COE supply to raise after 7-yr slide -ST 8.4.14

[Belg]

To me, to find honest workshops is quite a difficult thing to do.

Honest in dealings? There is always a long list of them.

[GPD]

Let face it. The high cost of car simply induce more traffic. I wouldn't pay $100k for a machine to do nothing. I need to maximise the return from it to justify the huge capex. The concept of COE is just counter-intuitive to both fulfilling Singaporeans' aspiration of owning cars and reducing traffic congestion.

There are only so much you can do to increase road space but so much was done to increase the population and demand for road space. Their current policies are definitely not designed for solving traffic problems. Instead they made them worse and is likely to make then even worse in the future. How to square this?

[Riderr2000]

Relative to major metropolitan cities London, Manhattan, HK, even Sydney, our parking is very cheap, and fairly abundant in the CBD. It just doesnt make sense to drive in NYC cos the parking is so inconvenient and expensive (doesnt help that there are many crazy drivers too...) If I had to pay more than S$1,000 for parking in CBD, I will re-weigh the merits of taking public transport vs driving. Personally I hope this doesnt happen anytime soon, but I think its a matter of time.

[corydorus]

We need multi-story roads duplicating top and bottom in major expressway and CBD area with their own walkways to the 5th floor of each buildings.

[Temperament]

To me, to find honest workshops is quite a difficult thing to do.

Honest in dealings? There is always a long list of them.

If you have learned and know as much as 50% of your car as the car mechanic, many minor faults can be DIY or at least let the mechanic knows what you know. Then you can ask for quotation for the service & repair or discuss with the car mechanic. The car mechanic will realise it's very difficult to smoke you.
Usually it's only a very minor fault, but if you know nuts about car, then (sorry) you are at the mercy (honesty) of the W/S mechanic.
That's life.

[Belg]

To me, to find honest workshops is quite a difficult thing to do.

Honest in dealings? There is always a long list of them.

If you have learned and know as much as 50% of your car as the car mechanic, many minor faults can be DIY or at least let the mechanic knows what you know. Then you can ask for quotation for the service & repair or discuss with the car mechanic. The car mechanic will realise it's very difficult to smoke you.
Usually it's only a very minor fault, but if you know nuts about car, then (sorry) you are at the mercy (honesty) of the W/S mechanic.
That's life.

A very good resource before I go and discuss bolts and nuts with my favorite neighborhood mechanic is to visit www.mycarforum.com. Here, one can not only get the resource necessary for the repair, u also can get to know the market price for the repair. Then can one really negotiate properly. Hope it helps :p

[Temperament]

To me, to find honest workshops is quite a difficult thing to do.

Honest in dealings? There is always a long list of them.

If you have learned and know as much as 50% of your car as the car mechanic, many minor faults can be DIY or at least let the mechanic knows what you know. Then you can ask for quotation for the service & repair or discuss with the car mechanic. The car mechanic will realise it's very difficult to smoke you.
Usually it's only a very minor fault, but if you know nuts about car, then (sorry) you are at the mercy (honesty) of the W/S mechanic.
That's life.

A very good resource before I go and discuss bolts and nuts with my favorite neighborhood mechanic is to visit www.mycarforum.com. Here, one can not only get the resource necessary for the repair, u also can get to know the market price for the repair. Then can one really negotiate properly. Hope it helps :p

Yes! It definitely does help to google as much knowledge as possible for anything to understand the world and you.
i do visit www.mycarforum.com.
Thanks.

[greengiraffe]

My View - will be lucky to get COE at 50k when supply peaks at next replacement cycle...

PUBLISHED AUGUST 07, 2014
COE premiums rise across the board
Dealers realise that new quota isn't as big as expected
BYSAMUEL EE
samuelee@sph.com.sg

