the current market', which is focused on running costs, adds Mr Choong. High pump prices have also spurred demand for the Prius petrol- electric hybrid, but Mr Choong says Borneo is unable to get enough cars to sell because of supply issues. Further down the sales chart, Mitsubishi ended the first six months of 2008 in third place with 3,983 units, while Nissan was fourth with 2,863 cars. Mercedes-Benz was in fifth place overall with 2,127 passenger cars, making the three-pointed star the most popular premium brand in Singapore. Right behind it at No 6 was traditional rival BMW with 1,890 units. At No 7 was Subaru. The once niche Japanese carmaker has gone a little more mainstream, and since then it has been speeding up the sales chart from when it ended 2007 at No 9. Korean marque Hyundai - previously a regular feature in the top three a few years back - was eighth with 1,828 units. This number could have been higher if the 627 Sonata taxis registered in the first half were included. As for the No 1 model in the first half of 2008, that accolade went to the Honda Civic with 3,283 units, including the hybrid variant but excluding the three-door Type R. In 2007, it was the Mitsubishi Lancer, after displacing the Toyota Corolla which had held the top spot for five years before that. The runner-up from January to June this year was the Toyota Corolla Altis with 2,539 units, despite being in the market for only three full months. Rounding off the top three was the Toyota Vios with 1,925 units.

1. Lately, I introduced 3 DVD, Ditigal TV and some electrical stuffs to the car and I wonder whether it is a pyscho or not, I felt that the car pick up, fuel economy and performance is not as good as after the installation. 2. Any tips for me? Thank you. Regards,

I've had always been damn poor on my head in parking. Just now I did that becuase there was no other parking lot and the last one was next to a wall. It was very tight and I didn't tink much, just try to to head in parking. Without any luck, this is what happened to my sunny.. I'm going to spray paint this front bumper. How much does it cost? Which is the reccomended place to do it so that it looks almost flawless? I heard from my friend they normally spray half the bumper one, and a spray shop call Foolip at around Kranji is good.. Any comments? Thanks..

I got a black color car which is slightly more than 6 mths old... the 1st time i got the car, it was shiny glossy black color on the car body which was quite stunning... But now my car body had lost its original shine even though my maid cleans it daily and i can find countless minor circular scratches on the body... pls advise me what to do about it and how to regain its black shiny glossy look once again.

my car just brought a week ago from friend but find that all paint lacquer has drop off and cannot do a wax as it has no effect. some of the paint work dropping off too. thinking of doing a touch up on the paint work and lacquer without doing respraying. Any idea which company can do the job well. and of cause cheap.