Why COE system is outdated?? Options

[HP_Lee]

Some reviews should be taken into considerations..... What is your view ?

COE Outdated??

[Vhtfhwlego]

1) Favours the wealthy
The reality of life is as such.... Why complain when you cant afford… Likewise, I would like to buy a house in Sentosa but couldn’t afford it… Can I complain to the government that Sentosa Cove should be meant for everyone?

2) No segregation of user groups
Its is not a fair system in the first place. If that one is still referring to wealth vs engine cc, one should consider fast car/faster driver should be pay lesser for COE as they spend lesser time on the road. Hoggers should pay more!

3) No redistribution of resources
Ask the government about the rise in HDB prices which had inflated and private properties bloom….

4) May lead to bad driving behaviour
Then car should be paid in full and conflicting against “favours the wealthy”.

5) Drastic changes in COE prices every fortnight cause instability
In business, one should be also dynamic. So???


6) No vintage car scene in Singapore
Last time, so many COEs cars which pollutes the air… congest the traffic….. One, COE cars had been taken care of = lesser vehicles = more space for others…

[Kar_lover]

(1) Favours the wealthy
Totally stupid. Private cars are not a necessity of life. If can't afford then don't buy. Govt don't owe each person a car.

(2) No segregation of user groups
Car, motorcylce, commercial vehicle is not user groups? You mean want to separate by job occupation group? Or writer means income group? Which i would then say please refer to (1) above.

(3) No redistribution of resources.
Another stupid statement. Firstly companies don't buy cars for ALL theri employess. Only top few management. For big companies the extra COE cost is a small cost compared to other overheads like staff salary, rent, etc. Because of COE high got no money to innovate?? Seriously?? Does the writer know how much money R&D costs??

(4) Bad driving behavious
Please lah, we already behave badly. And this is more personal upbringing than anything else. Stop blaming our own faults on others!

(5) Instability
When many old cars on the road, aftermarket will flourish?? My new car has no arrived and i have already spent more than $2000 bringing in after market parts!! And when it does come i will spend another $4-$5k on aftermarket.

(6) Vintage car scene
Errr...small minority group...how is this a national problem. I don't think govt can bother to take car of small specific interest groups that have no bearing on the larger national scene.


As for the writer's suggestions:
(1) taxis has since been excluded
(2) luxury cars don't take up that many COEs so might not be meaningful to create a category just for them (meaning the few additional COEs won't affect thge PQP much) although if the motive is to make those ultra-rich pay more then by all means create a luxury COE category where there are only 10 COEs available every month. But then again, govt should also change stamp duty and charge the rich more and those buying small HDB flat should be waived right? Afterall housing is necessity
(3) segregating by income/needs - no. Car is not necessity. If can afford to buy then buy. Cannot afford take public transport.
(4) balloting - no, will create black market. Even those who don't actually need car will still go and ballot and "try their luck". And again, car is not necessity. If can afford to buy, please buy. Cannot afford....you know what to do.
(5) queueing system - don't even want to discuss, this is not hawker centre!
(6) pay what you bid - mentioned before many times already

Basically this writer is hopeless. Repeating nonsense or other people's ideas. Not a single original suggestion. She probably read throught the posts her in mcf and talk like she came up with them. Like that also can be "prominent" in the automotive industry. *Shake head*

[Knighthunter]

I don't know what happen with our local motoring journalist, this lady and another one last time called Chrstopher wrote people will regret buying with high COE in reality he wrote totally unfounded.

This the reality we are living in the island that will not grow every year and traffic condition is quite bad already also not to mention big problem with parking space that had not been solved until now. Parking will be another teething issue in the short future since the parking space is shrinking instead expanding is some area. I am quite tired hearing people horning or tussle due to illegal parking, it really a nuisance.

Life never fair, if someday I am priced out to own car then I will take public transport even how bad it is.

This post has been edited by Knighthunter: Jul 30 2012, 10:32 AM

[Roadrunner2029]

Owning a car is not a necessity. There isn't public-assisted car ownership in other countries either. In cities of similar capacity or bigger, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manhattan, London, driving is not affordable either. COE needs tuning, but IMHO, arguments like "for the wealthy", "redistribution of wealth", "instability", doesn't apply here. Tweak the weekend car scheme more for vintage cars, leisure and road trips, .. don't make sense making $100k COE to drive on track or in Malaysia only for example.

[Deckbuild]

After the release of Aug - Feb figure and the sudden hike of COE price, so many discussion on COE, not sian meh?

