Zit Seng's Superwall » car

COE Prices Surge

Zit Seng — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:34:46 +0000

IT shows are seeing record attendance and sales, condominiums are being snapped up, car prices are rising, and COE prices are surging forward. Aren’t we supposed to be in the midst of a economic crisis? The latest round of COE prices is showing a clear upward trend in prices. The big car category for example, rose from $200 in January to top out now at $16801.

It’s the same in the small car category. It hit a low of $1020 in February (even lower if you consider the fluke $2 in November 2008), and now breaking the year-to-date record at $14310.

Basically the COE prices have returned to pre-crisis levels.

I bought a Honda Stream last year. It retailed for under $70K at one point, but today the same car (albeit a newer version, but still the same Honda Stream) goes for about $80K.

I think I’m quite happy to get my car at the time I did. I didn’t quite hit the lowest retail price, but I think the deal I got was quite good enough. No need to fret over the fact that my COE value is pretty low. If I keep this car for 10 years, it would be really good value. (Unfortunately, every time I think about owning the car for 10 years when I buy it, I end up changing cars long before the 10 years is up.)

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Bumping The Curb Again

Zit Seng — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:30:31 +0000

It would happen again sooner or later. The front of my Honda Stream bumper got nicked by a curb that was just slightly too high, and now there is a streak of black plastic revealed in the front left corner of the bumper. Unlike the previous incident which scratched mostly just the underside of the bumper, this time around the scratch is slightly more obvious from the front.

The curbs in Singapore are built too high. It is somebody’s smart idea that high curbs improve pedestrian safety, because it makes it more difficult for a car to accidentally mount a curb and collide with a pedestrian. I wonder if it has actually been shown statistically or otherwise that the high curbs do (or not) in fact make a significant difference in vehicle-pedestrian collision rate.

One thing for sure is that many other developed countries have gotten by with much lower curbs. (I don’t know about the vehicle-pedestrian collision rate in those countries of course.)

I wonder about the cost of all the damage caused to cars due to excessively high curbs.

Thankfully I still have touch-up paint. But my dainty paint brush has gone missing. So after giving the car a quick wash, I applied some touch-up paint using tissue paper. It touched-up area looks quite rough, but that is also partly because the plastic has really been scratched rough. It looks like it might need some hard polishing to smoothen out the area. I think I will save that for another time.

My Honda Stream is “stock”. No additional body kit or what not. But it already cannot clear many curbs. It must be so much more difficult for others who have add-on body kits.

Somebody should invent a mechanism to help determine whether the car will clear the curb height. It is going to be a pretty useful device.

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Really Expensive Car Wash

Zit Seng — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:12:08 +0000

$15 car wash? I was quite surprised that car wash has become so expensive. Over the weekend, I was at the car wash at one of the SPC petrol station. The attendant informed me that the car wash price was $13, without vacuuming. I was shocked. I thought it should have been $6. Perhaps I had heard wrong. While the car was being washed, I looked at the price list put up on the wall. $7 for a saloon car, without vacuuming. Hmm, even in this period of economic difficulties, car wash services can still up their prices!

Okay, why did I hear $13 then? I read the price list in detail. SUV and “MPV Taxi” vehicles are priced at $15, inclusive of vacuuming. Then I suddenly realized… my new Honda Stream is considered an MPV. Yeah, it is a smallish MPV, but still an MPV of sorts nevertheless. This is the first time since I changed to my Honda Stream that I’ve gone to a car wash.

I’ve been washing the car myself all these while. But lately I’ve been busy, plus the fact that my domestic helper has gone back to Philippines, so there’s so much more things to do. Since this car wash place was reputed to be quite good, I thought I’d let them wash the car this time.

Usually, I don’t do the vacuuming. I never did for my last car. But since now the vacuuming “surcharge” of $2 was relatively inexpensive above the $13 for the car wash itself, I decided to just let them do the vacuuming as well.

I’m tempted to say that car wash has become so expensive. I suppose $15 isn’t a lot compared to the total cost of owning a car in Singapore, what with increasing ERP rates and gantries all over our tiny island. My cash card used to last forever on $50 of value, but nowadays, it is emptied in a week or so. (Well, of course nowadays car park and so many other things are charged into the cash card…)

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7.9l/100km Fuel Consumption

Zit Seng — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:00:44 +0000

Ever since I started driving my current Honda Stream, I’ve never been able to get any fuel consumption reading below 9.0l/100km (at least not under “measurable distance in reasonable driving conditions”). But this is what I got recently: 7.9l/100km. I was really happy. It wasn’t even wholly smooth going highway driving conditions. There were some bits of city driving, although much of it was indeed on the highway.

The fuel consumption meter is sure to get many drivers super engrossed on saving fuel. In fact, I think the fuel consumption meter kind of acts as a device to improve fuel efficiency. Some day, I guess all cars will have this by default, along with various options to get instantaneous readouts, average over 10 minutes, average since engine start, average since tripmeter reset, etc. Yes I know some cars have various ways to compute the readings, but I don’t think they have all the different computation variants together.