Getting wheels: ' We realised that the new quota is not so big after all,' says a managing director of a luxuty dealership, 'so we had better bid for as many COEs as possible to clear any Cat A backlog before prices go even higher.' - DESMOND WEE/THE STRAITS TIMES
[SINGAPORE] COE premiums have risen across the board as dealers rushed to secure certificates of entitlement following good orders for new models and the realisation that the new quota for cars is not as generous as first thought.
Category A - for cars below 1,600cc and 130 hp - climbed S$1,710 to S$64,600, and Cat B - for cars above 1,600cc or 130 hp - jumped S$3,688 to S$68,689.
Cat E - the open category that currently tracks Cat B - spiked S$3,999 to S$69,001.
Meanwhile, Cat C - for goods vehicles - was S$1,999 higher at S$54,009, while Cat D - for motorcycles - inched up S$101 to S$4,353.
Yesterday's COE bidding exercise was the first for the new August-October quota. It is 6 per cent smaller than the previous May-July quota, with 11,331 COEs, or 729 pieces fewer.
Nevertheless, there is a 13.1 per cent increase in Cat A COEs to 1,143 a monthly, and a 4.6 per cent hike in Cat B COEs to 1,010 a month. However, Cat E is 18.4 per cent down at 478 COEs a month. So is Cat C, diving 33.1 per cent to 515 per month, and Cat D, contracting 8 per cent to 631 monthly.
The managing director of a luxury dealership says that although there are more Cat A and Cat B COEs, there is concern that the reduction in Cat E would have an impact. Hence, the strong bids.
"We realised that the new quota is not so big after all, so we had better bid for as many COEs as possible to clear any Cat A backlog before prices go even higher," he says.
As for Cat B, the strong interest in the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class compact sedan and Porsche Macan compact SUV are said to have pushed up the premium. It is understood that there are about 400 orders for the baby Benz and 250-300 for the baby Porsche.
The managing director believes that there will be more upward pressure ahead, especially for Cat B.
"The situation may change yet, but as things stand, Cat B could go up by another $3,000 in two weeks' time."
Analyse historical COE data with the Business Times' interactive tool at http://btd.sg/coetrack

[pianist]

Sounds like a see saw ha ha

[greengiraffe]

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/...m-20140910

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
Motor distributors gearing up for COE boom
Up to 52,000 cars due for deregistration from now till mid-2015; further 107,000 cars due following year
BYSAMUEL EE
samuelee@sph.com.sg

'Compared with those lean years, 2015 will have at least 50 per cent more car COEs, if not 75 per cent more.'
- Director of a volume dealership
[SINGAPORE] Motor distributors are gearing up their operations for a boom in certificates of entitlement (COEs) next year, including one brand which has returned to the prime Leng Kee Road motor belt.
With a maximum of about 52,000 cars which can be deregistered between now and mid-2015, dealers are preparing for a big spike in COE supply within the next year. Deregistrations are the main component in determining each new COE quota and over the past four years, the number of cars scrapped has been low. This, and a lower allowable vehicle growth rate and COE clawbacks due to previous oversupply, have put a squeeze on COEs.
As a result, the number of private passenger cars registered in 2013 was just 22,008 units, while only 27,000-plus new cars were put on the roads in each of the preceding two years.
"Compared with those lean years, 2015 will have at least 50 per cent more car COEs, if not 75 per cent more,'' says the director of a volume dealership.
The situation looks even rosier beyond that. According to the Land Transport Authority, from mid-2015 to mid-2016, a maximum of 107,000 cars are due for deregistration, or double the preceding period's figure. And this pool remains about the same size for the following 12-month period from mid-2016 to mid-2017.
So it is no surprise that many distributors are ramping up operations. The Mitsubishi brand, for example, is returning to Cycle & Carriage's Alexandra Road showroom.
In 2010, Mitsubishi shrank its operations in line with the contracting market. To cut costs, it operated out of only one showroom by its dealer in Ubi.
But this week, it re-opened its main showroom in the prime motor belt.
"In the past, when volume was low, we did not need to spread out so much,'' says a senior executive." But with the market likely to pick up momentum over the next two years, we can better capture demand with showrooms in both car belts.''
Some brands are expanding their model line-up. For Opel and Chevrolet, distributor Alpine is bringing in two new models each. The first, the Chevrolet Sonic hatchback, arrives next month, to complement a total of 11 existing models.
The four cars will be Alpine's first new model launches in two years.
But others may be more cautious about over-extending themselves. Over at Borneo Motors Singapore, the authorised Toyota distributor is said to be streamlining its pre-delivery inspection (PDI) operations and securing new facilities to handle the expected rise in sales. Distributors require PDI facilities to prepare new cars for delivery.
But it appears investment in other areas may take place only when the actual boom materialises.
The director of a luxury dealership believes focusing on PDI is "important to prepare for what we believe will be explosive growth ahead'', with one concern being the ability to rent sufficient space for PDI and storage when sales increase.
But he adds that a more critical issue is manpower, especially trained sales staff.
"In the past three years, many sales people left the industry or were retrenched because of falling sales,'' he says. "The attrition rate was at least 30 to 40 per cent for the major dealerships.''
Distributors also cut down on sub-contract work for everything from accessories to vehicle logistics.
The director says: "Many of these sub-contractors have either scaled down tremendously or gone bust. Whether we can get back all these when we need them fast will be key.''