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For those who are keen, here's a chance to win a free slot: http://page.runsociety.com/ref/TC16446757/

Any fellow drivers get to know that UOB cards will not be eligible for smart$ (further discount) from July 13. In fact it is going to be replaced by Citibank. Which means Citibank will be covering ESSO & Shell.

SINGAPORE: An Indian student who was left fighting for her life after being gang-raped in New Delhi has arrived at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital for further treatment. The patient arrived at the hospital's Intensive Care Unit at 9.05am in extremely critical condition, said the hospital's spokesperson on Thursday. The hospital is working with the Indian High Commission, and has requested that the privacy of the patient and the family be respected. The 23-year-old, whose attack sparked protests across India, had been transferred from the Safdarjung hospital in central Delhi to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon, close to the city's international airport, before being flown to Singapore. "The decision was taken this morning at cabinet," a source at Safdarjung told AFP early Thursday. "Her mother and father are with her." The government had earlier announced it was setting up a special commission of inquiry after the gang-rape on December 16 when the woman was allegedly tricked into boarding a bus by six men who then took turns to assault her. The group also attacked her with an iron bar before throwing her out of the vehicle, along with a male companion. Six suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack and have been remanded in custody. - CNA/AFP/al Poor thing, let us pray for her full recover.

can help a local singaporean go into our NUS? Dont think he asking for "scholarship", just a chance to study http://www.helpalvingetintoschool.com is it so hard to get in for locals? or you need to pretend to be a foreigner?

SINGAPORE - Premiums for Certificates of Entitlement (COE) - which have surged in the past year - are expected to increase even further. Industry players who spoke to Media-Corp said they expect COE quotas to be reduced in the next quarter. In addition, demand for cars is expected to remain high. Mr Raymond Tang, honorary secretary of the Singapore Vehicle Traders Association, said: "COE prices will be moving up again because of the demand in the market, especially for Category A (small cars). "This is because dealers are bringing in smaller continental cars which go into this category - and people do want to buy these models." Mr Alvin Lim, sales consultant, Komoco Motors, said: "Quite a lot of the taxi operators, they have to get COEs as well in order to put their taxis on the road. "For this reason, they bid higher - as high as possible in order to secure COEs." Dealers said the higher prices are driving customers away, with some turning to second-hand cars. Mr Tang said Singaporeans are look ing at used cars because of the substantial difference in price between such cars and a brand new one. "The difference can be about S$30,000 to S$40,000 if you opt to buy a two-year-old car," he said. If the rise in COE premiums continues, dealers said smaller distributors will be driven out of the market. http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC11...to-soar-further

SEOUL, South Korea

Is it merely a hearsay or its a fact? Please kindly share your views on it as that will definately help alot of potential car buyers including me on whether is it a suitable time to buy a car now. Thanks.

New information has emerged further clarifying the supposed Mercedes B-Class AMG we reported yesterday. According to Autocar it will actually be a four-door coupe based on the B-Class platform - not an AMG powered five-door compact MPV. Inspired by the F800 concept, which recently debuted at that Geneva Motor Show, the car (reportedly codenamed C117 EVO) will likely measure less than 4500mm (177 inches) in length. As a modern day successor to the 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II, it will feature bold styling and a luxurious interior. Power will be provided by a supercharged 3.2-liter V6 with approximately 400 bhp (298 kW / 406 PS). Based on the turbocharged 3.5-liter V6, which will be introduced on the new CLS 350, the engine will feature a smaller displacement and an electrically-operated pressure wave supercharger. Despite riding on the front-wheel drive MFA platform, which will also be used in the next generation A-Class, the four-door AMG will likely offer all-wheel drive with a rear-biased setup. While nothing is official, a possible launch is slated for 2012 or 2013.

