Let me weigh in with my opinions on this young man; sorry to say I do not agree with the views of some of the forummers within the thread about him being able to make it in the world because he has a thick skin and is not afraid of rejection.
My thoughts:-
1) The fact that he asked for something and offered nothing in return gave the impression that he's audacious enough to assume that things in this world can be obtained without any effort - essentially I see this as a trait of the lazy. If you want a car so badly, get a job, work hard and EARN it yourself.
2) He approached Sentosa Cove people, knowing that these are the ultra-rich, but the tone of his letter was more of begging/pleading rather than requesting. Sorry but to me this sounds a bit like grovelling/snivelling, if you will. It's like a case of "oh I really want this so badly that I don't mind stooping so low just to try to get it". Reeks of bad upbringing.
3) He displays an entitlement mentality, pure and simple - what has he done to even deserve such an expensive item? If it was a more reasonable request like to help out a friend in need (therefore needng $$) or for charity, it would have been more sympathetically viewed. But the fact that he was asking for a car, and a sports car at that, which costs $100,000++, is tantamount of absurdity.
4) He stays in probably a landed property and his parents sound reasonably well-off (property business), so to me it seems unnecessary to ask strangers for such a large item - it could be the case that his parents are not willing to "sponsor" him, so he has to resort to this.
5) Regarding tenacity and ability to show a thick skin the face of failure, I can understand if it comes from the point of view of building a business. To give an example, Ron Sim when starting his health equipment business went door to door selling these products, and had to endure tons of rejections, angry faces and probably even foul language. In the end, he persisted and is now the CEO of a multi-million dollar business listed on SGX. This is the kind of tenacity and hard work, and entrepreneurial spirit we should learn from. I seriously don't see what such a letter can teach us in terms of being bold or hardworking. As he said, it only takes probably 5 minutes and 5 cents per letter. Not really hard work at all.
On a side note, it is beyond me how an established newspaper (not tabloid) could run this story on the front page of a major section of the newspaper.