Car 01 (May 08 - Dec 12)

[kennynah]

no money, no need...dont buy car...juicy annie kwan...

got lotsa money, no need....buy rolls royce also like dat...

must moralize over this meh? hahaha...

[green]

BMW the best = Bus MRT Walk but I still own a car for convenience sake.

[helios]

>>> true or not?

Singapore - In a branding initiative, Honda Kah Motor, Singapore has launched a new regional brand campaign called 'drive every drop'.

The campaign created by Wieden+Kennedy, Tokyo, highlights Honda's i-VTEC engine technology which claims to deliver outstanding fuel efficiency while ensuring a pleasant driving experience.

"This technology differentiates Honda's cars from our competitors - and give us a strategic competitive advantage in this time of skyrocketing global fuel prices," Nicholas Goh, head marketing for Honda Kah Motor, said.

The campaign includes print, online and showroom execution and will also feature in the upcoming Singapore Motorshow in September, this year. Subsequntly, the campaign will run in other Asia Oceania markets until 2010.

Source: Marketing-Interactive.com

[Musicwhiz]

OK, so it's true - there are more sports cars and 2-door cars on the roads. I had thought I was imagining things when I looked left and right and saw such cars almost every single day. Sometimes I just wonder how much "richer" Singaporeans have become !

Straits Times Aug 2, 2008
Sales of luxury and sports cars up 16%
LUXURY cars have been rolling off showroom floors despite lofty pump prices and escalating inflation.
In fact, more of such cars were sold in the first six months of this year than most previous corresponding periods.

Figures from the Motor Traders Association of Singapore and the Land Transport Authority showed that buyers snapped up 1,567 luxury and sports cars - up 16.2 per cent from the same period last year.

The figures exclude an unknown number of Nissan GT-R sports cars which cost $250,000 to $320,000 each and were available here since January.

Many of the high-end brands like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati are posting record sales.

The popularity of these cars, which cost $250,000 to $1.6 million each, contrasts with the overall weaker market. On the whole, car sales in the first half of the year dipped by 10 per cent, largely on the back of fewer certificates of entitlement being released.

Motor traders said the property boom, an influx of new wealthy residents as well as the launch of new models have been fuelling sales.

Lamborghini Singapore managing director Melvin Goh said: 'Our buyers are getting younger and younger. The youngest is in his early 20s.'

Buyers of Lamborghinis, which cost above $800,000 each, are usually in their 40s.

Mr Goh, noting that most of his customers are businessmen, added: 'We've been seeing a lot of new faces.' (Side Comment - Singapore has grown its million-dollar club very well indeed !)

The main beneficiaries of the high-end sales spike include Audi, Maserati and Jaguar, all of which have put out new models, like the Audi R8, Maserati GranTurismo and Jaguar XF.

Audi Singapore managing director Reinhold Carl noted that Audi has been the fastest-growing luxury car brand in the last two years. He attributed this partly to the R8 sports model, which has had 'a halo effect' on other models.

Cars in the quarter-million-dollar club which did not do as well as before include Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover and Lexus. For Mercedes and Land Rover, sales tipped towards the less-expensive models, such as the Mercedes C- and E-class and the Land Rover Freelander. On the whole, though, the two brands fared better than last year.

Lexus, which has not put out any new models recently, saw its first slowdown in overall sales since the brand arrived here in 1992.

While most retailers of luxury cars expect the high- end market to grow in the long term, some are bracing themselves for a short-term slowdown.

Mr Goh said: 'This year is still fairly strong. The concern is whether next year will be as good.'

Industry observers pointed out that the buoyant high-end segment accounted for less than 5 per cent of the market.

Mr Mark Choong, chairman of Toyota distributor Borneo Motors, said car buyers in general will continue to be pressured by the rising costs of fuel, parking and Electronic Road Pricing.

'Marginal buyers will drop out, and people will gravitate towards more fuel-efficient cars,' he said.

CHRISTOPHER TAN

[helios]

OK, so it's true - there are more sports cars and 2-door cars on the roads. I had thought I was imagining things when I looked left and right and saw such cars almost every single day. Sometimes I just wonder how much "richer" Singaporeans have become !

Side Comment - Singapore has grown its million-dollar club very well indeed

yuppz, musicwhiz.

the press focus on SUVs, kia is doing a sale over their sportage range, CNG model.

$62,999

it is on ST papers today.

[fclim]

Problem is that Singapore cars are brand new and thus depreciate extremely quickly.

