A stronger yen - and to some extent a weaker won - have helped Hyundai to overtake the Japanese competition and zoom up the local sales chart to the No 2 position. After the first three months of 2009, the Korean marque is the second most popular brand here behind perennial leader Toyota.Among members of the Motor Traders Association of Singapore (MTA), Hyundai ended 2008 in fifth place. It has now returned to a position it enjoyed a few years back - in 2005 it was Singapore's No 3 brand, and in 2004, the No 2 make.
The big improvement in ranking is especially striking, because the local passenger car market will shrink at least 24.2 per cent this year. The maximum number of cars that can be registered in 2009 is 73,830. In 2008, 97,348 cars were registered, of which MTA members sold a collective 70,809.