SINGAPORE: Car dealers have been revving up their promotions this holiday season. According to them, their discounts and other promotions have been bringing in more customers. Discounts on new cars range between S$2,000 and S$9,000. One car dealer said giving away S$2000 discounts has helped boost sales in his showroom by 20 per cent this season. Other car dealers have slashed as much as S$6,000 for certain models, while some others are luring customers with lucky draws. Some dealers said that some car buyers are waiting for Lunar New Year to be over before they make their purchase. However, some dealers said this may not exactly be a good idea. [size="6]Alvin Lim, sales consultant, Komoco Motors said: "Usually after the festive season, the prices may go down. But in this case, it may crash with the April COE reduce period, whereby, the COE is expected to go up very high. "So let us say if everybody is waiting for the same time to come in after Chinese New Year, I believe by then, it could push up the COE price as well. So I don

TOPIC Correction: Temasek loss $4.6billion in BoA ======================== Temasek

Minister for Transport Raymond Lim replies to questions on ERP in Parliament today. Mr Lim Biow Chuan: To ask the Minister for Transport whether he will consider a freeze on further increases in ERP charges until the cost of living for the average Singaporean is more stable. Dr Lam Pin Min: To ask the Minister for Transport if his Ministry will defer the erection of additional ERP gantries and further ERP rate increases in view of the escalating fuel prices which may have already deterred some drivers from driving or caused them to switch to public transport. Minister: Sir, the purpose of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) is to manage congestion on our roads. ERP is imposed or its rates raised only when traffic demand increases to cause the speed on the road to fall below the optimal speed threshold. For expressways, this is 45kph, and for arterial roads, it is 20kph. Many people assume that if we do not make changes to the ERP system, our roads will continue to remain smooth flowing. This is not true. If we freeze ERP charges, the congestion does not go away but simply builds up on our roads. Nor is it true that if we freeze ERP charges, there are no costs incurred by motorists. The costs are there except that it is hidden in the form of time lost and extra fuel consumed being stuck in traffic. At a time of economic stress, it is important that we ensure that our economy remains vibrant and productive. One critical way to ensure this is to act decisively to prevent our roads from being gridlocked. There have also been concerns on the impact of the ERP changes on the cost of living. In conjunction with the changes in the ERP system, the Government has reduced road taxes by 15%. The increase in ERP revenue is estimated at $70 million against $110 million from the road tax reduction. This means that drivers as a whole are not worse off despite the higher ERP charges. Indeed, only 24% of drivers incur ERP charges daily, and the majority who do not pay ERP would be better off as a result of the 15% road tax reduction. LTA will continue to monitor the road traffic conditions closely. If as Dr Lam said, drivers choose to drive less, whether due to higher fuel prices or public transport improvements and traffic speeds improve, the Government will be happy to collect less ERP revenue. Mr Lim Biow Chuan: I would like to thank the Minister for clarifying the role of ERP in managing traffic congestion. Given the current high fuel prices and utility charges and high cost of living, would the Minister of Transport not consider, not just traffic speeds but also these factors in determining any increase in ERP charges? I would also like to ask the Minister whether he would consider further improvements in the public transport before allowing ERP charges to increase. Minister: How do high fuel prices and public transport improvements impact on the ERP system? Now, the ERP system is a dynamic system. It is not a static system. The ERP rate is a function of the demand for driving on congested roads during peak hours. If the demand for driving falls materially, because of high fuel prices or public transport improvements or both factors, then the ERP rates will either stay as they are or actually go down. A good example of this would be the April 7th gantries. When LTA announced this in January this year, it was based on speed data in December 2007. But after the January announcements, there were significant changes in driving behaviour. So, if you look at the actual half-hour slots that LTA announced for April 7th, it was less than half compared to what was originally anticipated in January.* It is a dynamic situation. It is a function of the demand for driving. Dr Lam Pin Min: I would like to ask the Minister whether LTA has studied the effect of the escalating fuel prices which has increased by almost 100% over the past year on the road traffic congestion problem and the mode of travel pattern of Singaporeans, especially those who own private vehicles. And if indeed the traffic condition has improved, should the Ministry not withhold the ERP increases for the time being? Minister: My answer to Dr Lam's question is actually the same as the one I had given to Mr Lim. ERP rates are a function of the demand for driving. If, like you said, the high fuel prices have affected driving behaviour and therefore traffic speeds have improved, this would be reflected in the ERP rates. Depending on the extent in which traffic speeds improved, the rates stay as they are or they may actually come down. *On 30 January 2008, LTA announced that a total of 18 half hour periods will be levied an ERP charge for the 5 gantries that would come into operation on 7 April 2008. But because of improvements in traffic speeds following the announcements, ERP was eventually implemented for 8 half hour periods.