Discuss so much also like that, nothing will change, because if have a major overhaul, what about those existing COE holders?

[Timbuktu]

Only senior management in my company gets a company car.
Other middle executives only get an interest-free company loan ... but must payback.

If the mentality is such that COEs will have to be distributed to those that cannot afford cars, by bending existing rules ... then there will be revolt in my company, when everyone would want a right to have a company car.
Ridiculous!

Similarly, landed property in prime districts is scarse.
Those who cannot afford will want the govt to provide subsidies, or bend rules to allow more people to own prime landed property.
Ridiculous!

The top 20-30% of salaried work force (citizens, PRs and FTs) earn in excess of $500,000 p.a., no top end, running to millions p.a.
Those in the 40-80% sanwiched class (earning less than $250,000 p.a.) will demand for salary restructuring, to edge themselves toward the elite segment, without any supporting fabric (brains, talent, drive, or otherwise). Everybody also wants to have more money right?
Ridiculous!

[Liping24cn]

Unless someone can suggest a alternative to Coe.
Coe so far is the better scheme around.

[Kyojin]

this so-called "journalist" is rubbish. she doesn't know her stuff and often copies ideas/material.

1) Favours the wealthy
She already said cars are a luxury in Singapore. It's not a need. In many other large cities, vehicle ownership is also confined to the mid to higher income residents -- Shanghai, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Taipei, NYC. In other countries, they do not pay COE, but have to pay high/exorbitant parking charges, which also means that only the "wealthy" can afford cars.

2) No segregation of user groups
Yea, so how are you going to separate MB/Audi/BMW/Lexus from Hyundai/Toyota? Allocating COEs based on brand will introduce anti-competition into the picture. What more? If the "wealthy" sees that Korean/Japanese brands are significantly cheaper, they will still target this market and leave the "not so wealthy" with the same scenario.

3) No redistribution of resources
The writer is obviously too young to remember how there was a mushrooming of Light Goods Vehicles, LGVs, in the 1990s when COEs were sky rocketing. People started to abuse the cheaper COEs and tax structures for LGVs, and turned to these as daily transports. This is perhaps happening now as demand for Cat C COEs are increasing.

4) May lead to bad driving behaviour
Is this really an argument? Bad driving behavior is caused by the lack of policing. Taxi drivers don't have to pay COEs, but they drive badly.

5) Drastic changes in COE prices every fortnight cause instability
The writer obviously hasn't taken Economics classes? Or was she asleep? It's called supply and demand. Low supply, high demand, prices go up! People need to register cars and taking COEs monthly longer will introduce even more opacity and maybe even send prices up even more because people and car companies are desperate to buy/sell.

6) No vintage car scene in Singapore
A "vintage car" is one that is built between 1919 and 1930. I don't believe that any cars were under the COE system at that time. There are vintage/classic car schemes available and both the vintage and classic cars scenes are very vibrant in Singapore.

Some of her suggestions are nothing new (again, copied from other people)
-Segregating COE categories according to income brackets and/or household needs
Seriously? There are so many loopholes to this. Just look at handicap parking labels, or how hawkers/tutors avoid taxes...

- Balloting
Again... seriously? This may prompt people who really don't need or can't afford a car to jump at the opportunity just because he/she was "lucky" and "won" the ballot.

- Queueing system
Hur? Some car companies will go bust because queues at other brands are longer and get to sell more. Again, anti-competition.

- Pay-as-you-bid model where successful bidders pay the same figure they bid rather than pay the highest figure of all the bidders
This can lead to colluding and that means everyone will bid $1. DUH!!!!

She obviously doesn't THINK or UNDERSTAND the issues completely.

My 2 cents is that on top of limiting vehicle population, there should also be usage charges. This would allow more COEs to be released -- at a lower price -- but owners are charged as they use their cars. Meaning, a family that doesn't need to use their OPC car as much as a towkay in his 7-Series will pay less in usage charges. It's definitely not a new idea, but I think it would alleviate road congestion in certain areas and also allow more people to own cars on a "need to" basis.

[Booboon]

After the release of Aug - Feb figure and the sudden hike of COE price, so many discussion on COE, not sian meh?

Cos their COE reaching 10 year soon.

[Hi_torq]

1. Favours wealthy
Do not agree. In any price driven market (with supply and demand), the wealthy will always have advantange. Hence COE is not related to favourism. With or without COE, the wealthy will be able to pay more.

