Hi julian,
For your friend who had just bought the car with coe cat e, the
difference would be that:
1) when scraping/selling of the car, the coe has to be based on cat
a and not cat e of that particular month (i.e 1st or 2nd bid of
that month corresponding to when your friend has gotten the cat
e).
So that also means if cat a is lower in value compared to cat e,
the coe rebate after x years will be slightly lower. But in general
now, the difference is not much if you look at the current
stats.
2) Apart from this, when you are buying a car, the company usually
offer cash rebate when the coe falls below a certain value, say -
20k they bid (its stated by them), and if fortunate enough, that
month's cat a bid is 18k, so you will get a 2k rebate. but if cat e
is given and higher than 20 k , no rebate will be given. This has
to be clarified as I didnt read through all the documents as
well.
Cheers