My Honda Stream’s fuel efficiency hasn’t been that good. It’s probably due to the bumper to bumper traffic that I get stuck in all the way to work, and part of the way home too. It’s far worse than the ordinary city driving. I don’t know what ultra-urban means, but I imagine my bumper to bumper traffic is also worse than what ultra-urban is. I think someone should just come out with a simpler way to convey fuel efficiency numbers so that we can easily share and compare between cars, and lay people can easily measure their own and meaningfully compare and “verify” the figures. In case you’re wondering, my “bad” fuel efficiency is like 11 – 12l/100km.

I pushed up the pressure in my tires recently. I’m not sure if it will have a measurable difference. I will see in my next tank full, when I’m back driving my usual routes.

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Inflating Tires to 250 KPa

Zit Seng — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:40:07 +0000

We all know that proper tire inflation is important. The big question is, what is the right tire pressure? Under-inflation leads to premature tire wear and increases rolling resistance (and hence decreased fuel efficiency). Over-inflation, on the other hand, may lead to decreased grip on the road. My Honda Stream has been running under-inflated for some time. At my last servicing, I had instructed the service centre to have my tires inflated to 250 KPa. I suspected the message didn’t get across.

I’ve been meaning to get the pressure checked, but because I’ve filled the tires with nitrogen gas, I cannot just pull up to petrol station to fill the tires. Unless I fork out more money, I’d have to go back to the same place I got the original nitrogen inflation. That’s how it works for Kah Motors, and that’s how it works at AutoBacs too.

So I eventually fond time to visit a Kah Motors service centre. The service advisor, funnily enough, thought I was just a blur driver who didn’t know how to check my tire pressure, and directed me to drive over to the petrol station’s normal air pump. I pointed out my tire was nitrogen filled, before my car was “admitted” into the service bay near the nitrogen pump machine.

I asked to have my tires inflated to 250 KPa. The manufacturer’s recommendation is 220 KPa. I had suspected my tires were previously inflated to 220 KPa (I was right), and I felt it was too soft, and my sixth sense tells me it was bring down my fuel efficiency.

Why 250 KPa? Because 230 KPa is too little difference to have any appreciable effect. 240 KPa might be right, but why not just push it a little further. Afterall, some of the nitrogen will leak out over time, and if I can’t wait, I can always bleed out some of it anyway. Yeah, nothing very scientific about how the number was chosen.

The ride was pretty bumpy the first few days. But now it seems quite okay. Maybe I’ve gotten used to it.

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Selling Cars in NUS

Zit Seng — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:05:25 +0000

Times must be bad, so car dealers are even coming to NUS to sell cars. Or perhaps it isn’t so bad afterall, so much so that our dear students have become a lucrative market for car dealers to target. Well, it’s one of the more unusual bazaars at NUS. There’re a couple of other booths, such as Automobile Association of Singapore, V-Kool, and one selling stickers. It’s a mini motoring fair.

Nescafe was there to give away their Nesfrappe. It’s the second time I’ve seen it at NUS. I like coffee, so that’s something nice. Particularly when served chilled on a hot afternoon.

Not surprisingly, there weren’t many people there to check out the cars.

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COE Shortages In Coming Months?

Zit Seng — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:31:35 +0000

Just announced by Transport Minister Raymond Lim, the number of COE available in the coming quota year will be slashed by 24%. Ouch. That is a humongous cut. I guess the government has had enough with $2 and $200 COEs. Time to take action. Particularly with the gloomy economic climate, where fewer new cars are expected to be purchased, something really drastic had to be done to prop up the COE prices.

The new quota year starts in May. The economy may be bad, but a 24% cut in COE numbers is really significant. I’d expect that COE prices will go up, and as a result, car prices will have to go up too. From now till the new quota year, we might start to see increased new car sales. People who are already looking will probably want to commit now rather than wait a few months later.

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Glare Polish

Zit Seng — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:39:44 +0000

Cars are expensive in Singapore, so it is no wonder that owners try to keep their cars in perfect condition. One of the things they do is investment in a paint protection system. Not unexpectedly, where there is a demand, there’ll be an endless selection of paint protection solutions in the market. We all want the “perfect” solution that maintains the showroom condition shine, gloss and cleanliness, with minimal wash and maintenance. Of course there’s no such thing.

So we try to rationalize and select the best solution amongst the many choices. This is pretty hard. Every solution tries to tell you they’re the best. How do you tell others you’re “better” when everyone says they’re best? Well, try to come up with a convincing scientific reason or explanation about how your technology works, and how it works better than others. Unfortunately, everyone seems to be quite good at making convincing presentations too.

So what did I do when it came time to select the paint protection system for my Stream? Fortunately for me, it was not very difficult to choose, because I had chosen one before for my previous Altis. It was Glare Professional Polish. Nothing has changed much in the paint protection technology since my previous Altis, and since there wasn’t really anything bad with what I chose previously, I just went for the same thing.

Ah, of course then the next question is why did I choose Glare for my previous Altis? Well, my choice was not very scientific in nature. Afterall, how would I know which is better? For all it’s worth, the “scientific” pitch from the various paint protection solutions could be riddled with mistruths and inaccuracies anyway. I chose Glare partly because their argument was slightly more unique. Most others seem to spin roughly the same story. Also, I had some friends going with Glare, and they hadn’t any complaints about it. I guess these were good enough reasons for me, better so than leaving it to random selection.

