Hi ,
First, some common terminologies used in the trade to help you
along.
New car - self explainatory.
2nd hand - Not brand new but the car is less than 10 years
old.
COE car - Not brand new, but car has already exceeded/about to
exceed 10 years, which means that the validity of the 1st 10-year
COE has expired/about to expire and a second COE for the next 10
years is required.
Scene 1 - Imagine that you are a new car. Before the 1st owner buys
you, he needs to have a COE. Price of the COE is dependant on the
monthly bids (the one you hear on the news every month). After he
gets successfully bids for COE, he registers you (together with the
COE) at the LTA on 1st June 2000. The REGISTRATION DATE (1/6/2000)
is therefore the official date that you are allowed to be driven on
singapore roads. COE will expire 31/5/2010.
Scene 2 - 3 years passed, owner 1 decides to sell you. You are now
to be sold as a 2ND-HAND car. Note that the COE that was bought
previously stays with the car and not the owner. Therefore the
selling price of the car would include the remaining validity of
COE of the car. No need to buy a new COE. Owner 1 successfully
sells you to owner 2.
Scene 3 - 7 more years passed. It is now early May 2010. Owner 2
has to make a decision. He can either scrap you (you will be
scrapped at the scrapyard or exported out of singapore) and buy a
new car, or pay for another COE to extend
your life on Singapore roads.
Scenerio 1 - he decides to scrap you. He sends you to the scrapyard
and de-registers you. He receives a Preferential Additional
Registration Fee (PARF) certificate, which can be used to offset
the cost of the next NEW car he buys. The value of the PARF is
calculated by a formula depending on the age and the Open Market
Value (OMV) of the car. The OMV is a portion of the total cost that
Owner 1 paid when you were first bought as a new car and would be
stated on the registration card. Note that the PARF value of a car
is $0 after 10 years, which means that there will be no PARF value
if the car is older than 10 years.
Scenario 2 - he decides to keep you. He would then need to pay for
an "extension" COE. This "extension" COE need not be bidded. All
cars are allowed to be extended and the cost of this "extension"
COE is calculated from the average new COE prices of the last 3
months. This "extension" COE is also called the Prevailing Quota
Premium (PQP) and is always also listed in an additional column
when they announce the monthly COE results. By default, the PQP is
also valid for 10 years, after which the owner can decide again
whether to extend for a 3rd 10 years and so on... However, PQP can
also be bought for 5 years validity at half the price. The
condition for this is that the car would be required by law to be
scrapped after this 5-year period. (There was a question abt this
ruling recently in the papers and LTA's reply was that since the
owner only decide to extend for 5 year instead of the normal 10
years, LTA assumes that the owner made this decision because the
owner thinks that the condition of the car can last only 5 years
more and therefore LTA regulates that it would have to be scrapped
after the 5 years is up.)
This is the life-cycle of a car in Singapore. hope it helps you
understand the system better. As for the dates that you mention,
they would normally refer to either the registration date or the
COE expiry date. Can use some common sense here to decide which is
which. For example, now is August 2002. 7/2000 or 7/1999 would
normally mean the registration date of the car, since it is before
the current date. If it is 7/2004 or 7/2011, then it would normally
mean COE expiry date.
You can also visit www.onemotoring.com.sg website for more info. It
is the official commercial site for LTA and will explain alot of
what I've explained above and much more (can also check for average
used car prices as a guide etc).
And finally, just to share my personal budgeting principle when i
first went about looking for a 2nd hand car... the value of
downpayment that I will pay will be equal to the PARF value of the
car (abt 10K for a 1.6l car). This will also be the money I get
back (after the COE expires) to offset the next car i buy. I will
also set what I am willing and can afford to pay as monthly
downpayment (say $500/mth). With this in mind, every bloodsucking
dealer i meet, I just ask for 3 numbers.
1) selling price
2) PARF value
3) no. of months more till expiry
Then I calculate... (1-2)/3 = $???. If $??? exceeds $500 then the
car is too expensive for me... I stick to this principle, or else
those glib-tongued dealers will definitely make you pay for more
than you can afford... DO UR HOMEWORK !!!nisaan march is a good car
but see ur buget n work out ur details........... 
Well.. that's it... long reply huh :p
cc frm net
