Here are the stories Singapore read most on CarBuyer in 2020, covering SUVs, BEVs, trends and the Circuit Breaker

SINGAPORE

Happy new year and welcome to our Reader’s Roundup for 2020 – this is the closest you’ll get to an unofficial Reader’s Choice Award until we actually do introduce one.

We’re ranking the most read stories on CarBuyer.com.sg from the year 2020, and it makes for an interesting list not just because it’s a Best Of for last year, but also a great indicator of trends since it’s literally what you Dear Readers looked at the most.

5. Car showrooms reopening after Circuit Breaker

Circuit Breaker feels like an age ago. The lockdown period from April 7 2020 to June 1, 2020 was very necessary but threw up a huge number of initially unanswered questions for Singapore in general (What can I do? Where canI go?) abd the car industry – such as when car showrooms could reopen, or COE bidding would resume.

We followed the situation closely giving updates on what was kosher or not.
CarBuyer then delved into the fine print to see what the official ruling was, and came up with the estimate of July 2020 as the earliest period they’d reopen. The official answer was June 19, 2020, but given COE bidding only resumed in July itself, we like to consider our early analysis more accurate than the dates suggest.

4. The CarBuyer.com.sg Dummies Guide to BEV ownership

When we started this job, having a working knowledge of basic mechanical engineering concepts was more than enough, then the world went electric and now we need to know about the volts side of things too.

But taking complex stuff and making it easy to understand is a cornerstone of the job, and that’s the idea behind the CB.com.sg BEV Dummies Guide which explains everything from range anxiety, how to charge, and how you get charged for the privilege. As BEVs become more and more of a reality, what people read reflects that too.

3. Analysis: Best-selling brands and trends of 2019

CarBuyer’s not afraid to delve deep into sales figures and crunch the numbers if we think there’s something worth showing to the readers, and every year our analysis of the sales trends for cars in Singapore brings up some very interesting talking points. Also, seeing who’s ahead and who is not always throws up some surprises that defy our biases and expectations. For example, in this story we saw how the Koreans gained ground while some mainstream Japanese brands lost it, and despite the raging popularity of SUVs, sedans still took the lion’s share of the market here.

2. The Best Mid-Sized SUVs in Singapore

2020 gave us time to think of new ways to deliver more valuable info to our audience, and the new Best Ofs series was one of the outcomes. We always knew SUVs would be at the top of the list, but figured the more popular small SUV segment would be the most clicked, yet it was the larger mid-sized SUV segment that rose to the top, underscoring just how widespread and sedan-displacing the segment has become.

In this story we told you why we judged the Toyota Harrier, Skoda Karoq and Mazda CX-5 the best of the lot in 2020. Don’t care for SUVs? Our Best Of section has a lot more to offer, ranking the best family sedans, BEVs, and even driver’s cars that don’t cost a liver.

1. Mercedes-Benz GLB launch news

The first story on this list is no surprise: It’s our initial report on the international debut of the Mercedes-Benz GLB from 2019. While it was first written in 2019, we updated the info in 2020 to reflect it. And if that sounds like an oversized advantage, our local stories on the GLB also ranked strongly in the top 20, so topically it’s a clear winner.

No surprise, ever since we first heard that Mercedes was going to build a small, seven-seat SUV, we knew it was going to be a strong seller here in Singapore.

Mercedes has an obvious hit on its hands with a spacious, seven-seat SUV that really can fit seven adults and costs less than S$200k with COE.

For more detailed info, you should read our coverage of the car’s local launch in September, and our test drive of it right at home in Singapore.

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