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From ST Forum: http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/...ory_694341.html Anti-competitive 'Almost all car dealers insist buyers take up motor loans and insurance from companies they have tied up with.' MR LEONG SZE HIAN: 'I bought a new car recently and was told by the manufacturer's sole agent that I must take up its motor insurance policy with an insurance company. This was despite the fact that I could get a cheaper net motor insurance premium and a lower claims excess from another insurance company. This is clearly anti-competitive behaviour, which I understand is prevalent in the motor industry here. Thus, is it any wonder that motor insurance premiums have been going up in recent years, when consumers are forced to take up more expensive policies with less benefits in the event of a claim? My understanding is that almost all car dealers insist buyers take up motor loans and insurance from companies they have tied up with. What this means is that even if the buyer can obtain a car loan with better terms, he cannot do so.'

as above xie xie for advice.

anyone has any good recommendation for throwing baby full month celebration. Need recommendation on good 1 stop solution...ie. places / club house that provide in house catering/allow external catering.... Budget is abt 30-50 per pax type. If go to those chinese restuarant , what is the usual charges. Looking at weekend lunch though Thanks

Would KL be a dead place during the CNY long weekend holiday? Thought of heading there for 3 nights from Saturday 21st Jan. I know that there will be massive jams from folks returning to their hometowns.... but what going into KL??? And when people return to work in KL... I'll be leaving instead. Any thoughts or experience from others on travelling to KL over past CNY holidays?

Auto ride intake temp quite high 69 celcius at night need to do a cold air intake to get more cool air in. anywhere to recommend? Picanto

Picking up some visitors arriving by express bus through Woodlands checkpoint, what's the best place to park my vehicle? Ideally it's the nearest possible carpark, so that don't have to drag luggage too far. Thanks in advance for the tips

Thinking of upgrading from my old point and shoot camera to an ILC. Any recommendations on the make/model as well as where to buy from? (preferably a place where the staff know what they are talking about and the price is reasonable) Thanks in advance.

knn..just received a nice national day present from a yao siew kia..the mother farker most probably used a key chain ring around his fist and hit my left fender..now got a dent of abt 4 cm long and some paint came off. anyone tat parks at sembawang mscp better beware! lots of prevert poo bor kias around. PUI. just 2 blocks away from the npc also kanna..these pple really got no regards for law. if i ever find out who i will break all 10 fingers and toes. nbz.. enough of the rants..any place to repair the dent on fender? good and reasonable priced ones..preferbaly around west/north side. (jurong, wlds, sembawang, amk or sin ming)

what is ur most frequented type of place when eating out? what is ur decision based on? price? location? food type?

Hi guys and gals, my uncle is looking for a vintage car. he noted that autobahn got quite a number of them for sale. he asked me to post in mcf to check whether anyone has bought any vintage cars from them? is it expensive to buy from there? and what about the aftersales services? or it it better to wait for a collector to give up his car? anyone got any experience from buying from autobahn? please tell me. Many thanks.

guys thinking of getting a garmin gps set...any idea where is the (best place in terms of price) to get it? went to comex last time, but it wasnt really cheap

