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COE is insanely high now. Buy a car anyway or wait it out?

We have a young kid and public transport with a toddler and groceries is killing us. But COE prices are brutal right now. Do we bite the bullet and buy, or wait a year or two hoping it drops? For those who bought at a high, any regrets?
Anonymous asker ·Asked on 19 days ago ·656 views ·4 answers

4 contributors answered

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Startup Founder Nadia Beginner First-hand experience Bootstrapped my e-commerce brand from bedroom, can share Enterprise SG grants, suppliers and burnout survival.
Bought at a high with a newborn, no regrets on the need, some regret on timing. Here's my honest take: COE is driven by quota supply and demand, and nobody can reliably time it, people have "waited for it to drop" for years and paid more later. If you genuinely need the car now for a young family, the convenience and safety with a toddler has real value that a spreadsheet undercounts. But go in with eyes open: buy the most sensible car you can, not the biggest, because a high COE plus a pricey model plus financing is brutal. Consider a used car with COE already paid down, or a category A model. And run the true monthly cost, COE amortised, petrol, insurance, parking, ERP, servicing, before you commit. If the numbers stress your household, a car-lite year with occasional Grab and rental for big trips might beat drowning in a depreciating asset.
Anonymous contributor Beginner First-hand experience
Whatever you decide, don't overstretch the loan tenure to make a peak-COE car look affordable. Long tenures at high prices mean you owe more than the car is worth for years. If you can't comfortably afford it on a sane loan, that itself is the answer to wait or go car-lite. A friend stretched to the max tenure to justify a peak-COE car, then got retrenched and was stuck servicing a loan bigger than the resale value. The monthly instalment feels fine until income wobbles. Buy what you'd still afford on a bad month.
Anonymous contributor Beginner First-hand experience
We did the maths and stayed car-lite. Grab for the rare heavy grocery run, occasional weekend car rental for outings, taxi when raining with the kid. Total comes to a fraction of owning at current COE. It's less convenient, sure, but the money we didn't sink went into our kid's education fund. Depends how much you value spontaneity versus savings.
NSman Wei Jie Beginner First-hand experience Just cleared my last ICT, can advise on IPPT, reservist deferment and all that NS admin nonsense.
Consider a used car with a few years of COE left, or one where you rebid a shorter lease. You skip paying peak COE for a fresh 10 years and match the car life to how long you actually need it, maybe just the toddler years. Buying a brand new car at peak COE is the most expensive path of all.

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