Glare’s pitch is that it forms a layer of glass that bonds itself to the paint surface, so that it becomes part of the paint. The glass is able to filter out ultra-violet rays, thus protecting the paintwork underneath. The glass is “rock hard” and stands up against the many elements that the car’s surface is exposed to. Glare claims to be used in the aviation industry, and conforms or exceeds Boeing’s D6-17487 test and specifications for all aircraft exterior.

(Of course, I take all that with a pinch of salt. To me, the plus point is that their pitch is more unique than others…)

The Glare Professional Polish costs $488 for a compact MPV. I had also considered another choice: Toughseal. One of my neighbours did Toughseal. Their rather “unglam” BMW has suddenly become very shiny (of course, maybe because they also wash it more regularly now). Yet another alternative to paint protection systems is to simply go for more regular waxing. Waxes, however, don’t last long. Since you have to repeat each application more regularly, the cost may come up to be quite similar. You’d have to spend more time though.

Glare has two outlets: One at Paya Ubi Ind Park, and the other at Orchard Hotel basement car park. (They also have other franchisees.) I like the one at Orchard Hotel, because you can leave your car there, then head out to shop or do other things at Orchard Road. You get complimentary car parking when you patronize Glare at Orchard Hotel.

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The Low Down on Body Kits

Zit Seng — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:07:20 +0000

My Stream hit the tarmac as it exited the car park at Thomson Medical Centre last week. The slope as you exit to Thomson Road is way too steep. The underside edge of the front left-side bumper got scratched. Quite a lot of it got scratched actually, although they are all quite little bits. The fortunate thing is the scratches are all not very visible, at least not if you don’t purposely look for it. I got some touch-up paint from Kah Motor and just got the scratches covered up. Let’s wait for tomorrow to see how it looks.

I don’t have any body kit on my Stream. The Stream doesn’t need body kits. It already looks good and sleek with just its own body. My previous Altis had full body kit. It looked good. The Altis needed the body kit, otherwise the body looked like it was missing something. I hit lots of curbs and slopes with the Altis.

I can’t imagine how more easily I’d be hitting things if my Stream wore a body kit. As it is, it is about as low as my previous Altis with its body kit on. The whole Stream is low. In fact, I’ve noted how even the driver’s door just barely clears the curb at one of the places I often park at.

The trouble with all these body kits is that they lower the clearance of the body from the road too much. Although Singapore roads are generally quite well designed, it is inevitable that you’d run into places where road humps and slopes become too much for the body kit to accommodate. Then also, there’s always the problems with high curbs when you park. Yes, it is very annoying that curbs in Singapore are so horribly high. If you’ve been overseas, especially if you’ve driven overseas, you’d have noticed the curb height in many countries aren’t as high as in Singapore. Our LTA says the high curbs are for the safety of pedestrians. (Yeah. Who pays road taxes?)

Of course, if you don’t mind all the little scratches, then none of this matters at all.

I think Thomson Medical Centre has got to do something with their car park exit. The slope is just ridiculous.

Incidentally, the touch-up paint from Kah Motor is free. I’ve read about some people happily reporting how their kind car salesman got the paint for them for free. Well, I learnt it wasn’t anything like a special favour or freebie from the sales people. Just go up to the service reception, ask for the paint, and they give it to you. They don’t even record down you’ve gotten it, so you can probably go back again for more if you ever run out of the touch-up paint.

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Car Wash Exercise

Zit Seng — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:16:54 +0000

Washing a car for one hour burns 314 calories, according to the Health Status Calculator, for a person weighing about 70kg. My 2.4km jog burns only 171 calories. It seems more fun to be washing car than to jog 2.4km. Well, except that one hour is a long time, and I don’t have a lot of hour-long time slots to spare.

Washing car is a tiring activity. Of course, I’m not just only discovering it now. I’ve been washing cars on and off for a long time… usually corresponding to when I acquire a new car. Now my current Honda Stream is still quite new, so I’m washing it. I’m not sure how long more I will be doing it… at some point I imagine I’d outsource this activity…

The funny thing is that when I wash the car myself, it seems to take exceedingly long. It actually takes me at least one hour just to complete the exterior cleaning. So by the time I’m done, I don’t have the energy (or time left) to do a proper interior cleaning. I usually end up just emptying out the rubbish, dust the floor mats, and other simple things.

One hour for exterior cleaning seems like an enormous amount of time. Afterall, the car wash at petrol kiosks only take like 10 minutes or so.

I’ve been thinking that I must be doing something wrong. Wrong as in “inefficiently”. But I don’t know how to work faster. One limitation that I have to work with is that the water must be filled up into a pail. Yeah, no hoses. But I park next to the tap, so it is not like I am spending a lot of time carting water back and forth.

Someone needs to invent a car paint protection system that only requires a simple wipe down. Something that bird droppings don’t get stuck on, does not get swirl marks, no water stains, etc. A paint protection system that is impervious and repels everything (except the car body). That would be superb.

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