i was surprised to read this in the morning. but read liao song can already...don't take it too seriously. after all guidelines are just that - guidelines ---- Discriminatory practices have no place in S'pore: Tan Chuan-Jin By S Ramesh | Posted: 31 October 2011 1123 hrs SINGAPORE : Ensuring Singaporeans remain at the core of the workforce is the objective of a revised set of guidelines by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices. Speaking at a tripartism forum on Monday, Minister of State for Manpower, Tan Chuan-Jin, stressed that discriminatory practices have no place in Singapore. At the National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke of what it meant to put the interests of Singaporeans first, in areas ranging from housing to healthcare. In his speech, Mr Lee had explained that the Manpower Ministry will work with tripartite partners to develop guidelines for fair employment practices and responsible recruitment practices, so that when a Singaporean is working side by side with a foreigner, they both feel fairly treated and nobody feels that he is at a disadvantage. The revised set of guidelines by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices comes after nearly 10 weeks of consultations with unions, employers and government officials. They also received some 450 suggestions online by various interested parties. Stephen Lee, president of the Singapore National Employers Federation, said: "Singapore is like a dragon boat; the employers are rowing on one side of the long dragon boat, (and) the unions are rowing on the other side....And you all know that if one side rows faster or out of sync from the other one, the boat will go round and round, and we lose the direction. We need to pull together and row at the same speed so that we can point the boat to the finishing line and get there as fast as we can. "There is also (someone) sitting at the head of the boat and beating the drums and taking the lead, and that is the government. So if you take this analogy, we are all in the same boat, and the employers and workers, we all have our role to play. If we play our role well (and) well directed by the government, this dragon boat will win the race." There is now a new section, titled "Hiring and Developing a Singaporean Core", to existing guidelines. It urges employers to make reasonable efforts to consider Singaporeans for positions on merit and to develop their careers. These could include ensuring jobs advertised are open to Singaporeans; working with educational institutions, career centres and recruitment agencies to attract and recruit Singaporeans; and developing the skills and expertise of existing Singaporean employees for higher level jobs. Alexander Melchers, vice president of the Singapore-German Chamber of Industry, said: "I know many German employers, they want to employ Singaporeans and they do employ Singaporeans. If they can't find Singaporeans, then they resort to employing foreigners. But if they had a choice to employ Singaporeans, I am convinced they will always do so." Lim Swee Say, secretary-general of NTUC, said: "The unions and the labour movement, we have not pushed for a Singaporeans-only guideline. In fact, if you study the input from the labour movement carefully, we make it very clear what we are pushing for, (that is) to establish and nurture a core of Singaporean workers in every major sector of the economy. "We do not believe in complete globalisation, we are not pushing for complete localisation. Every industry, every enterprise ought to adopt a balanced approach. We do object if certain industries, certain enterprises pursue globalisation to the extreme and basically keep going back to MOM (Ministry of Manpower) for more foreign manpower, and keep telling MOM that Singaporean workers are not willing, not able, not enough." One way the objective of ensuring Singaporeans remain at the core of the workforce could be achieved is for companies to examine their wage structures. Mr Tan Chuan-Jin said: ".....in our dialogues with companies, we do encourage companies to consider whether in certain sectors....(they should) restructure the wages. The businesses are doing well, but when you look at the wages, especially at the low-wage worker level, it isn't quite moving at that bit. And if you continue to offer wages at particular levels, you would not be able to draw Singaporeans." The Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices said that since 2006, there have been some 350 complaints against employers about unfair employment practices, and all the employers corrected their practices when approached. - CNA/cc/ms

It is certainly a rare site to behold - 21 McLaren F1 models all in one place. These photos come to us courtesy of CarsUK, who's source for the photos was one of the F1 owners. The cars were gathered for an event last month at McLaren headquarters in Woking, U.K. - the introduction of the new McLaren MP4-12C. McLaren had invited a host of current F1 owners to come along and create this wonderful photo-op for the supercar maker. Since the McLaren F1 was introduced in 1994, it has been a rarity. There were only 64 road cars made and a total of just over 100 were ever built. The average price for an F1 today is $2.5 million (

Bros, look at this: Singapore is for the Rich Nothing to be proud of. Properties are high but middle and low income pple will suffer

TGIF i'm taking a leisure ride to work today using KPE towards Marina Square, and i see a few ricer boys in their jazz or whatever (probably late for work due to partying last night) zipping through traffic in KPE. I decided for once to not lane split and keep in lane so i can view the spectacular left-right movements of these ricer boys changing lanes in mildly heavy traffic. And then we come to sims drive exit; and at 9.10am in the morning its always a backlog of vehicles exiting causing a small jam. I glance at my left side mirror and see this fella coming from behind me, switch to the extreme left lane (probably to overtake us slow pokes), he sees a dump truck along with a line of vehicles waiting exit into Sims drive - Screech, Screech some more, Bang right into the back of that dump truck!. Bits of metal and glass flow everywhere into the second lane. I could see some of the motorcyclists in front of me turning their heads back for a sec to see what the hell happened. Boy I farking laughed my head off. Hope he's ok though. Did any of you guys see it? Happened around 9.10am. Or maybe you could see the aftermath. Stay safe guys.

