Channel NewsAsia - Thursday, February 21
SINGAPORE: The Certificate of Entitlement (COE) prices for cars rose across the board in the latest open bidding exercise, which ended on Wednesday.
The COE for cars up to 1,600cc went up by S$854 to S$12,856. For big cars (more than 1,600cc), the COE price was S$2,301 higher at S$15,510, while that for the open category rose by S$1,809 to S$15,110.
Meanwhile, COE prices for goods vehicles and buses rose by S$2,001 to S$15,002. The COE price for motorcycles, however, went down by S$48 to S$951.
Although the COE price movements were significant, industry players predicted even tougher times ahead with higher COEs and car prices.
Sales of Subaru cars have increased from about 100 in the previous COE bidding round to about 150 in the latest round.
Customers were convinced to buy smaller cars ahead of an anticipated rise in COE prices next month because of a possible rush to benefit from a 10 per cent cut in the Additional Registration Fee in March.
Dealers said the review in April will see fewer COEs offered and with the cut in the number of COEs next May, the outlook is not so rosy.
Glenn Tan, group chief executive of Motor Image Enterprises, said: "Increase in sales is not going to be a continuing trend. Increase in price is going to be a continuing trend. As the COEs get less, the prices increase, so of course the sales will get less because there will be less COEs."
He said the answer is to sell what is unique about the company, rather than the price of a car.
Mr Tan said distributors are facing a shrinking market, and the answer is to be more competitive and be very conservative about their growth estimates.
He added that the market is going to be extra competitive because distributors are now competing on a different playing field with the parallel importers. — CNA/ac