Car Buyer Information – How does COE works?

COE stands for Certificate of Entitlement. You will need a COE if you wish to register a brand new car in Singapore. COE quota set by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) for the purpose of regulating & controlling the numbers of new cars on Singapore roads so as to avoid over-population.

COEs comes in five categories. A, B, C, D, E respectively. The categories are sub-divided according to the capacity of the car.

CAT A is for cars with a capacity of 1600CC & below & Taxi.
CAT B is for cars above 1600CC.
CAT C is for Goods vehicle & bus.
CAT D is for Motorcycle.
CAT E is ‘Open’ *
(*CAT E COEs are transferable and can be used for any kind of vehicle and capacity, unlike CAT A and B.)

The price of COEs is determined by open bidding from the public and is held on every first and third week of the month, Monday to Wednesday 4pm. An individual or company can submit a bid via ATM or online for an amount they want to bid; the end results will be the amount tendered by the lowest successful bidder. The amount of COE one pays is dependent on the results, not on the submitted bidded amount. Any unsuccessful bidding deposit will be fully refunded but a $2 fee will be chargeable for every bid submitted.

For example, assuming that 1,000 pieces of COE are up for grabs, you could bid $10,000 but if the 1,000th highest bidder places a bid for $100, then $100 is the amount you will end up paying for. The 1,001st bidder and below has to try again at the next COE auction.

There are various ways to bid for a COE; normally most of the new cars dealers would package the COE together with the car price. Upon securing an order from the customer, the dealer would then proceed to bid for a COE. This also means that whatever the current COE premium you see is only entitled to earlier buyers who had participated in the previous bid. So if the current COE premium payable is $2, just too bad – the lucky ones who benefit from the $2 COEs are the ones who bought their car before the bidding. And, not the buyer now rushing into a showroom expecting to buy a $2 COE.

So.. Why wait longer?? Get it before the COEs goes up even higher!