Are you thinking to sell your car in Singapore or becoming a Grab driver? This article was my experience in selling my car and reviews on a few used car dealers that I had approached and contacted. I sold away my Kia Cerato 1.6 Manual car manufactured in 2008 on 30 June 2016. I asked for quotations as early as February so that I could monitor the price change over the months.
I started with Quotz Pte Ltd after seeing an advertisement in sgCarMart. Quotz is part of the sgCarMart network, which is one of the top car classifieds for buying and selling Singapore used cars. It provides you with a free valuation of the current selling price in the market with no obligation via email.
After sending Quotz a request for a quote, the Customer Service Executive replied to me in 2 days. The price quoted was $17k – $22k in February 2016 by email. She also followed up on the same day with a phone call to encourage me to try their Auction Bidding Scheme for the offer of the highest car price possible.
This system was beneficial for the prospective seller who would first pay a $107 service charge by cash or NETS to their office at Automobile Megamart to participate in the Auction Bidding Scheme. Quotz will assess the car condition on the spot and provide a reserve price set by the company. The seller has to make an appointment first before going down to their office in Ubi.
Quotz has a database of over 300 used car dealers in their system. The car will be auctioned on their website for the second-hand car dealers to bid for the highest price in 1 working day. The sellers decide whether the bid price is set to their expectation before accepting the offer. If a seller agrees to the auction price and sells the car away, Quotz will only charge $107 for the service rendered.
If a car seller refuses the car offer of the bid price, $107 (inclusive of GST) will be refunded at a later time based on either one of the two conditions not met:-
1. Reserve Price Guaranteed – sgCarMart guarantees that their Bid price exceeds your Reserve price
2. Highest Price Guaranteed – sgCarMart guarantees that their Bid price exceeds all other Market offer prices
If the seller sells their vehicle at a later date with a higher price, he has to produce the Sales Agreement to Quotz and claims back his $107 service charge.
June is the month that I had to hunt seriously for a car dealer again. My ideal handover date was 30 June 2016. I asked around for quotations from my friends who had their friends as second-hand car dealers. Two car quotes came in. The first was $12k, a ridiculously low offer. After some negotiation via messages, the car dealer offered me $15.5k. The second friend quoted me $15.5k and $15k from his two friends who were car dealers.
My friend asked me to go down to WCEGA Plaza in Bukit Batok because his friend, who was a car dealer wanted to offer me a higher price if my car condition was good. My friend did not turn up on that day as he overslept. He did not pass me his friend’s address either.
Not wanting to waste my time, I approached randomly one car company there, Carlingual for a quotation. The sales representative proposed $18k. I was elated as it was $3k higher than the rest of my car offers. He offered to send my car for a free inspection at the car workshop on the same floor and gave a final quote after 30 minutes of waiting.
He offered me $17k because my car had to undergo some minor repairs which the workshop listed them out. I suggested to fix them at my expense. I felt that the technical issues that he had listed out would cost me less than $1k to repair. He agreed to take in at $18k if I could rectify all the problems listed.
I needed the car for the next few days to run errands and the handover date would be somewhere around end June. He asked me to call him again should I want to sell later and to confirm the selling price again. I had no intention to call other car dealers, as I felt that the market price was around $15k.
The end-user selling price of this car model in the same manufacturing year was around $20k. Therefore, $18k offer was the best car deal. Nonetheless, before I left, I told him that I would try Quotz Auction Bidding System to make another round of final car price comparison.
I called up the same woman in sgCarMart Quotz to evaluate the market rate for selling cars for the last time. She shocked me by saying that the car price for Kia Cerato was then $13k to $15k as some companies had reduced the selling price in the end-user market. The car value had dropped drastically over the last few days.
Then, I made another call to Carlingual sales rep. I decided to sell my car to him because of his professional service. He replied that his boss did not agree to take in my car at $18k and offered $15k instead. I was disappointed and did not agree to it. I started to research the car forums to find more car dealers for quotations.
One participant in a car forum provided a list of CaseTrust-STVA Accredited Business which I called all of them immediately. Below are the quotes of the car companies for my Kia Cerato 1.6M.
| CAR COMPANY | OFFERED PRICE |
|---|---|
| Fourpoints Automobile | – $17k |
| Mayfair Motoring | – $16k |
| Lake View Credit | – $15k to $16k |
| Good Year Automobile | – $15k |
| RTMT Motor | – $14k |
| Car Times Automobile | – $13k |
| Car World Automobile | – $10.8k (How absurd the price) – not a CaseTrust Member |
| Yong Lee Seng Motor | – SMS my car detail to someone. He replied back “How much you want?” |
| Jia Leong Trading | – Not interested in taking this model |
| Prime Cars Credit | – Said their rate was not fantastic for old models but never called back |
A friendly gentleman by the name of Gerry from Fourpoints Automobile called. One of the car dealers above recommended him to call me. He offered me $17K on the phone and told me that $18k was not possible at the current market rate. I agreed to meet him the next day at 11:00 at Unit B46 Turf City to show him my car.
PS: Since the article was written a few years ago, the company may have shifted or not in operation anymore.
After inspection and driving around the area for a few minutes, he offered me $16.5k. He wanted to give my vehicle a new coat of paint, changed tyres and repaired some parts. I feel that the price was reasonable and accepted the offer because If I have to respray the car, it would probably cost me around $800 to $1,000. As a car dealer, he will get a lower cost from the workshop.
Inside the office, he handed me a $2k cheque to seal the deal. I had to sign a document to reveal the outstanding loan amount from my bank to him. He would pay the outstanding car loan to the bank and gave me the balance out from the sales transaction. I told him I wanted to hand over my vehicle 9 days later on 30 June 2016. He agreed without hesitation.
The next day, he texted me the outstanding amount from the bank. It was $44 more than the outstanding loan that I had. The bank charged an administration fee for early termination of instalments.
Gerry came to my place to collect the vehicle as agreed. He passed me a cheque of the remaining value after deducting the balance outstanding bank loan and the initial $2k payment. I also passed him a Transaction Pin from LTA that was required to do a car transfer. The process was smooth and fast.
He was the owner of Fourpoints Automobile and was polite and professional. He gave me a better car offer as he wanted to have more cars to sell. I recommended Gerry to another friend who wanted to sell his car. They arranged for a car viewing after my friend got a car quote.
Although I did not ask my friend whether Gerry had proposed him the best price, I was sure that Gerry did as it was common to call several car dealers to check on the best car offer. Otherwise, my friend would not have taken the trouble to go down for a car inspection at his place.
An LTA Transaction Pin is necessary for Vehicle Ownership Transfer. You can apply it online. LTA will mail your Transaction Pin in 1 week.
My final advice is to seal the deal immediately if the car offer is good. If you wait for a couple of days or weeks like me, the car value may drop drastically. Car prices are volatile in Singapore especially when the Government introduces a new scheme or adjust current changes that will affect the supply and demand of used vehicles. Check out 10 steps to get your PDVL and become a Grab Driver.
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