Published: January 23 2010,
The Straits Times
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Red plates are red-hot right now. Interest is revving up over cars with those distinctive red number plates marking them for off-peak use only, thanks to incentives starting on Monday.

These are longer usage hours - notably all day on Saturdays and the eve of five public holidays - plus cash rebates.

The changes are timely, coming in the run-up to Chinese New Year, when being able to drive around freely on the eve of a public holiday, instead of only after 3pm as currently permitted, is bound to accelerate interest.

Sure, owners of off-peak cars got a one-off $17,000 tax rebate, but they could drive only during off-peak hours, from 7pm to 7am on weekdays, among other aspects of the scheme.

Now that the scheme has been tuned up with features such as allowing unfettered use on the eve of New Year's Day, Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Puasa, Deepavali and Christmas Day, the brakes are off.

For some, there are obstacles to conversion. A driver who converts his normal car to an off-peak one will receive $1,100 in cash rebate for every six months it remains so, but not the $17,000 offset.

'People who are looking at off-peak cars are turned off by the high COE prices,' he says.

Although he does not expect COE prices to come down in the next three to four months, he is confident that 'customers will check out the cars once the market comes round to accepting the rates'.

Current off-peakers have a choice of staying in the old scheme or switching. The catch is that they must pay a one-time administrative fee of $100.

Monday's changes mean that these drivers, along with some new car buyers and owners of cars with no restrictions, are no doubt gearing up for some cost-benefit calculations.

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