I need some recommendations on reliable sites to purchase ebooks, now that USD FX can be quite favourable to us. Please share your recommendations on good and reliable ebook sites. Thank you

How come we are not surprised? That is only parking. What about the actual costs of owning a vehicle? Interesting to see this ranking instead. FROM CNA: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/sin...1143273/1/.html Singapore's CBD most expensive place to park in region: report By Ng Jing Yng, TODAY | Posted: 27 July 2011 0741 hrs

Hi Bros, My mileage has hit 100k but dun wish to go back C & C cos too ex. Any recommendations for workshop which charge reasonably and has good knowledge of servicing my lancer as not too sure what needs to be checked and changed. thanks

[/size]CNA Barber shop used as storage place for drugs By Andre Yeo | Posted: 19 July 2011 1951 hrs SINGAPORE: The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) raided a barber shop Monday in Clementi and arrested a suspected drug trafficker, his suspected drug storekeeper and four suspected drug abusers. CNB officers recovered about 1.4 kilogrammes of heroin, 55.5 grammes of 'Ice', 825.5 grammes of cannabis, 34.6 grammes of ketamine, 145 Erimin-5 tablets and eight Ecstasy tablets. The total street value of the drugs is estimated to be more than S$261,000. Cash amounting to about S$5,000 and two Singapore-registered vehicles were also seized. In a statement Tuesday, CNB said they had been monitoring the barber shop for more than a month. The 46-year-old suspected drug trafficker would allegedly travel to neighbouring countries to collect drugs and then re-distribute them to his drug clients when he returned. CNB said he was assisted by an unemployed man, also 46, who acted as his drug storekeeper and runner. On Monday, the suspected drug trafficker was seen coming out of the barber shop and retrieving a package from a black MPV. CNB officers later stormed the shop and arrested him, the suspected drug storekeeper and two suspected drug clients. That same night, CNB officers arrested two more Singaporean men, believed to be clients, near the barber shop. The suspected drug trafficker and storekeeper, both Singaporeans, will be investigated for drug trafficking under the Misuse of Drugs Act. If convicted, both will face the death penalty. - CNA/cc

Hi, I have a constella ladies omega watch which can't work even change battery. Roughly how much it cost and any place to repair? Thanks everyone

To solve the problem of declining birth rates, I propose they turn off the lights now and then.

Yahoo news : Naked hostesses busted in police raid 20 naked Vietnamese hostesses were arrested during a police raid on Wednesday night. According to Lianhe Wanbao, the hostesses were caught serving customers naked in a lounge along Joo Chiat. Plainclothes policemen had visited the bar and saw the hostesses fully naked and having sex with customers in the lounge. The police conducted the raid at 8.50pm and arrested the Vietnamese women. They were ordered to put on their clothes before they were brought away for investigations. The lounge's customers were also asked to leave. Why I don't know about this ....................... Now too late leow .......

ST Forum Jun 18, 2011 Why visit a place where we are not welcome? I TOTALLY agree with Mr V. Kumar ('Going to JB? Not worth the trouble'; Thursday) that it is not worth the trouble going to Johor Baru so long as the situation remains unchanged. Last Saturday, I left home at 7am to go to Malaysia for a holiday. I took the Second Link hoping to beat the jam at the Malaysian immigration checkpoint. It was rather smooth clearance at the Tuas side. But to my horror, it took me four hours to clear Malaysian immigration. Just before I drove off, I said to the immigration officer attending to me that the new system was really bad and impractical. Instead of saying sorry for the inconvenience caused, the officer replied: 'Then don't come, lah.' That was almost unpardonable coming from a government official who is supposed to be tourist-friendly. Who would want to visit a place that is unwelcoming to visitors? It was reported that visitors from Singapore made about 13 million trips to Malaysia last year, which constituted about 53 per cent of Malaysia's total tourist arrivals - contributing RM28.4 billion (S$11.6 billion) in receipts. Whose loss is it if Singaporeans stop visiting Malaysia? Lawrence Koo

Dear Bros, Do you all mind if PAP remove TPL and put George Yeo in MP GRC? For me, I dont mind that.

http://www.ge.sg/video/