Resale/2nd-Hand Cars in Singapore

[royong]

I have been looking out for some of the resale/2nd-hand cars locally and realized that I have been confuzed in trying to determine their actual prices. I managed to clear them up after from work. Hopefully this will help someone.

Typically, when you purchase your car, you will have 2 important values that are tagged to your car, namely the price of Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and the Original Manufacturer's Value (OMV)

I'm guessing that everyone should be fairly proficient with the COE - simply put, its a certificate that is attached to every car as a permit for the car to be on Singapore roads for a duration of 10 years. Each month, the COE price changes and there are various categories depending on the engine capacity of your car. More details can be obtained from http://www.onemotoring.com.sg

For a resale/2nd-hand car, the remainding value of COE can be easily calculated since its pro-rated accordingly.

OMV on the other hand is assessed by the Singapore Customs, taking into account the purchase price, freight, insurance, handling and all other charges incidental to the sale and delivery of the car from country of manufacture to Singapore. To get an estimated OMV of a particular car model, please visit the LTA website at http://app.lta.gov.sg/motoring_vo_omv.asp - The OMV of a 2nd-hand car is known as this is registered in the owner's log card

What's the significance of the OMV value? Well, that's the value used to determine the amount of rebate one is entitled to should one decide to scrap the car. The following is the formula provided by LTA

Graduated PARF Rebate
(For cars registered with COEs obtained before May 2002 tender)
Age at Deregistration (year)
Not exceeding 5 130% of OMV
Above 5 but not exceeding 6 120% of OMV
Above 6 but not exceeding 7 110% of OMV
Above 7 but not exceeding 8 100% of OMV
Above 8 but not exceeding 9 90% of OMV
Above 9 but not exceeding 10 80% of OMV
Above 10 Nil

New PARF Rebate
(for cars registered with COEs obtained from May 2002 tender)
Age at Deregistration (year)
Not exceeding 5 75% of ARF paid
Above 5 but not exceeding 6 70% of ARF paid
Above 6 but not exceeding 7 65% of ARF paid
Above 7 but not exceeding 8 60% of ARF paid
Above 8 but not exceeding 9 55% of ARF paid
Above 9 but not exceeding 10 50% of ARF paid
Above 10 Nil

Where ARF refers to Additional Registration Fee (ARF) and is calculated as follows:
For cars registered with COEs obtained from March 2004 tender exercise and onwards, ARF = 110% of OMV

For cars registered with COEs obtained before March 2004 tender exercise, ARF = 130% of OMV

[royong]

ok, now let's get into some real cars and figuring out their actual values and see how much the 2nd-hand car dealer has marked-up.

here's a sample extracted from http://www.sgcarmart.com

Honda Odyssey 2.4A
Price $70,800
Reg Date 18-Jun-2004
COE $22,000
OMV $31,320

Ok, we have all the basic information that we need.

First step, let's determine how many more months is left on this car before it needs to go to the scrapyard i.e. 10 years from initial registration

original reg. date = 18 June 2004
10th year = 17 June 2014
today is 7 May 2007
total months remaining = 7 years 1 month = 85 months

if the car is sent to the scrapyard today, the singapore government will return to the owner the COE rebate which is = 85/120 * $22,000 = $15,583 plus the amount of PARF rebate given.

Since this car was registered in June 2004, ARF = 110% of OMV and since its less than 5 years old PARF = 75% of ARF paid - Hence we have the following:

PARF = 0.75 x ARF
PARF = 0.75 x [1.1 x OMV]
PARF = 0.75 x [1.1 x 31320]
PARF = 0.75 x 34452
PARF = $25,839

Therefore if the car is sent to the scrapyard today, the singapore government will return to the owner $15,583 + $25,839 = $41,422

WHOA - If the owner was to scrap the car today, the government would only give him a rebate of $41,422 but now on the 2nd-hand market, the dealer is placing a price of $70,800 on the car? That's a $29,378 PROFIT!

Here's the trick - there is another value to be added into the equation. Apparently, if the car is exported to another country, the body of the car can be sold for some amount of cash. This is where the grey-area comes into play. There is no listing of body price, only estimates provided by these exporters. And the prices are dependent on condition of car, age of car and most importantly, the deman of the make/model of car - here's what I know at present - these will definitely change, in fact, it pretty fluid so you will probably need to check with the agent at the time you want to scrap your car

price of body
toyota vios - between $7,000 to $9,000
hyundai matrix - between $2,000 to $3,000

So based on that ratio, I guess the Honda Odyssey's body should be worth anything from $12,000 to $18,000

Now the price of the car becomes
$15,583 (COE Rebate)
$25,839 (PARF)
$18,000 (Body)
= $59,422

That's still about $70,800 - $59,422 = $11,378 different from the asking price.

Well, then I guess this car is simply over priced. Coz, at the end of the day, the only other stuff that I have not calculated are the transfer fees, amount of money spent by the dealer to beautify the car a little and profit of the dealer. I seriously doubt that these add up to $11,378!!!!

[royong]

Link to Enquire PARF/COE Rebate for Registered Vehicles
https://vrl.lta.gov.sg/lta/vrl/action/pubfunc?ID=EnquireRebateBeforeDeReg