The ongoing decline in vehicle registrations continued into the New Year with a total of 28,201 vehicles being registered in January 2013, against 47,500 registrations in the previous year.

In total, 1,441 motor cars were registered of which, 831 were brand new, as compared with 1,446 registrations in the previous year and a peak of 3,556 registrations in December last year.

Despite further price hikes following Budget 2013, the majority of registrations came from the small car category or motor cars under 1,000cc at 385, followed by the medium and large car categories at 325 and 121 registrations respectively.

Locally assembled Micro Cars accounted for 293 registrations in the month, the most for any brand in the month, continuing a trend first started established in September last year. MarutiSuzuki accounted for 190 registrations whilst Malaysian made Perodua accounted for 102 registrations in January.

Both Maruti and Perodua had previously enjoyed significantly higher market share prior to sharp increases in vehicle duties across 2011 - 2012.

Maruti in particular had previously enjoyed phenomenal sales volumes averaging approximately 1,162 registrations a month in 2011.

In contrast to declines in standard car registrations, the luxury vehicles segment posted improved sales as demonstrated by steady increases registrations into this year.

Luxury brand BMW was leading registrations in January with a total of, 84 registrations during the month, against 22 in January 2012 and actually improving over last year’s peak of 64 registrations in September. A further 23 Mercedes Benz cars were also registered during the month.

The SUV segment recorded 209 registrations in the month, against 501 registrations in the year before and a peak of 998 registrations in May 2012.

Mitsubishi SUV’s remain the most popular with 52 registrations during the month as compared with 40 in the previous year and a sudden peak of 583 registrations also May 2012.

Three-wheelers accounted for 8,170 registrations during the month as compared with 12,085 registrations in January 2012, which was also the highest number of registrations in a single month last year.

Similarly in the motorbike segment, 13,949 registrations were recorded, against a peak of 22,860 registrations in January 2012.