Bandar Seri Begawan - More cars were sold this year as compared to last year, where the sales of commercial and saloon vehicles in the first 11 months this year stood at 17,000 units, far ahead of the same period last year, statistics from the Brunei Auto Traders Association (BATA) revealed.

In fact, it has also superseded the total amount of cars sold last year which stood at 14,500 units. Toyota outpaced other vehicles with a total of 3,404 units sold, followed by Kia with 3,171 units and Suzuki with 1,576 units.

Cars with small capacity engines of 1.3 to 1.5 litre continued to be the most popular type of vehicles bought in the Sultanate. The cars are thought to be more environmentally friendly, easy to handle and relatively cheaper, followed by those with 1.5-1.6 litre engine capacities.

According to JPKE statistics, the number of newly-registered vehicles last year stood at 15,900, of which 14,690 were private cars, 491 goods vehicles, 599 motorcycles and scooters, and others which made up the remaining 120. In 2010, the number was 15,069 units, while in 2009 it stood at 14,386.

Auto dealers said that the Brunei market is already saturated with a monthly car sale average of around 1,400 units. They are hoping that the annual bonus which was released yesterday would provide a boost where various marketing strategies are being used to lure customers.

These include bonus gifts, lucky draws or the usual three years or 60,0001(m free warranty. Furthermore, during the Had Raya period, a variety of sales tactics and promotions were also made such as shopping vouchers, soft drink vouchers, lucky draw prizes, free hampers and one year free servicing.

In the first six months of this year alone, some 9,514 car units were sold by nearly 20 car distributors with around 40 models in the country; which was also much higher than last year's figure. The monthly sales numbers were 1,561 units in July, 1,765 in August, 1,434 in September, 1,396 in October and 1,387 in November.

--Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin