tzlee.com/blog

  • A Sunday at two Car Showrooms – BMW and Lexus

    I got a call from Performance Motor Limited (“PML”) about a private sale, so guys being guys, I agreed to go down. Of course, I brought the wife along so she can play “finance manager” and say NO in case I get tempted.

    So the private sale was like this – you must be on the invite list, and must have a car to trade-in and they offered an insane price for the trade-in. The trade-in price was easily >$30K above market prices, which brought the BMW 318i price down from $180,800 to $14x,xxx or a BMW 320i from $203,800 to $17x,xxx.

    The discounted price for a 318i is good considering that a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord are selling at the same price in the current market.

    But I was more interested in the 320i. That’s a crazy price for a car, I’m sure. But I was pleasantly surprised by what the latest model offered – all the electronic gadgets makes me pee my pants. It has 17″ rims, iDrive with built-in navigation, bluetooth telephone w/address book and voice activated dailing, in-vehicle information display such as service intervals and other mechanical status of brakes, engine, blah blah blah, timer for air-con recirculation so you don’t get into a baking hot car parked under the sun, and here’s the best part – INTERNET. Yes, bluetooth tethering with the iPhone.

    The 320i also has fold-down rear seats (the old one didn’t, or was an option) and the audio system has been marginally improved with more powerful bass (up to +/- 10 step adjustments instead of +/- 6 on the old models).

    I also test-drove the 318i which had the new electronic steering system and it was indeed much lighter and easier to park the car, but there’s a slight lack of “road” feel. I still like it though, cos the wife doesn’t like the heavy steering on the old model.

    It was very tempting at $17x,xxx. Damn bloody expensive, I know, but I really liked it – it’s a dream car. We spent a few good hours in the showroom, and the salesman started giving an additional 1-2K off. But the wife said NO. Sigh. No new high-tech ride for me.

    So being unconvinced that BMW was the best car around, I went pouty faced over to Lexus to test the new CT200h which they claim to be oozing with technology. It is lower in price too due to government discounts on green cars.

    What a disappointment. The interior looks sub-par (compared to the BMW) and the sales guy also sucked – he treated me like I couldn’t afford a Lexus. Yeah, maybe I can’t but the showroom looks pathetic – it’s was EMPTY.

    The base model at $154K didn’t have leather seats so I asked him how the fabric looked like. His reply was, “Huh? Cloth lor.” I was like WTF? Like show me some samples? He said they didn’t have any.

    Anyway, no leather? For a Lexus? Borneo Motors, I don’t know what you were thinking.

    The higher “Plus” model at $158K had leather seats. That was the only difference – top up $4K for factory fitted leather.

    So I decided to cut the crap talk and asked for a test drive. Here’s a summary of my experience:

    The seats were manually adjusted. For a $158K car, I wouldn’t expect that.

    The moment I pushed the START button, the car feels weird – it was silent except for the air-con blower. I got on the gas a bit – still silent.

    Then at approx 30km/h the petrol 1.7 litre inline 4 engine kicks in and you suddenly hear a low rumble and more power.

    My first foot on the brake in the carpark felt weird too – it wasn’t progressive and the braking effect was sudden as if somebody else was braking the car harder than you wanted for you. My feeling is that it’s caused by the car engaging a flywheel of sorts to charge the NiMH batteries.

    After getting up to speed, braking felt slightly better but still weird – it’s just not progressive. Adding to the weird braking behavior, you could hear the whine of the dynamo/generator which was a little annoying.

    I was still driving in “normal” mode all this while. Then I switched to the “sport” mode – oh what a difference. The CVT gearbox kicks me into a lower gear and now the car takes off on it’s 1.7 litre engine. But again, this felt weird. The change was too abrupt – from a tame hybrid it was suddenly TOO responsive and I had to change my footing.

    Then finally I tried the “eco” mode which was oh my god slow as a turtle. I couldn’t stay on it for more than 5 seconds, so I switched back to “normal”.

    It was a short test drive, but it wasn’t a good experience at all. As a driver, I felt weird. The car’s behavior was abrupt, unpredictable and unrefined. The wife sitting quietly at the back also said the ride was rough and the interior didn’t give her a “wow” feeling. The audio system was terrible – in fact worse than my Nissan Latio. On the level of sound insulation, the BMW wasn’t any different. So whoever that tells me a Lexus is silent, I’m going to beat you up.

    At $158K, I’d rather buy the BMW 318i which would be packed with slightly more features and a more refined drive. The $10K difference could pay for lots of fuel – at least 3 years’ worth.

    I think that these hybrids still need some time to get their act right. To achieve 24km/l it might be worth considering a Toyota Prius instead.

