COE and Car Prices

[Temperament]

What are the purpose of COE, ERP from day one ?
Do they solve the traffic congestion problem ?

Well, i do not know your definition of "solve".

I do know the Singapore traffic condition is one of the best among major cities in the region.

I do know driving into city around 8.30 am is pretty smooth, but once cross over to 9-930 am, the traffic slow down significantly.

Will it be worse if without COE and ERP? I do have an answer myself. It become less of a matter to me since i gave up driving. It matter only when i hire a taxi to town in the morning.

You forgot to ask the most important questions of Papy's COE or ERP or any policy formulated by the Papys? IS the policy as equitable as possible for the people? What is the policy's "side effects" on the people? If you can remember ERP started for CBD only. Slowly and sneakily ERP becomes for "Every Road Pays".
i tell you this is not the end of the story. Papys are experimenting with GPS tracking your car. Then when you drive your car to the car park wash area and back to your parking lot, it will be charged for usage. Even repositioning your car for proper parking will be charged accordingly. And why was your car parked at Geylang Red Light District for more than 3 hours? Your wife or girlfriend would definitely likes to know.
Then Papys will boast to the world Sink apore is the 1st country to use GPS for making Sink aporeans pay for using their cars. No need cumbersome ERP gantries anymore. If i am not mistaken, Papys are the 1st in introducing COE and ERP in the World. The question is for whose benefit? Or who benefited the most? And worst still who suffers the most?

[valueinvestor]

What are the purpose of COE, ERP from day one ?
Do they solve the traffic congestion problem ?

Well, i do not know your definition of "solve".

I do know the Singapore traffic condition is one of the best among major cities in the region.

I do know driving into city around 8.30 am is pretty smooth, but once cross over to 9-930 am, the traffic slow down significantly.

Will it be worse if without COE and ERP? I do have an answer myself. It become less of a matter to me since i gave up driving. It matter only when i hire a taxi to town in the morning.

Should compare past and present of Singapore, not with other countries or cities.
Not driving now but still can share current driving experience ?

[CityFarmer]

What are the purpose of COE, ERP from day one ?
Do they solve the traffic congestion problem ?

Well, i do not know your definition of "solve".

I do know the Singapore traffic condition is one of the best among major cities in the region.

I do know driving into city around 8.30 am is pretty smooth, but once cross over to 9-930 am, the traffic slow down significantly.

Will it be worse if without COE and ERP? I do have an answer myself. It become less of a matter to me since i gave up driving. It matter only when i hire a taxi to town in the morning.

Should compare past and present of Singapore, not with other countries or cities.
Not driving now but still can share current driving experience ?

Not driving should not comment on driving experience?

with similar logic, Micheal Dee should not comment on Olam-MW saga, since he had retired from investment industrial

[valueinvestor]

What are the purpose of COE, ERP from day one ?
Do they solve the traffic congestion problem ?

Well, i do not know your definition of "solve".

I do know the Singapore traffic condition is one of the best among major cities in the region.

I do know driving into city around 8.30 am is pretty smooth, but once cross over to 9-930 am, the traffic slow down significantly.

Will it be worse if without COE and ERP? I do have an answer myself. It become less of a matter to me since i gave up driving. It matter only when i hire a taxi to town in the morning.

Should compare past and present of Singapore, not with other countries or cities.
Not driving now but still can share current driving experience ?

Not driving should not comment on driving experience?

with similar logic, Micheal Dee should not comment on Olam-MW saga, since he had retired from investment industrial

You always want to have final say and win, let you win , let you win. No problem for me because i don't lose anything. I am more interested to win monies. Bye

[CityFarmer]

You always want to have final say and win, let you win , let you win. No problem for me because i don't lose anything. I am more interested to win monies. Bye

Ha ha..

It seems i am poking too much...

Agree, the win is meaningless, should spend valuable time in a more productive manner, especially in value investing forum like this

Sorry for the annoying poking.... Bye and let's move-on to topic of winning monies... Huat ah....

[Temperament]

Ha! Ha!
All of us rich or poor will win, if Papys have more equitable policies for the people. As it is most policies now are camouflaged for the good of the people which if you inspect the actual final outcomes, you will discover policies are skewed to Papys's advantages and associated Elites. Don't forget even SMRT are owned more than 50% by Papys indirectly. And many more large companies if you care to investigate.
The day will come when the people can not take it anymore.

