USED CAR Exports from Singapore: White Paper and Guidelines.

The time is just right for Singapore car export markets and on it business cycle level, we are talking of being at the just rising curve! The growth in near future is tremendous. Its because of following reasons:

1. Singapore used cars are cheapest in the current world market. A recent study shows that compared to other major exporter's like Japan, USA, and European countries, the cars from Singapore are almost 20 to 40% cheaper due to the Singapore Government rebate policy. The Government has "The Scrap Car" policy for any car that reaches 10 years of age and a very encouraging REBATE policy where by if the car owner decides to export out car just after 3 or 5 years of use, he gets monetary rewards for buying the NEW car.
This makes Singapore car CHEAPEST in the world market.

2. There are almost 500 car dealers within a 50 to 100 sqr.kilo meter area who are all very competitive and offer excellent service to facilitate car exports to the owners of cars. They buy the used vehicle, complete government formalities like "De-registration" etc and work out rebate documents for the car owner to go and get the NEW car. Then they move these used cars for EPZ which is called Export processing zone. There are currently 8 EPZ in Singapore with up to 10,000 de-registered cars moved in to EPZ every month.

3. Singpaore used cars are of excellent quality for the simple reason that car value in Singapore has been very high due to COE Tax factor. (The COE is local tax for registration of car to be used in Singapore. Usually the COE value of car is more then the Import value of car so you can imagine the price of car for local use) So for this reason the car owner's really take care of their car being a very expensive or luxury item.

For example if a used Mercedes Benz 200E Auto, sales at S$ 40,000/- as local sale but the moment it goes to export processing zone upon its de-registration, its valued at about S$ 6,000/-. This means that the car owner who offered to sale it for export, gets a REBATE which is more than selling a car local. This is driving car owners to go for REBATE when the car becomes about 5 years old. Now due to very high local price, the car are valued and treated as luxury commodity and very well maintained which is not the case with Japan and other parts of world where cars are relatively a cheap product and usually rough maintained.

By the way a new Mercedes Benz will cost not less than S$ 140,000/- for local value (After COE tax and registration) however the REBATE value for exporting out even 5 year old Merc will cover substantial value towards the cost of new car.

4. Singapore's used car’s are not heavily used due to very small country size. from one end to another end of Singapore is less than 100 sqr.km. Compared to USA or Japanese car's where the roads run in to thousands of kilo meters, these Singapore car’s are much less driven on the road.

5. Singapore car which are well maintained and since most expensive in the world as far as local use is concerned, they usually have facilities like Hi-fi, power shutter, power stirring, alloy rim, leather seats, rust proof, tuff coated and very well groomed.

6. Dubai’s Disadvantage: Dubai is a major reseller. It buys used car from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, USA and resell it to other markets. Also there is some fishy business going on in Dubai market. Most of the stolen cars end up in Dubai port which lacks proper documentation when being imported in to 3rd world countries. Further when a Japanese or Singapore car lands in Dubai, it adds up in cost towards port charges, logistics and profit margin for the local Dubai trader. However for many African motor car dealer’s, Dubai offer’s a big advantage being near to Africa and having a large selection when one visiting personally to Dubai port.