Results 1 to 11 of 11

Thread: Good $100k car buys

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    2,429

    Default Good $100k car buys

    AsiaOne ‏@sphasiaone

    Good $100k car buys http://fb.me/2I3bHsKQs

    http://ride.asiaone.com/features/tip...re-owned-route

    The pre-owned route

    Costly certificate of entitlement, coupled with much tighter financing regulations implemented last year, have put brand-new cars beyond the reach of the majority of buyers. The curb on car loans is perhaps the biggest barrier now to buying a car, with the hefty "deposits" only affordable to those who are very "liquid".
    The market situation has spurred dealers to offer leasing programmes, as they allow consumers to get a car without coughing up a lot of cold, hard cash upfront for the 40-50 per cent downpayment required by law. But if you'd still prefer to own your car rather than to "rent", then you best bet would be to shop for a used car.
    Although pre-owned cars are also subject to the new loan regulations, they require less downpayment compared to brand-new vehicles and have lower annual depreciation. Also, unlike with leasing, car owners can offset the purchase of their next car by using the preferred additional registration fee (PARF) rebate and remaining COE "paper value" if the vehicle is scrapped before its 10th year.
    For example, a brand-new MINI Cooper that costs $142.8k has an open market value (OMV) of $25k (at press time) would require a downpayment of $71.4k, whereas a five-year-old example that costs $80k with an OMV of $27k needs a downpayment of just $40k. And while the new MINI depreciates at roughly $13k yearly, the used on that was registered in 2009 depreciates at about $9k per annum.
    (To calculate a vehicle's average depreciation, subtract the PARF rebate from its selling price and divide that figure by the number of years left on its COE. The PARF rebate is 50 per cent of the Additional Registration Fee in the COE's tenth year.)
    To get a general idea of what's available in the used car market, we did a quick search on SPH portal Sgcarmart.com using three common price points for five-year-old cars - $75k, $100k and $150k. At the $75,000 mark, the most popular model by far was the Volkswagen Golf, while the Audi A4, BMW 320i and BMW 520i had the most listing in the $100,000 category. The most advertised model in the $150,000 category was the Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

    Quality pre-owned cars can also be found at the authorised agents for major car brands, many of which now have active subsidiaries selling pre-owned models. Compared to small- and medium-sized firms, these bigger players offer clients a, well, bigger package that includes multi-point mechanical checks, warranty coverage and after-sales support.
    Examples of these dealers include MINI Next and multi-brand distributor Wearnes Automotive's Pre-Owned division, which offers both Japanese and European models.
    According to a Wearnes spokesperson, their used cars do not have age or mileage restrictions, but to reassure customers, each vehicle goes through a multi-point inspection and a four-stage grooming process. For added assurance, each car sold also comes with 24-hour roadside assistance valid in Singapore and peninsula Malaysia.
    If you're searching for "slightly used" vehicles, keep a lookout for demo car sales at dealerships. Demo cars are usually low-mileage test-drive units, but you'll also find company vehicles (driven by managers and directors) being offered. BMW agent Performance Motors also sells cars supplied as limousines special events, but as always, the higher-mileage vehicles are the ones with better discounts.
    Brand-new cars are likely to remain prohibitively expensive until 2016, which is when the COE supply is expected to increase significantly due to the scrapping of cars from the 2005-2008 era of generous COE quotas. Until then, aspiring car owners can explore the pre-owned route.

    The Next option
    "Unconventional" buyers looking for an equally offbeat ride could consider MINI Next, the brand's official pre-owned arm, which launched in Singapore in December. According to MINI Next manager Patrick Tan, the dealership aims to give clients better peace of mind through their standard 12-month/120,000km warranty on all vehicles. Apart from undergoing a 360-degree check, the MINIs sold here come with full service histories, are less than five years old, and have clocked less than 120,000 kilometers.
    Get a copy of the February 2014 issue of Torque to read about the latest on all things to do with cars, in the most exciting ways. Torque, published by SPH Magazines, is available at all newsstands now.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    6,134

    Default

    we all have a choice either you be a slave to your car or your car is a slave to you...i know whats MY choice...
    In the final analysis.....its NOT whether you have a diploma,degree,masters OR PHD....its whether you have a HDB/PC/EC or LANDED...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    2,429

