Part 2 - Types of pre-owned cars

PARF vs COE
The Pre-owned car market is typically broken down into two major categories. They are the "PARF cars" and "COE cars". Which category your desired pre-owned car falls under will greatly affect your budget considerations. We break down this two terms and explain in detail what they mean.

PARF Cars
If you do not know by now, a COE or Certificate Of Entitlement is valid for only 10 years. This means it allows you to own a car for 10 years before the COE expires, in which case you can either choose to de-register your car or renew your COE.

However, if you were to decide to de-register your car earlier than 10 years, that means taking your car off the road earlier than intended, you will be entitled to a rebate. (Yes, the government is giving you money back for scrapping your car early) Do note that this is valid only for first-time registered cars. It is not valid for cars with renewed COE.

The term for the rebate is called the "Preferential Additional Registration Fee", or "PARF" in short. This rebate is to keep the car population in Singapore young.

In essence, this means that ANY car on sale in the pre-owned market that is first registered less than 10 years ago from now is still entitled to this rebate. Thus, we call these cars "PARF" cars.

When determining the value of a pre-owned car or to calculate the depreciation of a car, the PARF rebate amount is a significant factor in the equation. Go to "Determining The Value Of A Pre-Owned Car" to find out how to calculate a vehicle's PARF value.

COE Cars
The PARF benefit is not the only rebate you will get when you scrap your car earlier than intended. You get a rebate on your COE as well. (More money!)

COE rebate is quite simply a refund. The amount you pay for your COE entitles you to use your car on the road for 10 years. In the case when you decide to de-register the car earlier than 10 years, you will receive a refund for the remaining months that your COE is not use.

Unlike the PARF benefit, COE rebate is given regardless of how many times the car has it's COE renewed. For example a 15-year-old car would have had it's COE renewed on its tenth year. Given that the COE is renewed for another 10 years, scrapping the car will only return a 5-year COE rebate. There will be no PARF benefits. Go to "Determining The Value Of A Pre-Owned Car" to find out more about the COE rebate.

"COE car" is thus the term given for any car with its COE already renewed.