I feel that although the COE prices have fallen, the overall car
prices doesn't change because the car's ARF remains high.
Apparently, the cost of importing vehicle from overseas fluctuate,
especially in Japan where the yen has risen against the
dollar. This will inflate the overall vehicle car price given the
current economic gloom. The rise in vehicle cost is buffered by the
low COE, hence there isn't much of a significant drop in prices.
That's what I think....
Well, another reason could be, if they sell their cars at low
COE rebate, they might expect more orders coming in, and this
will inflate next round's COE to higher levels and customers might
be asked to top-up the difference in worst cases. So to strike
some sort of a balance, the agents might adjust prices to cope
with the demand of a particular model....Well, in my opinion, now
is a good (not best) time to buy a car but if you
have the money to own it, but no money to
maintain it, it's also no use.
Prices have dropped not because ADs have eaten into their profit
margin, but because COE prices have fallen. ADs are generally still
making an average of 10-30k per car for japanese models, and
upwards of 30k for continentals. ADs are not going to lower their
profit margins, they are just going to tai chi the stress and
pressure of making sales to the sales executives (since a large
portion of their pay is dependant on commission).