Car COEs dip but bike's soar

Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums for cars dipped in the latest bidding exercise yesterday, but there was no respite for those wanting to buy motorcycles as prices continued to soar.

The COE premiums for two-wheelers closed at $3,051 - up more than 11 per cent from the $2,704 in the previous bidding exercise.

Also creeping up was the COE for commercial vehicles, which went up from $50,001 to $51,002.

Premiums for Category A cars (up to 1,600cc and 130 bhp) closed at $71,564, down $726.

The biggest drop was for cars in Category B (above 1,600cc), falling from $79,000 to close at $75,300.

Open COE, which can be used for any vehicle type but ends up mainly for bigger cars, finished at $77,003 - a dip of $1,807.

This bidding exercise is the first under the new COE quota and classification criteria which kicked in this month.

The results puzzled motor traders, reported The Straits Times online, many of whom were expecting Category A to post a sizeable correction and Category B to soar with the recategorisation.

Mr Ron Lim, general manager of sales and marketing at Tan Chong Motor Sales, told Channel NewsAsia: "If the new reclassification rule had successfully removed the luxury mix from Cat A, we should have seen a bigger correction than what we have seen today.

"But what we've noticed here is that some of the luxury mix is already back (in Cat A) under the new ruling, and we suspect that these models are responsible, in a way, in holding up the premium.

"Today's correction is too marginal and I don't think it's going to help the mass market brands a lot."