2. No Segragation of user group.
Well, using a segragration basis user group will be very difficult to maintain. The logistics cost will be very high and will subsequently passed on to consumer. So price will again go up. The current segragation should be more expanded basis car categories. People with more money can buy more expensive and people with less money will go for less expensive. It will be user choice (and also automatically segragate the category as per user).

3. No distribution of resources
Hmmm. Highly debatable. We can say, the people can invest the money for smoking, movies, TVs etc for better. It is people personal money, they can invest or keep in bank or spend on luxury. If the banks have a better choice of giving loan, they will definitely go for that. However, they do appear to have excess money all the time. That is their investment.

4. May lead to bad behaviour.
This one is more a pychological behaviour. COE or no COE, guys will behave like that. People with more power (or say money) tend to be arrogant (as the saying goes). Even if they don't have a car with high COE, they will behave bad. Expensive car may force them to be bit defensive to save the expensive car.

5. Drastic changes in COE every fortnight can cause instability
At present most of the bidding is done by taxi or dealers. There isn't much drastic changes. Most of it is predicted. In fact drastic changes may go in favour of consumer rather than in favour of dealer.


6. No Vintage scene.
Agree. Singapore doesn't have much vintage cars. However, same goes for building etc. Singapore has much limited resources compared to other countries. For vintage car, COE should be out and those cars can be declared by owners as national heritage (they already are expensive and most of the people won't be having them, only some collectors).

In spite of above, I do agree the COE system is outdated and should be revamped. But the argument basis people having more money being favoured and less money sidelnined is skewed. It should favour a better technology, greener cars, economy, etc which will cause less pressure on national resources and should be balanced towards all, consumers, makers, dealers considering the restricted land resource available here.

[Jamesc]

Those in the 40-80% sanwiched class (earning less than $250,000 p.a.) will demand for salary restructuring, to edge themselves toward the elite segment, without any supporting fabric (brains, talent, drive, or otherwise). Everybody also wants to have more money right?
Ridiculous!

Since when has a lack of brains, talent etc stop people from rising to the top?

All they need is a brown nose.



I almost forgot if you don't have a brown nose

an open legs policy or just bending over will

do just fine!

This post has been edited by Jamesc: Jul 30 2012, 11:45 AM

[Gabriel]

coe is crap...most cars can be used beyond the 10 yrs...yet most have to scrap it cause they cant afford the cold hard cash to renew...so many great cars gone due to this...and why pay additional 60k just to own a car...getting a degree doesnt even cost that much...

[Darryn]

Err....the [point 6 is wrong, there isa classic car scheme, as well as the ability to import vintage cars.

Classic Car Scheme: http://www.lta.gov.sg/content/lta/en/motor...car_scheme.html

I thought there was also a Vintage car category, but I can't seem to find a link now (If I recall, Vintage is pre 1965, while classic is 35 years from date of manufacture)

[Dragonfly1]

COE is cash cow for the govnt. Full stop.

[Zyklon]

Basically the author is complaining because:

For me for example, I drive a seven-year-old Mitsubishi Lancer which happens to be my first car.

I will drive it to the end of its COE life and at that point in time, then decide if I can afford to maintain a car in Singapore. If vehicle ownership costs (including maintenance) get too high, I will have to turn to public transport.

She cannot afford to change her car and might be put off the road in three years time.

This means coe system is working fine. COE is to put the marginal drivers off the road.

If one really needs a car, can just scrimp and save.

[Darryn]

Basically the author is complaining because:

For me for example, I drive a seven-year-old Mitsubishi Lancer which happens to be my first car.

I will drive it to the end of its COE life and at that point in time, then decide if I can afford to maintain a car in Singapore. If vehicle ownership costs (including maintenance) get too high, I will have to turn to public transport.

She cannot afford to change her car and might be put off the road in three years time.

This means coe system is working fine. COE is to put the marginal drivers off the road.

If one really needs a car, can just scrimp and save.

Further, she hardly has a reputation for incisive analysis...

[HP_Lee]

coe is crap...most cars can be used beyond the 10 yrs...yet most have to scrap it cause they cant afford the cold hard cash to renew...so many great cars gone due to this...and why pay additional 60k just to own a car...getting a degree doesnt even cost that much...

Yaa.. But what can we do? This is the policy.

[Joshux]

Gahmen liddat..but then again...look at the traffic condition in china and india..

[Thaiyotakamli]

the ultimate question is do u want to pay high coe and enjoy jamless and clear road? or pay cheap COE and drive an inch in a minute?