For OPC, allow me to provide another view of thought.
I am deciding and thinking of whether an OPC suits me and realise
something that is perhaps not so obvious.
Ok, for those who dun know how it works, it works in the way that
you subtract $17k off your COE (usually off the purchase price of
car with COE) and you get the loan for the remainder spread over
the desired number of years you want. In additional, you also get
$800 rebate on road tax per year.
Basically, you save $1.7k+ $800 = $2.5k per year over a normal
car.
Now, if you wish to sell the car, you have to top up back
in cash the $17k minus the
age the car is x 1.7K
Formula for top up = $17k - (Age of car x
$1.7k).
Example: Car is 3 years old and you decide to sell the car, you
need to top up:
$17k - ( 3 x 1.7K) = $17k - $5.1k = 11.9K
Unless you intend to drive the car for 10 years, for the $17K that
you save upfront, you need to top up back the difference in cash
should you want to sell or convert it back to normal plate. With
regards to the above example, after driving an OPC for 3 years, you
need to fork up a considerable sum of roughly $12K to exit the
off-peak paradigm for your car. That is non-inclusive of how much
you may need to top up for the transaction of the sale of your
car.
Therefore, do think and calculate carefully. Apart from the
restriction that you cannot drive on peak period, the main concern
is also the amt of cash that you are required to fork out.
All in all, will it be better if in the first place, you get a
normal plate car instead which you can drive without any
restriction? This will not only save all the trouble, but also not
to forget the fact that although you pay $17k more, it is spread
over the years in your instalment.