[Musicwhiz]

The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Jan 10, 2013
COE price for small cars hits new high of $92,100
It soars by more than $10,000 and is close to bigger cars' premium

By Christopher Tan Senior Correspondent

THE COE premium for small cars shot up by more than $10,000 to reach a new high of $92,100 at the latest tender yesterday.

The new rate for cars up to 1,600cc is 12.5 per cent higher than its previous level of $81,889.

It is also close to the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) cost for cars above 1,600cc, which ended at $96,210 - 2.9 per cent higher than before.

The Open COE - usually used for bigger cars - was $96,101 or 0.1 per cent higher.

Traders linked the price escalation of COEs, which are needed for vehicle ownership, mainly to the launch of the new VW Golf 1.4 and imminent introduction of a 1.6-litre variant of the BMW 3-series.

BMW agent Performance Motors is said to have already collected close to 100 bookings for the 3-series 1.6, while Volkswagen Singapore was said to have sold more than 100 Golfs last weekend.

But VW Singapore general manager of sales Daniel Chong noted that many car buyers are also aware of an impending cut in COE supply from next month.

"As a result, there has been an increase in new car bookings over the last few weeks," he said.

The next six-month COE quota is expected to dip sharply because of a lower growth rate allowed by the Government and fewer cars scrapped in the preceding six months.

Last year's allotment was already a massive drop from before. That fuelled an unabated rise in premiums.

Despite yesterday's surge in small-car COE prices, motor traders were not entirely surprised.

Mr Ron Lim, general manager of Nissan agent Tan Chong Motor, said the premium could even overtake that for bigger cars and reach $100,000.

He noted that the introduction of the Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS), which offers tax rebates to cars with low emissions, is contributing to "more and more cars" crowding the small-car COE category.

Smaller cars tend to be less pollutive and many stand to benefit from the scheme.

"Ironically, this will only push up prices, and whatever tax rebate one gets is eventually thrown back into the system," he added.

The 3-series 1.6 and new Golf 1.4 qualify for carbon-emission rebates of $10,000 and $15,000 respectively.

Performance Motors managing director Say Kwee Neng expects the premium for small and big cars to "go neck and neck" in the coming months.

Traders also attributed yesterday's results to a longer interval between the tender and the last one, which created a bigger backlog of orders.

The latest results have made budget cars even less viable. They cannot compete with premium models whose sellers and buyers have fatter margins and deeper pockets.

Take the Toyota Corolla 1.6 and Mercedes C180 1.6. Their cost prices are about $14,800 and $30,500 respectively. Their retail prices start from around $125,000 and $188,000 respectively.

After taxes and COE - at the previous premium of $81,889 - the gross profit margin of the Toyota works out to around $11,000 while that for the Merc is $39,000.

So, even after salesman commission and freebies to customers, it is clear which dealer can bid higher for COE.

Motorcyclists were not spared yesterday. The two-wheeler COE ended 13.6 per cent higher at $1,933.

Commercial-vehicle COE was the only one bucking the trend, with the price dipping 3.5 per cent to close at $60,000. Traders said the COE supply for vans, trucks and buses will expand in the next six-month quota.

christan@sph.com.sg

[cfa]

Super bullrun for COE .

[felixleong]

If there was a COE Index that we could invest in, you would had made over 90% return as compared to the 20% returns from the STI, over 4 times higher returns!

LOL

[Ben]

It is quite clear to me that our govt is not keen in regulating the price of COE. On the pretext of controlling car population, which is such a magnificent reason, the system is without doubt very lucrative to the govt! So since people are still willing to pay for something which the govt deem as luxury, why bother to change the system?

On the other hand, if COE were to drop to ridiculously level like the early 20's to mid 20's, govt will probably intervene, saying the system is flawed and need tweaking, or the system is not sustainable. Can anyone recall how come we have a twice a month open bidding system now? What was the system in the past? Why change it?

I know there is no one solution to solve all the problems right now. But for a start, I think govt should not allow motor traders to bid on behalf of consumers anymore. These are the people that bid the price up, package it into the selling price and consumers have no choice but to pay for it. Is this a free market? More like a control price to me. Allow consumers to bid by themselves, AND consumers MUST pay for successful bid in CASH. This way, people will bid according to what they think is REASONABLE and AFFORDABLE to them.

Am I too simple minded? Maybe, that is why I don't earn million dollar salary