There was a discussion here about why there are many more relatively new 2nd car up for grabs...and the view that COE prices might fall further recently. But from the looks of it.... things are just starting to 'heat up' even more after the last thread on the above topic...with fuel prices increasing almost every other month and our neighbouring country up North jacking up their prices too! So till the end of this year.....are there going to be less buyers of new cars?.... or are the Sillies here still ploughing head on and keep buying cars despite the ever increasing cost of using a car and coupled with the increase in the cost of living too!

May 16, 2008 Further drop in new home sales and launches in April Prices also show signs of weakening as buyers adopt a more cautious stance By Fiona Chan THE private home market continued to weaken last month, with launches of new homes falling to their lowest level in at least 10 months. Sales volumes and median prices also dipped, according to monthly figures released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday. Developers launched only 271 homes last month, fewer than half the 642 units launched in March. The number of homes sold also fell, to 274 in the month, from 322 previously. These figures exclude executive condominiums. 'It is clear that homebuyers were in no hurry to make purchases and were taking more time to assess the market,' said Mr Li Hiaw Ho, the executive director of CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Research. He attributed this trend to the continuing instability of financial markets and increasing concerns over the higher cost of living. Perhaps as a result of the slowdown, prices have begun to show signs of strain. An analysis by property firm Knight Frank found median prices of new homes sold last month had slid 9 per cent to $943 per sq ft (psf), from $1,035 psf in March. One reason for the lower prices could be that most of the homes launched and sold were in cheaper mass-market developments. Eight out of 10 homes sold in the month cost $1,000 psf or less. Only seven homes, or about 2 per cent of the total sold, fetched more than $2,000 psf. This is a major reversal from previous months. As recently as in December, more than 70 per cent of the homes sold for the month cost more than $2,000 psf. The strength of the mass-market segment last month was the bright spot in an otherwise dismal set of figures yesterday. The best-selling project was a suburban development: Stadia in Yio Chu Kang Road, which sold more than 90 per cent of its 56 units within the month. 'Latent demand remains strong, especially for the mass-market projects that are reasonably priced between $750 and $850 psf,' said Mr Chua Yang Liang, the head of South-east Asia research at Jones Lang LaSalle. On the other hand, only three units were launched in the prime core central region. Demand for homes in this high-end area and in the mid-tier city-fringes remained fragmented and weak, said Mr Chua. Property consultants said they expect buying activity to remain slow in the coming months as the current gloomy sentiment persists. But some, such as CBRE's Mr Li, expect sales to start improving next month as developers begin stepping up launches. Mr Ku Swee Yong, Savills Singapore's director of business development and marketing, said buyers are starting to return to the market. 'I dare say last month's sales numbers will be the lowest we will see this year,' he said. 'Showflat crowds are still pretty good, and from now on, we should see launches picking up.' Having some high-profile launches would give the market a boost, said Mr Nicholas Mak, the director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank. 'Essentially, the lukewarm sentiment can be explained primarily by the lack of launches of major developments that might cause excitement.'

say CAT A to...below $12001, says about $10k?

Dear all, I recently bought a watch from citychain but would want to change to another model! So there is a difference in $400, If any of you would want to buy a watch for your love ones or even yourself, pls kindly do contact me at 9069 3123! i will deduct for you! For eg, after i change the model, there is still a remaining balance of my $400 (of cos they wont return me cash, its either i buy another watch from them which is pointless for me to get 2 new watch!) , so if you get a Armani watch or Guess watch or even a Cyma watch, etc etc I will deduct 20% off my 400, so u only have to pay me 300+. Only today and tomorrow! pls contact me for further enquiries!! at 9069 3123!! thanks

Getting a new ride.

1. My auto jazz when engaging R gear, i can hear a loud idling sound. When checked with Kah motor, they say its happening to all jazz cars. Is it true??? 2. My key remote is not responding some time, and the distant is pretty near. I only can lock or unlock about 5m away only. So bad meh? My friend's Getz can take more than 10m !! 3. My fuel consumption is about 13KM/L. Is it normal for light footer driving about 50-50 city and highway? 4. I just broke up with my gf.. ( I know its out of scope ) All happens today...

Dear all, i already have the V-Kool Mirage package, however, i want to tint the front windows even more. Anyone with knowledge on how to do? must i remove the original v-kool first?? Or should i just go back with the warranty card and tell them to tint it even more?