COE and Car Prices

[godjira1]

Today, a person buying a Toyota Altis have to pay the following taxes (not counting ERP which is a form of road usage tax):

1. ARF - 100% OMV which is about $15,000
2. Duty - 20% OMV $3,000
2. COE - which is about $77,000
3. 10 years road tax - $7,400

All in he is paying a car-related tax bill of $ 102,400 over 10 years for this example.

$100k invested in 4% yielding stocks can yield $4k a year tax free. This translates to 200 taxi rides costing $20 per trip. After 10 years, you will still have your portfolio of stocks instead of a depreciated car !

wonderful! i dont think it is hard to make 4% nominal returns on 100k in today's market. We can also see the 4% returns as 2 months of $2000 of after-tax salary.

If i have to choose between having a car today or 2 months of $2000 (after-tax) salary for the rest of my life, i would gladly choose the latter.
I cant imagine why many of my friends and relatives are so keen on getting a car lately.

On a side note, i intend to scrap my current car that is 8 years old, air con compressor spoilt, facing road tax renewal and car insurance soon, will the scrap value increase as the current COE is rising??

Money,

Sadly I do own one of those car dealership things. But here's some information for rule of thumb on depreciation of cars (example curve comes from a Golf GTI).

Depreciation table A
0 25%
1 14%
2 13%
3 12%
4 11%
5 8%
6 6%
7 5%
8 3%
9 3%
10 0%
TOTAL 100%

So the answer is that the d(price)/d(COE) of an old car is quite small.

The more general implication is that a new car's depreciation is significant compared to buying an old car (this is obvious) but to some degree this is offset by the lack of warranty in old cars, wear and tear parts that need to be replaced, some parts that might be out of production and various other inconveniences.

That is for a car used as "going concern" in Singapore. For the export/true scrap market, COE doesn't affect, the single biggest determinant is probably the SGD cross rate.

[Bibi]

On a side note, i intend to scrap my current car that is 8 years old, air con compressor spoilt, facing road tax renewal and car insurance soon, will the scrap value increase as the current COE is rising??

If the current COE is $77k i think minimum you should get 77/10*2 = $15.4k for selling your car? I will not sell if its anything less than that.

[CityFarmer]

On a side note, i intend to scrap my current car that is 8 years old, air con compressor spoilt, facing road tax renewal and car insurance soon, will the scrap value increase as the current COE is rising??

If the current COE is $77k i think minimum you should get 77/10*2 = $15.4k for selling your car? I will not sell if its anything less than that.

The scrap value of car is fixed at the registration of the car. It is independent on present COE.

It is a formula by factors of OMV and COE paid for the car, which are all fixed number at registration.

[Bibi]

On a side note, i intend to scrap my current car that is 8 years old, air con compressor spoilt, facing road tax renewal and car insurance soon, will the scrap value increase as the current COE is rising??

If the current COE is $77k i think minimum you should get 77/10*2 = $15.4k for selling your car? I will not sell if its anything less than that.

The scrap value of car is fixed at the registration of the car. It is independent on present COE.

It is a formula by factors of OMV and COE paid for the car, which are all fixed number at registration.

Then it makes more sense to sell the car than to scrap it since still got 2 years left? If i cant get 15.4k i rather drive till 10 years is up then to let 2nd hand car dealers short change me.

[money]

On a side note, i intend to scrap my current car that is 8 years old, air con compressor spoilt, facing road tax renewal and car insurance soon, will the scrap value increase as the current COE is rising??

If the current COE is $77k i think minimum you should get 77/10*2 = $15.4k for selling your car? I will not sell if its anything less than that.

The scrap value of car is fixed at the registration of the car. It is independent on present COE.

It is a formula by factors of OMV and COE paid for the car, which are all fixed number at registration.

Then it makes more sense to sell the car than to scrap it since still got 2 years left? If i cant get 15.4k i rather drive till 10 years is up then to let 2nd hand car dealers short change me.

i agree, scraping the car rather than driving for 10 years is a very irrational decision, especially when COE is on the rise. Haiz, but i am still making this dumb decision because of my relatives. They keep borrowing my car and i just do not know how to say NO.. it is not so much of the petrol, it is more of the inconvenience. U know, sometimes u agree to lend them tmrw, then suddenly u need to use it tmrw, but u have made a promise......

[CityFarmer]

On a side note, i intend to scrap my current car that is 8 years old, air con compressor spoilt, facing road tax renewal and car insurance soon, will the scrap value increase as the current COE is rising??