    I’d love to test a BMW ActiveHybrid if it comes here though. I have confidence in BMW’s engineering to build a more progressive and predictable hybrid.

    OK, enough for the day. Back to reality. No high tech cars for me! 🙁

  • And so it’s decided

    I don’t understand why we still have MBT and TPL in Parliament. Screw the GRC system, each candidate should be opposed one-on-one. Singapore today is mature enough to not make race or religion a deciding factor.

    Workers Party, please do us proud. I offer my 2 cents:

    Abolish the CPF installment payments starting at 62 years of age – it does not benefit the poor at all. Not many of them live till that age. The statistics are flawed. Only the rich get to receive this money.

    Please don’t raise the HDB income ceiling already – it will encourage more rich people to buy and further inflate the flat prices.

    Instead, stagger the income ceiling based on the flat type, i.e. bigger flat bigger ceiling so the higher income group don’t contend with the lower income group with the 4-room flats causing it to rise much faster than the rest.

    Lower the income ceiling for PRs – this will encourage the well-to-do PRs to either rent (good for Singaporeans) or buy private property at inflated and more violatile prices.

    Impose more penalties on crappy public transport operators.

    Stop the gerrymandering and grant us our rights to freedom of speech.

    Lower the crazy ministerial salaries, tax the rich, provide healthcare for the poor.

    Finally, curb the influx of foriengners that are not only taking away some low income worker’s jobs but also breaking up families.

    Create quotas for different industry segments based on supply and demand.

    I’m not saying all foreign talents should go – skilled white-collar workers that we can learn a trick or two from can stay. That’s what they are here for – they want a jumping board, trade up their knowledge for a few years. Fair and square.

  • A note for the Blind Followers

    OK, I’ve had enough of people blindly saying good things about the men in white and that the oppositions suck. We have to discount the opposition because they haven’t been on the job yet – how would I expect you to know how to fix my problems if I haven’t even hired you?

    Yes, due respect for LKY. He’s a great man, but things have changed. This country is no longer 3rd world and cannot be managed like the way it was before.

    I quote a note shared by a friend on Facebook:

    I fear the Singaporean who says “I think the opposition candidate in my constituency is crap, but I will vote him anyway because I think the PAP is arrogant.” I cannot agree with that.

    Cannot agree with what? Arrogance? Arrogance diminishes wisdom my friend.

    No doubt there are really good and smart people amongst the men in white, such as GY, TCH, GCT but I’ve had enough of them especially the MP in my area (now contesting in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC). Let me relate my experience.

    I have a neighbour noise problem. And trust me I’m not the only person in Singapore with this issue. Google it and you will find it. Some people have it worse than me and this affects people’s lives.

    Yes, I’m a musician and I’m sensitive to noise, but I am not unreasonable. I’ve been living in HDB flats since young and haven’t heard such noises at my parent’s flat. Worse even, these noises occur at night right above my bedroom. I can’t sleep in peace or spend a weekend at home without going crazy. HDB flats nowadays are built cheaply with paper thin walls that I can hear every noise my neighbour makes. I’ve tried to talk to my neighbour, called the police, visited my MP and even written in to HDB.

    What pisses me off is my MP being the last resort not giving a hoot about my neighbour problem. When I asked him if there’s any law governing these issues, he said “not really” and there’s nothing much he can do except write a letter to HDB. Yes, he did indeed write a letter to HDB, but I’ve never seen the HDB officer visit my flat to even listen to the kind of noises I have to put up with.

    So what do I need my MP for when he doesn’t even bother? I’m not saying all of PAP is bad, but some shit needs to be fixed.

    And I quote my friend again:

    But I don’t think voting against someone good as a statement against the GRC system is entirely logical…

    So if I vote for the same group, I will get the same guy who will not solve my problem anyway. How about let’s say have you ever done a project with a crappy team mate? Reality of life is that if you have a bad team mate, he/she drags you into the water. If I stand up for such a system, I’m supporting gerrymandering and the GRC bullshit.

    I feel the severe lack of freedom of speech, the lack of the right to even request for something. I’m not taking about Mas Selamat, the floods and the overcrowded MRT and roads. These are civil service issues that are brought about by the policies that were (or not) made.

    Get this fact right – the civil service will only act by the book and these laws are defined by our government. As of now there are no laws protecting us. Read the first few pages of the WP manifesto, it is quite interesting.

    FYI, I had to take things into my own hands and it got really ugly to a stage that my property agent actually went up to my neighbour with some fruits to make peace. But the issue is still not totally resolved. Take it that I’m firing my MP and finding a new one.

