Just how much Can You Save Whenever you Buy An Off-Peak Car?

Owning a car in Singapore is more epensive when compared with anywhere else on the planet. As written in an earlier article, the cost of having a car – such as a Japanese sedan such as the Toyota Altis – can add up to about $157,000 over 10 years, or more than $15,000 per year.

If you wish/need to possess an automobile in Singapore, one method to reduce the price is to buy an off-peak car. Off-peak cars were introduced in the 90s to reduce peak hour traffic while still allowing Singaporeans to own a car.

According to the LTA's website OneMotoring, you will find three kinds of off-peak cars on the road – Weekend Car (WEC), Off-Peak Car (OPC) and Revised Off-Peak Car (ROPC). However, you don't have to worry about the WEC and also the OPC (unless you currently own one) because cars can now only be registered like a ROPC or be converted to the ROPC scheme.

Both the WEC and the OPC are old schemes that remain before the cars still under these schemes are phased out.

Off-peak cars underneath the ROPC include restricted driving hours.

As you can observe in the table above, off-peak cars can't be driven on the highway between 7am and 7pm on weekdays (except Public Holidays). These cars can be driven freely outside of restricted hours.

Those who already own normal, non-off-peak cars, having restricted driving hours may feel like an unacceptable proposition. In the end, when we already intend to spend more than $100,000 over Ten years on a car, why should we still need to deal with not being able to drive the vehicle during certain hours of the day when we desire to.

However, off-peak cars may make sense for several families. For instance, if both couple are working from Monday to Friday in the office, and do not drive to operate (e.g. they're working in the CBD where parking is expensive and driving might take more time than using the train), then an off-peak car that enables these to bring the household out for dinner after 7pm on weekdays and could be utilized on weekends may be what they need.

If you intend to drive your off-peak cars on certain days (e.g. you are well on leave and wish to drive the household to the zoo), you can do so by buying an e-Day license for $20 for the day.

How Much Would you Save When You Buy An Off-Peak Car?

When you buy an off-peak car, you will get up to $17,000 rebate, which is offset against the COE price and also the Additional Registration Fee (ARF).

Essentially, you save $17,000 around the cost of the car. For instance, a car's purchase price (with COE) is $80,000, you pay only $63,000.

On the rare occasion the COE price and the ARF is lesser than $17,000, then the rebate might be lower.

For example, the Perodua Bezza, currently the cheapest car in Singapore, has an OMV of $11,447. When we assume it has no VES rebate, this means the ARF will also be $11,447. If COE price drops to $5,000, total price of the COE and ARF is going to be $16,447. In cases like this, the rebate you receive for buying an off-peak car is going to be $16,447, and not $17,000.

In addition, you also enjoy savings as high as $500 each year in your annual road tax, subject to the absolute minimum road tax payment of $70 per year. This means when the road tax of the car is under $570, you won't actually get the full $500 in savings.

Assuming that you get the full $17,000 rebate for COE and ARF and $500 in savings for road tax each year, you will save $22,000 over Ten years.

Also, off-peak cars generally have lower insurance costs too, so you enjoy some savings for your auto insurance.

Off-Peak Cars Make More Financial Sense If You Buy A less expensive Car

In our thoughts, buying an off-peak car makes financial sense if you squeeze into both of these criteria.

• You have no need for a car to drive to work daily. And you and your spouse will work – which means nobody is while using car to ferry the children to college, or to run errands during weekdays from 7am to 7pm.
• You are becoming an inexpensive car.

For example, when we buy the Perodua Bezza ($65,999) today, we'll only pay $48,999 to have an off-peak car. In addition, the road tax of the car will reduce from $584 to $84 each year. This can be a substantial saving, especially if we don't intend to make use of the car anyway during weekdays from 7am to 7pm.

Converting Your Normal Car For an Off-Peak Car

If you've already bought a normal car and also convert it to an off-peak car, you're going to get $1,100 in off-peak car cash rebate for each 6 months that the car stays at an off-peak car. For example, if you choose to convert your normal car for an off-peak car after 5 years of driving, you will get a total of $11,000 in cash rebate during a period of 5 years.

In addition, additionally you enjoy savings of up to $500 every year in your annual road tax, subject to the absolute minimum road tax payable of $70 per year.

If You Renew Your COE, The Only Benefit You Get Is Lower Road Tax

Should you choose to renew the COE for your off-peak car after 10 years, you should think about just converting it to a normal car.

This happens because you don't receive any additional COE rebate for keeping it as being an off-peak car. Which means you pays exactly the same COE price as any other normal car renewing its COE, but continue to have restricted driving hours. The only help you continues to enjoy may be the $500 road tax discount – which doesn't make sense if you're paying $30,000 or even more to resume your COE.