    Default

    Sumiko Tan ‏@STsumikotan 12h

    Food for thought: Would Singaporeans be happier if we were less obsessed with cars? Kishore Mahbubani's piece in ST http://bit.ly/1g5cr5a

    http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking...apore-20140208

    In my January 2014 column, I said that Singaporeans should use 2014 to think of new Big Ideas to guide us for the next 50 years. Here is Big Idea No.1 for debate and discussion.
    Singapore will never be car-less, but it can and should have fewer cars. On reading this, the reader could be forgiven for thinking: ''Here goes Kishore again on his campaign to improve public transport in Singapore.''
    However, this big idea is not about improving transportation. It is about improving the happiness of the Singapore population.
    Unhappy Singaporeans
    IT IS a well-known fact that the Singaporean population is not the happiest in the world. Singaporeans gripe, naturally and effortlessly. One good example of this was provided by a Straits Times article written after the Prime Minister had spoken to a group of students at the Nanyang Technological University on Jan 30. The article began with the following line: ''Nine out of 15 interviewed were concerned they won't be able to buy a flat and a car.''
    The aspiration of the young for a flat is perfectly reasonable. But the aspiration of nine out of 15 for a car is not reasonable. Why not? The simple, direct and blunt answer is that if Singapore tries to squeeze the American dream - designed for a huge, almost boundless continent - into one of the tiniest countries in the world, it will effectively condemn its population to perpetual unhappiness.
    High car ownership
    ONE little known fact about Singapore is that it has one of the highest car ownership populations in the world for a city. (Repeat: For a city, and not for a country.)
    Mr Charles Chow, who blogs on transportation issues, says the following: ''There are roughly 550,000 to 600,000 private vehicles in Singapore. Forty-five per cent of households in Singapore own at least one car. This implies that out of the approximate 1.25 million households in Singapore, about 560,000 households have at least one car. There are 200,000 private dwellings in Singapore and slightly more than one million Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats. My simple back-of-the-envelope calculation therefore shows that more than 300,000 HDB or public housing dwellings own at least one car. Since HDB dwellings are heavily subsidised, the fact that they are also given abundant and cheap residential HDB carparks represent a further subsidy.''
    Mr Chow also notes the contrast between Singapore and other cities: ''From London to Hong Kong, only the top 10 to 20 per cent of household dwellings come with carparks. Without a carpark, residents just simply cannot buy a car. In Singapore, the Government has so generously provided abundant and cheap residential carparking in the HDB estates over the years. From New York to Tokyo, office buildings are deliberately built with few or no carparks.
    ''In Singapore, that is not the case. Even middle managers can drive their cars to work and park their cars in office building carparks for the whole day.''
    Having lived in New York for 10 years, I can only agree with Mr Chow when he says: ''Anyone who has lived in New York or Tokyo would know that even managing directors of companies, senior bankers and lawyers take public transportation to work. In Singapore, even middle-level executives working in Raffles Place drive to work. Is the Singaporean middle-level executive better paid than a senior banker in New York?''
    Car ownership encouraged
    IN SHORT, in a country that has designed public policies to restrict car ownership (from the compulsory certificate of entitlement to high import taxes), Singapore has paradoxically ended up creating an environment that actually encourages rather than discourages car ownership. There are three ways in which Singapore encourages car ownership.
    Firstly, as the world's only city state, the Singapore Government wisely decided in its early years that the country would strangle itself to death as an economy if it allowed Bangkok-style traffic jams to clog our streets. But while Singapore has succeeded in creating free-flowing traffic, this has paradoxically made it rational to own a car.
    This is also why I own a car. I can get from my home in Siglap to my school in Bukit Timah in less than 20 minutes by driving. Any combination of public transport would take at least an hour each way. I save 80 minutes a day by driving. This provides a huge incentive to own a car. (My ultimate dream, however, is to forego owning a car. Instead, I would like to have a driverless electric vehicle - similar to the one the National University of Singapore is testing - appear at my home within 30 minutes of calling. As I learnt in Davos last month, I will be able to achieve this dream in my lifetime.)
    Secondly, by ensuring that car prices are among the highest in the world, Singapore has made the car one of the most important status symbols in Singapore. This explains the attraction of European car brands in Singapore.
    In most cases, a Japanese or Korean car can do the job of transportation equally well. But it will not enhance one's status. A European brand does. This is how we try to keep up with ''the Joneses'' in Singapore.
    Thirdly, as Mr Chow says, our subsidy of carparks in HDB estates makes it much easier and cheaper to own and park a car than it would be in New York, London, Tokyo or Paris. Since this subsidy has become entrenched in our society, it cannot be taken away. Any government that tries to take back perks that a population has become accustomed to is a government that wants to commit political suicide. It would be unfair to ask any government to do this.
    Bottom-up approach
    ALL this brings me to the most important point that I want to make in this article. Singapore has succeeded in its first 50 years because it had a government that thought carefully over the long term and crafted policies that would enhance the long-term interests of Singapore. This is why Singapore has free-flowing traffic. However, over the next 50 years, a new paradigm will be needed: What is needed now is a society where the people think carefully and advocate policies that are good for Singapore's long-term interests. In short, a bottom-up instead of a top-down approach is needed to solve the car problem of Singapore.
    In the first 50 years, Singapore had a government designing various policies to temper the desire for Singaporeans to own cars. Now, society needs to decide that since Singapore is one of the tiniest countries in the world, people should gradually give up the desire to own cars. Most Singaporeans reading this article would scoff at this notion. Let me share some good news here. In most developed countries, people are already using cars less, not more.
    Trend towards fewer cars
    AN ARTICLE from The Economist on Sept 22, 2012, provides some encouraging statistics. In the leading economies in the world (Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States) ''total vehicle kilometres travelled began to plateau in 2004 and fall from 2007; measured per person, growth flatlined sooner, after 2000, and dropped after 2004 before recovering somewhat''.
    According to World Bank data, passenger cars per 1,000 people in the US have been gradually declining since at least 2003, a trend which accelerated somewhat after the onset of the recession in 2008. Equally encouragingly, young people in the developed world are getting driver's licences later in life (or not at all).
    This is good news for congestion because, according to a study conducted in the UK, people who learn to drive in their late 20s drive less than if they had learnt in their late teens.
    Singaporeans are proud of the fact that the country has gone from ''Third World to First World'' faster than any other nation in human history. Now, for the next 50 years, Singapore has to catch up with the First World in terms of moving away from car ownership as a dream.
    In my next article - Big Idea No.2 - I hope to demonstrate it is possible to make Singapore No.1 in the world when it comes to public transportation.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    6,134

