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Ok now that the process has completed, I would like to share about my latest motoring experience. I have owned a 2015 Vellfire for a year, and due to many reasons I shared previously, decided to change it to 2 small rides. As I did not want to pump in much cash, I could only look at rides of upto $80k each. Good thing the Vellfire was offloaded at very good price, I eventually only need to pump in another $10k. Now what can you get for less than $80k? One thing I was not keen to go PI route again unless bopian. So the typically options if getting new rides are small japanese rides like Jazz or Note, or Korean cars like basic Elantra and K3. Then I also looked at used cars which I have never done before to see if any cars worth it. Eventually I fixed my eyes on 2013 B200 which would cost about $65k which are latest model but pre-facelift. My confidence grew after I visited a few used car dealers as the condition of the cars were really good for any 5 year old cars. The leather are basically still wrinkle free and all the internal panels and buttons are still in very good condition, unlike the jap rides I have had which look old after just 2 to 3 years. Eventually I settled on 2015 B180 which is essentially the latest facelifted model. As the 2 rides are for my wife and myself, my wife wanted to get a Jazz initially but she was put off by the Jan/2019 delivery timeline. She was not keen on Elantra/K3 after seeing them in flesh. After awhile, my enthusiasm on B180/B200 rub off on her and she decided to get a B180 as well. Now I will share why I think B180/B200 is a viable alternative compare to typical jap/Korean fares. For about the same cash outlay, it is 7 years of former vs 10 years of later. I am willing to forsake the 3 years to have better motoring experience. It is a Mercedes after all, though a lesser one so to speak. After doing test drive of Jazz/Note and seeing K3/Elantra in flesh, I am ok to give up 3 years of ownership for the B-class ride. I love the B-class ride as it is almost perfect for what I want in a small car - compact on the outside, spacious in the inside, and full of all the hi-tech features in a very safe and powerful package. Imagine century sprint of 9.1sec, assist parking, integrated TPMS, latest safety features, etc ,etc.. And best of all, it is still the latest facelifted model. And I also did abit of research on ownership cost. I used to think servicing and parts for Mercedes is going to cost much more, but reality is not really that bad. For servicing, C&C offers servicing packages of 3 and 5 servicing. For B-class, it cost about $810 for 3 servicing, and $1400 for 5 servicing. If you factor in servicing interval of 15,000km for Mercedes, 3 servicing would be more than enough to cover 2 years of servicing. This means before any replacement parts, servicing cost for my case would come to $810, which is actually lower than what I was charged for my previous jap rides over the 2 year period with 4 servicing. No doubt I have to cater more for replacement parts which is going to cost more now. And the road tax I have to pay for my B180s also cost lesser than the Vellfire, $740 + $740 vs $1800. But I have to pay more for insurance. Even for petrol also I have to pay more but not much more as the FC for Vellfire is about 7.5km/L whereas B-class should get about 12km/L sasily, so not much difference. And then I have to navigate the used car dealers to get the used B180. This part is the most tricky and dreaded as have read many horror stories. Eventually I would say I am just lucky as both cars were transferred within a week of taking over the rides after finalizing the finance part. I know I should have done more by checking service records at C&C before confirming the deal but I chose to belief the STA reports and test drives and everything look and feel normal. And after owning both rides for a week and 3 weeks respectively, I have been happy with them so far. I would not be willing to shell out the money for them brand new, but pleased tat able to get them now at about 50% off their past purchase prices. I would think they are good deals for 3 year old cars. The motivation has been to try something new as not getting young anymore. And if it does not pan out well, can just sell them away and get something else that is safer. Whichever way I see there is no harm in beating this path. And right now both my wife and myself are enjoying the rides very much as it really offer much more than the typical jap/Korean fares. And if both rides are still in good shapes 7 years from now, just need to renew the COE for another 5 years. Hope this will inspire more to do the same. My apologies for the long story, as impossible to do it in 1 or 2 paragraphs. Hope you enjoy this sharing. Cheers.

Dear All, I'm intending to giveaway my current set of hankooks 205/45/17 to anyone who needs it as the tyre shops doesn't do trade ins and the set of tyres are still relatively new and threads still have a long way to go. Some conditions I can think of: 1. I will need your worn out tyres so I can drive to my designated location to change my tyres. 2. Cost of exchanging tyres at workshop to be borne by interested party. Reason why I'm changing out my current set of tyres is because I cannot bear the noise and the wet grip of this tyres doesn't fit my style of driving. Below are several photos taken today for your reference and information. Can always meet up to view the actual condition of the tyres before you decide to take up or not. Please don't flame me by saying the tyres sure got problem that's why I giving it away. I don't have this intention and the interested party can always verify before changing out. By the way, I'm staying in north-east in case you wanna know.

i hope somebody can share his experience with me on this. i wanted to enrol my son to NAFA school for his diploma next year. I know we can use our ordinary acct for our child's education loan. but my ordinary acct is drained and my monthly contribution goes to my housing loan. next chance is my special acct. so i wrote to CPF board to see if i could use my special acct. replied from CPF below so my question is, anyone tried seeing their MP and could get special arrangement? or heard of any successful story pertaining to this type of scenario? my credit rating no as good, i think i cannot borrow from bank. thanks for reading.

Just sent my car to GroomWorks today for my second grooming and have two dents removed at the same time. I have taken some photos as promised hope fellow bros here will find them useful. Cheers

hi S40 owners, the drain plug of my car came off without any warning while i was driving a few days ago and all the coolant was drained away. the temperature guage did not indicate high temperature but my car stalled and had funny sound coming from the engine bay. i suggest that you get the drain plug checked. by the way, can i write to volvo or sm motor on this subject? the drain plug is a rubber plug that is held in place with a jubilee clip. imho, this arrangement is not consistent with a high quality car (the drain plugs of my previous cars were screwed in types). how can we prevent the plug from slipping off its position? thank you.

Hi, My car (2 left-side doors) was scratched badly by the car park walls and the paint came off. Where should I go to do the repair? Anyone knows any reliable workshops? How much will it cost to do the patch up? Would anyone recommend Autoglym? Thanks!