To buy or not to buy?

$42k for a COE was on everyone's mind along Leng Kee Road and in the Ubi area yesterday evening. Not many can remember when was the last time a COE cost this much and neither can I. Is this a one-off knee jerk increment in the wake of LTA's announcement on the new COE quota system or a sign that COE prices could reach near six-figure prices like way back in the mid-1990s?

Well, there's definitely some panic buying this time round and speculators - those who have booked a car were just too eager to secure their COEs. According to Mr. Vincent Ng, product manager at Honda distributor Kah Motor, COE prices have not yet peaked. Added Ng, "As the market size is at most 44,000 this year, there is still room for COE prices to move upwards in the next four months. Deregistration looks like a downtrend from February 2010 - meaning quota for Aug 2010 to Jan 2011 will be down again giving further room for COE premiums to move upwards.'

Obviously with the spike in COE prices, there's a significant increase in demand for used cars which means that many more pre-owned cars enter the second hand market rather than get exported or scrapped which in turn means less cars are being deregistered. And the consequence of it all is lower COE quotas for the coming months. Less COEs equals to more expensive COEs to satisfy the ever continuing pent up demand.

With predictions of continuously rising COE prices, I guess that the sooner one buys, the better it is. So don't wait - go out there to get your dream ride before prices skyrocket even further.

Credits: Story by Raymond Lai