Rich D wrote:I must have been lucky as I offloaded my 1 year old Hyundai with no problem albeit losing about 15% of the showroom value (15-20% is the norm). Everyone knows they are thirsty but the price differential more than makes up for it unless you're off up to KL every weekend.
There are a lot of cheapy Chinese cars coming onto the Singapore market too but their reliability is unproven (as is their UNreliability) and they have an image problem if you are that way inclined.
It is not true that old cars are not allowed and I know a couple of people who buy up 17-18 year old Mercs, drive them for 2-3 years then sell them for export when the 2nd CoE expires. This is a bit of a hassle though and the sums may need re-doing in the light of the downward trend in new car prices.
Exactly right also...... mostly
I bought a Japanese car second hand, 8-months old. It was already around 10% below the price it was sold by the main dealer. I know because i kept a track on the dealer prices for months before moving since everything is available on the Net and i knew what i wanted before i came.
It is difficult to justify buying brand new when they loose 10% in value in the first 30-seconds of driving out of the dealer. More so when you can pick up nearly new already discounted. My car had around 11,000kms on the clock when i bought it, nicely run in for me.
Anyway, 15% for a 1-yr old car is okay in comparison so i don't think selling Korean is any harder than selling Japanese, or that much worse financially. More so if you buy it second hand to begin with.
Chinese cars? Yes, avoid them at the moment, and more so with a family. They have already proven to be of a lower NCAP rating than nearly every other car on European roads. The Koreans are pretty good in this regards but certainly not the best.
I also know a few people also that buy 12-yr old type cars, old Mercs or Beemers etc. that should have the quality to last forever. They still have 8-yrs or so left on the CoE and are cheap......relatively. You only need to think what you need, in terms of space, safety, reliability etc.