If the current COE is $77k i think minimum you should get 77/10*2 = $15.4k for selling your car? I will not sell if its anything less than that.

The scrap value of car is fixed at the registration of the car. It is independent on present COE.

It is a formula by factors of OMV and COE paid for the car, which are all fixed number at registration.

Then it makes more sense to sell the car than to scrap it since still got 2 years left? If i cant get 15.4k i rather drive till 10 years is up then to let 2nd hand car dealers short change me.

Car with only 1-2 years left normally sell with a small premium above scrap value. I recalled it is about $2-3K above scrap value few years ago, but not sure now

[Temperament]

At current COE prices, is it worth to extend another 5 years of COE after 10 years? Auto W/S recommends to extend if you think of buying a pre-owned car. As you can't be sure the history of pre-owned car maintenance except your own car. Of course if you have the money then buy a brand new car.
By the way how to compute the 5 year COE extension?

[CityFarmer]

At current COE prices, is it worth to extend another 5 years of COE after 10 years? Auto W/S recommends to extend if you think of buying a pre-owned car. As you can't be sure the history of pre-owned car maintenance except your own car. Of course if you have the money then buy a brand new car.
By the way how to compute the 5 year COE extension?

Base on one.motoring info

To renew the COE for another 5 years, pay 50% of the PQP. The PQP is the moving average of the COE prices (QPs) in the last 3 months.

So if it is not worth to buy car with the cost of COE now, i assume it is not worth to renew COE for another 5 years now.

[Temperament]

At current COE prices, is it worth to extend another 5 years of COE after 10 years? Auto W/S recommends to extend if you think of buying a pre-owned car. As you can't be sure the history of pre-owned car maintenance except your own car. Of course if you have the money then buy a brand new car.
By the way how to compute the 5 year COE extension?

Base on one.motoring info

To renew the COE for another 5 years, pay 50% of the PQP. The PQP is the moving average of the COE prices (QPs) in the last 3 months.

So if it is not worth to buy car with the cost of COE now, i assume it is not worth to renew COE for another 5 years now.

You are right in a way. Don't buy a car as COE is record high. On the other hand if "die, die" must have the luxury of a car, then commit 5 years COE is better than commit 10 years. The only problem is fees for maintenance of car will be higher. And the car may not have a resale value. But my car after almost 7 years of driving only clocked 114XXX Km. That is less than 20,000 KM/year. i only drive my car to KL and Malacca once of each town. And of course i maintain my car according to car maintenance schedule, as i am a 4K retired "ROJAK" (POWKALIU) technician by vocation.
Anyway i still have three years to see what is going to happen. i mean what the PAPYS are going to do? Maybe in 2015/16 suddenly COE is so much cheaper due to PAPY's spin-doctors story. Who knows???
Then hooray for everyone who aspires to own a car at least once in your lifetime.

[Musicwhiz]

The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Dec 06, 2012
2 new highs in COE prices

CERTIFICATE of entitlement (COE) premiums for small cars and commercial vehicles set new records again yesterday as dealers scurried to hit end-of-year sales targets.

The COE price for cars with 1,600cc engines or smaller crept up by 1.6 per cent in the latest tender to end at a new high of $78,523. Commercial vehicle COE premium rose by 4.6 per cent to finish at $63,035, another record.

Open COEs - which are for any vehicle type but used mainly for bigger cars - saw a 3.2 per cent rise in premium to $97,000. This was its highest point since it breached $100,000 in 1994.

Motor traders said the latest results reflect a growing desperation among dealerships to hit sales targets as the year draws to a close. There is also the race between BMW - which is No. 1 on the bestsellers' chart - and its main competitor Mercedes-Benz. At the end of October, only about 230 units separated the two.

Singapore Vehicle Traders Association secretary Raymond Tang said the fact that premiums were appreciably higher in the open category than for cars above 1,600cc pointed to speculation among dealers.

This is because they anticipate higher premiums due to an expected cut in the supply of COEs when the next six-month quota starts in February. The open category also offers more flexibility.

Buyers must secure a COE before they can register a new vehicle. The COEs are sold in fortnightly auctions, with most of the bidding done by car dealers who tend to include them as part of the package sold to customers.

Not all categories gained in price yesterday. The COE pre-mium for cars above 1,600cc slipped by 3 per cent to close at $90,200. That for motorcycles fell by 4.6 per cent to $1,612.

CHRISTOPHER TAN