Brudirect.com - News Headlines

BruneiDirect.Com

Small Cars Rule Roads
By Azlan Othman

Bandar Seri Begawan - Small cars are making bigger inroads in the country's auto industry.

As auto dealers in the country are predicting yet another year of stable growth, their projection seems mainly driven by the number of small cars that are selling more due to the affordability factor.

Statistics from the country's automobile traders association, "Persatuan Perniaga'an Automobil Brunei", for the first two months of this year show 2,064 units of cars have been sold with small cars dominating the market segment.

In comparison, 1,768 cars were sold in the first two months of last year (2006) and 2,214 units in 2005.

Engine capacities of 1,300 to 1,600 cc took a bigger 'slice with almost 40 per cent market share followed by 1000 to 1300 cc with nearly 15 per cent.

"The low and attractive price between $20,000 and $25,000 makes such small cars attractive to the locals," said a

Advertisement

Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.

dealer.

NBT followed by Boustead and GHK Motor, the distributors of Japanese car models, dominated the top three spots.

Dealers are hoping to sell an average of 1,000 units monthly. If there is a rise, the margin will only be around five to 10 per cent in sales, they said.

One dealer said marketing strategies like holding lucky draws are not effective anymore in luring customers to buy new car models.

"Even this month (March), the sale-has been slow," he lamented.

Official figures show that Brunei records around 12,000 car registrations annually. The number of vehicles licensed in the sultanate has risen from 104,137 in 1997 to 173,000 in 2006.

The ability to purchase new cars in the country is partly influenced by a low car import tax, excellent banking facilities, easy loan schemes and attractive deals.

When asked on the possibility of introducing a common credit centre to link all finance companies to curb over lending, several car dealers told the Bulletin that such idea would not be good as getting all the finance companies to agree on the idea would be a tough task unless the concerned government authority asks them to do so. Moreover, the concept used by the conventional and Islamic financing companies is different, they added.

In addition, Brunei is a small market and finance companies are independent of each other. The company that might oversee such a centre is also another matter that must be taken into account, they said. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News

Back to News Page

Write to Us

Brunei's Fastest Growing Website with