    Default

    In all major cities cars are a luxury. Basically becoz of limited space. Singapore is no exception. People need to come to terms with that. Is die die want a car be prepare to pay the cost to own it.
    “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
    ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

    OUT WITH THE SHIT TRASH

    https://www.facebook.com/shutdowntrs

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    2,429

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by minority View Post
    In all major cities cars are a luxury. Basically becoz of limited space. Singapore is no exception. People need to come to terms with that. Is die die want a car be prepare to pay the cost to own it.
    Yup, that's true.
    But they should have restricted usage cars where we can drive within certain neighbourhood estates to send kids to school and run errands and these cars should be exempted from COE or be placed in a different category.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Posts
    1,102

    Default

    Say what u like....
    Singaporeans are simply crazy over cars n this is a fact!
    The latest 1st batch of new Audi A3 sedan is almost sold out even b4 it's been launched...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Posts
    3,721

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by fiat500 View Post
    Say what u like....
    Singaporeans are simply crazy over cars n this is a fact!
    The latest 1st batch of new Audi A3 sedan is almost sold out even b4 it's been launched...
    1st batch bring in how many?
    dont be like developer launch and release 100 sold 60 and calls it over half sold on 1st day, lol.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    6,134

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by princess_morbucks View Post
    Yup, that's true.
    But they should have restricted usage cars where we can drive within certain neighbourhood estates to send kids to school and run errands and these cars should be exempted from COE or be placed in a different category.
    how to police? sure have people anyhow abuse it.

    anyway current car loan curb don't apply to the disabled If I remember right.
    “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
    ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

    OUT WITH THE SHIT TRASH

    https://www.facebook.com/shutdowntrs

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    600

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by princess_morbucks View Post
    Yup, that's true.
    But they should have restricted usage cars where we can drive within certain neighbourhood estates to send kids to school and run errands and these cars should be exempted from COE or be placed in a different category.
    Where to draw the line?

    If office located within the housing estate and govt allow such circumstances to be exempted, isn't it considered discriminatory and unfair treatment?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Posts
    1,102

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by august View Post
    1st batch bring in how many?
    dont be like developer launch and release 100 sold 60 and calls it over half sold on 1st day, lol.
    Should b easily 100+ units... n that's just for a single model only.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    36

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by princess_morbucks View Post
    Yup, that's true.
    But they should have restricted usage cars where we can drive within certain neighbourhood estates to send kids to school and run errands and these cars should be exempted from COE or be placed in a different category.
    Wow, then can exotic car owners like us who only drive our lambo/ferrari/911s 2-3 times a month be exempted from coe since our cars are off road most of the time?

Similar Threads

  1. Today i going Jurong looking for GOOD buys
    By radha08 in forum Coffeeshop Talk
    Replies: 3
    -: 02-08-13, 10:24
  2. $100k COE or $100k stamp duty
    By star in forum Singapore Private Condominium Property Discussion and News
    Replies: 15
    -: 13-01-13, 12:37
  3. Good Buys for Brand New Inter-Terraces
    By Blue in forum Landed Property
    Replies: 7
    -: 15-05-12, 15:52
  4. D9 Resale Units Good Buys!!!
    By Petmail in forum District 9
    Replies: 26
    -: 13-03-09, 10:32
  5. Hot property market still has good buys
    By mr funny in forum Singapore Private Condominium Property Discussion and News
    Replies: 0
    -: 16-04-07, 07:27

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •