What Happens To Cars In Singapore After 10 Years?

Singapore, being well known for its strict private vehicle ownership policy, many who do not reside in Singapore would have also heard of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE). However, what happens after the COE expires and what are the options available for you?

COE Is Required For All Cars

As we all know it, COE gives you the right to own and use a vehicle in Singapore, and that the expiry date of it is set to 10 years upon first registering a brand-new car here. After 10 years, cars in Singapore cannot be driven on Singapore roads unless the COE is renewed. It is illegal to drive a car without valid COE.

There are several options available that must be decided before the COE expires. Namely, renewing the COE and selling/scrapping your car.

1.     Renewing The COE

You can renew the COE by paying the Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP) (moving average of COE prices in the last 3 months) for your vehicle category for and have the option of renewing it for 10 years or 5 years. It is to note that if you choose the 5-year option, you will not be allowed to renew again and will have to deregister it upon it’s expiry again. While the 10-year renewal retains the option for future renewals.  Do note that you will lose any Preferential Additional Registration Fees (PARF) rebates upon renewal of regardless of the length of renewal.

2.     Scrapping Or Selling Your Vehicle

You may choose not to renew your vehicles COE and instead exploring either selling your vehicle or having it scrapped by scrapcar.com.sg. We suggest that if your vehicle is nearing it’s COE expiry date, within 6 months, you can consider having it scrapped or at the very least begin planning! If you happen to be looking to scrap your car and came across our website, I think it is pretty much a sign to have your car scrapped with us! Hassle-free and convenient while getting the highest priced offer. However, it is to note that having your car scrapped does not only mean that it is going to the local car scrapyard and be turned into precious metal, in our context, we also explore options of exporting the vehicle overseas to fetch for higher prices as long as there is a demand overseas and scrapping in locally would be the last option.  You will be able to get the PARF rebate and any COE rebates (if applicable) as well as the scrap or export value. To have a gauge of how much your car can be scrapped, you can consider reading this article (How To Estimate The Scrap Value Of My Car)

Final Tips For Your 10 Year Old Car

All in all, vehicles in Singapore which are reaching the COE expiry mark can choose to renew or have their vehicles deregistered. If you realise, there is a “hidden” option here which is to renew the COE and have your vehicle sold in Singapore and often, the financially wise decision would be to sell your car instead of deregistering the car and scrapping it – that may be true if the car is still new or less than 10 years of age.

However, scrapping your vehicle close to your COE expiry date allows full usage of the Additional Registration Fee (ARF) that you have paid while benefitting from additional value gained (scrap value) which is especially so if the vehicle is to be exported which can result in a greater payoff than renewing it and selling it in Singapore.