COE prices have been falling for some time now. This is not unexpected since it is the gahmen's stated aim to focus on controlling car usage rather than ownership. They feel that more people would be happy if they owned cars, even if they couldn't afford to drive them most of the time.
Obviously, the gahmen has been issuing more COEs than they used to. You can tell by the worsening jams all over Singapore.
Unfortunately, the only people who can afford to take advantage of these cheap COEs are first-time buyers. Because of the new way of calculating scrap values, and the fall in new car prices, existing car owners cannot sell their cars without losing a lot. Besides, even if you scrap your car, the COE is recycled.
The real downside to this situation for existing car owners is the worsening jams and the proliferation of ERP gantries and hours. Not to mention the burden of high petrol prices. Ah well, c'est la vie in Singapore.
1 comment:
I'm afraid I may be one of the "first time buyers" U talked about when I purchase my car in the future. Hopefully near future.
But I do worry about keeping a car... the maintenace, etc...
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