Hi mw,

before i start my long and nonsensical ranting... please note that buying car in singapore is something that a true-blue "investor" would never do, because to me, it is an "asset" that just depreciate, and never appreciate...

firstly, mw, you got it right, new cars depreciate too fast... some 2nd-hand cars appears new, without accident and are very cheap, with no logical reason at all, besides the fact that it is no longer new... but then hor, new car also become "old" right?

so, while shopping for a family car about 1 month back, I was very pressured to join the crowd to get a brand new car and almost committed on a brand new 7-seater toyota isis (wif CNG) for $71k, which I think would be a big regret... read on to find out...

using the 'value-investing' attitude, i sort of analyzed the figures and actually came to the following conclusions....

1. New car owners who sell their cars less than the planned 10 years will incur much higher depreciation than the initial calculations. For e.g. if I had bought the ISIS for 71k, over 10 years, the depreciation would be about 6.x k / year (coz still have remaining value when end of 10 yrs). However, if I wanna sell it at its 2nd year, it maybe worth only 55k in the market, which is 16k "depre" = 8k / year.

Why is this so? A 2nd hand car's basic value (Nett asset) comprises of the following:
a) PARF (rebate of ARF, which for newly registered cars, it is equal to OMV, a component of the new car price. This is the catch, for new cars, in the first 5 years, the value is only 75% of the ARF). This means that, on the 2nd day of the new car, the resale value drops 25% for this component... yes, drop in 25%... think about it...
b) remaining COE (depends on COE bought at that time),
c) metal body of car (made-in-japan cars can fetch up to 6k? while made-in-korea cars may be worth nothing) and
d) the premiums (perceived value of the 2nd hand car, i.e. additional value over the Nett asset) of the car (of coz Japan brands get better premuim).

However, for ISIS, it is already not too bad... but I still 'chickened' out, coz of the high loan commitment and the high possibility of selling within 3 years (for whatever reasons).


2. So, I asked myself, what would a value investor do in this situation?
Since there are people who "buy high and sell low", I decided to "buy low and sell lower" lor... at least lose, also dun lose too much...

So, I ended buying a "used" 2-year old 5-seater (instead of 7-seater, after much rationalization that most of the times, it would not be fully loaded) car (Hyundai verna) with 1 year of agent warranty left. oh ya, about the figures. I bought at 32k, which I estimate that its about 20k off its initial "new car" price tag. In short, the first owner "loss" about 20k for the first 2 years (maybe less if trade in for another "new car", I'm not sure how the industry work around the trade-in prices).

So, the first owner helped me to offset the depre of 10k / year for the first 2 years. For the remaining of the years (if I 'live' with the car for the rest of the 8 yrs), the depreciation should be about 3.6k per year.

oh ya, I did do a few checks before the purchase:
a. I called the agent to confirm the car is serviced regularly and no major repairs / replacement done so far.
b. Also, I checked and confirmed that there was a malaysia summon which the agent suppose to clear for me... this was the website I use, but it does not seem to be working now... http://www.rilek.com.my/pdrm/IPC/PDRM_SummonsInq.jsp
c. Finally, upon signing the purchase agreement, the car was sent to STA for inspection. It is written on the agreement that the purchase is only valid if proven that the car has never been involved in any accidents...

after driving for 1 month, I am quite happy with the point A to point B vehicle. the most important thing is that I do not feel burdened by the vehicle.

its not that tough for me to reach the decision. =) tough part is convincing people around me... in fact, some people still disagree with me...

Oh ya, apologies for the long post, but before I end off, i juz like to share this quote, I read somewhere:

"Drive to work, not work to drive".

Have fun with your car hunt, mw.
fc

[kennynah]

looking from right, left, front, back, centre, top or bottom...

a car is simply an expenditure item...an expense that has some recoverable value..

speaking of it as an asset, to me, is not an accurate adjective...

thinking it as an asset, to me, is just outright stupidity....

debating whether to expense, to me, is simply subjective...

somehow, i am not convinced that a car is an asset in an accounting sense....at least not yet....

[b0rderc0llie]

A few years ago, I had the same mindset as fclim, that a car is a depreciating "asset" and that as investors, we should not invest in something which is going to lose money.

However, currently I see my car as a toy. It is just something to have fun with. It is an expense and has nothing to do with my investments.

[millionairemind]

BC,

Agree with you. As long as you enjoy it, can afford it without stretching your expenses... Y not? Helps the Singapore ecnonomy and also car salesmen's family

For me, I hate driving in Singapore. I rather take the MRT and if that does not bring me to my destination directly, taxis always do the trick

Taxis are plentiful and cheap in Singapore.

Huat ar,
mm

[kennynah]

A few years ago, I had the same mindset as fclim, that a car is a depreciating "asset" and that as investors, we should not invest in something which is going to lose money.

However, currently I see my car as a toy. It is just something to have fun with. It is an expense and has nothing to do with my investments.

now...i found a fellow forummer who makes sense to me about cars....they are toys (and can be rather useful ones; reclined seats wink wink) and they are expenses...