Channel NewsAsia 20 Mar 08;
SINGAPORE: The price of petrol has increased eight times since last July, and car dealers said buyers will look at alternatives to avoid paying for the high fuel prices.
While the price of petrol has gone up, the US dollar is down to a record low.
Associate Professor Tilak Abeysinghe from the National University of Singapore's Department of Economics said: "Demand for cars is likely to go down because... the overall cost has gone up. Now the increase in oil prices is simply adding to that overall cost, so it (the demand) is likely to go down."
Car dealers also predicted that buyers' habits will change.
Ron Ng, a salesman at BenchMark Motoring, said: "People may switch to... CNG cars, hybrid cars, smaller CC cars or even cheaper cars, or they will switch to buying used cars."
Dealers added that Japanese cars are now more expensive as well.
When the US dollar fell, the yen gained strength, so Japanese cars are now about three per cent more expensive.
In the latest COE (Certificate of Entitlement) bidding exercise, prices for all vehicle categories are up, except for motorcycles.
COE price for big cars saw an increase of S$1,001 to S$19,001 while price for small cars went up S$1,038 to S$15,389.
In the open category, COE price rose S$184 to S$18,854. Commercial vehicles' COE price also climbed S$1,300 to S$17,610.
COE price for motorcycles went down S$58 to S$901. - CNA/ac