  • Aging Gracefully

    Not many political discussions make it to my blog, but I think this one is worth blogging about since this actually sparked off a long discussion on Facebook.

    Wife’s friend said the problem is not with how CPF works but with Singaporeans not knowing how to age gracefully. I totally agree with this.

    There are many opinions on whether CPF is a good or bad system. Some say it is good because it forces Singaporeans to save and controls their spending during retirement, some say it’s bad because the lower income will have no CPF to start with and they are left to die, some conspiracy theories say we don’t really know if CPF even has enough money to pay out with our aging population.

    Nevermind the speculation. Let me talk about retirement.

    Retirement is a common misconception that most of us have; most people expect to work till the so-called retirement age and then all of a sudden they retire and stop working. This is the very reason why some of you have your old folks telling you things like “(they) have fed you for the past 20 years, it’s time for you to pay back.”

    I’m not against filial piety, but expecting your child to feed you through your retirement isn’t the right mentality either. A lot of people I’ve seen suffer precisely because of their warped idea of this ancient Chinese virtue – their parents decided that it’s time to retire because their children are now working and that they should be given a (hefty) monthly allowance so they can go and play mahjong, visit the casino, buy alcohol and smoke weed when their children have just barely started with their career and are still paying off their study loans. Is this right?

    People say that they worry for their future generations – that they will not be able to afford a flat, keep up with the education system and adapt to the rising costs of living in Singapore. If we continue to have such a mentality living dollar-to-dollar, spending all our money saying that we live only once, and hoping our children will one day make tonnes of money and turn you into a full-time Tai Tai, how are we helping our children ourselves by doing this to them, let alone allow our government to help us?

    I empathize with the people who are not poor by choice but poor by circumstance, but I have seen too many people poor by choice, i.e. they don’t know how to save, spend all their earnings, refuse to work, or just gamble their money away. These are the very people who just blatantly pick any topic and blame the government for their current poor state.

    Get this right guys – no government can solve this problem. If for example Singapore ceases the CPF system and start feeding and caring for these people who are “poor by choice” then the tax payers will have to bear the high taxes – typically in excess of 30% as seen by most developed nations with such schemes. Or if for example we have a minimum wage scheme, people will become unemployed as they are priced out of their value (thanks Prof Ben – insightful discussion).

    If you have worked hard for your money and you pay 30% tax just to feed these people, will you be angry?

    By then you think we’ll still find $3 chicken rice or $0.90 coffee in Singapore when wages and taxes are so high?

    For the middle sandwich class, every one of us should fend for ourselves and plan our so-called retirement which does not necessarily mean to stop working and play mahjong all day long but to continue doing something we love/enjoy as we age and hopefully (and very likely) make decent money during the process.

    For the lower income group – I’m talking about those who can’t even afford to read this article folks. If you have fucking Internet access, you are not POOR – I believe the government is there to help. Go and seek aid.

    The retirement concept is dead folks. Don’t rely on your CPF.

    FYI – just in case you are wondering, I am pretty party neutral. I don’t like the high minister pay, neither am I a Kate Spade fan. I’m not exactly pleased with the increase in CPF contribution rates either since I think it does little for our so-called retirement. I also do think a fair amount of minority party making some noise would help keep the majority ruling party on their feet. Overall, Singapore is still a very safe country and I appreciate that.

  • Impending General Election

    So there has been some discussion on topics that are “close to our hearts”, such as HDB prices.

    Wife read a site/blog that claims that HDB flats are leased to us, so why do the prices go up instead of down as the flats age?

    Simply put, it’s inflation. But why inflation?

    So let’s start from the root of the problem. Singapore’s economy is highly dependent on her workforce. Unlike the middle east, we have no natural resources. So we LPPL.

    (We’re also lucky in that aspect, otherwise we may be at war.)

    We also suffer from an aging population. This is not uncommon – most developed countries have this problem. We will need to fill up the jobs that our parents used to fill to keep the economy going.

    So it’s quite clear now that to grow our economy and to maintain our standard of living we’ll need to grow our population. And so the government has started to “import” population as a desperate measure, otherwise our economy will go downhill – which will actually be worse.

    What happens when we have “imports”? They need a place to stay. Since they can’t buy new flats (which doesn’t make sense anyway — new flats take time to build, and they need a place to stay IMMEDIATELY), they’ll buy resale.

    And with a small plot of land, a shortage in supply of flats and a strong demand from our imports, HDB prices will naturally go up. 99 year lease term? Doesn’t matter. Arboh you want the imports to sleep on the streets?

    So why can’t the government build more flats? OK, let’s turn that question around. Who’s going to build more flats? Ah-ha! We need more imports.

    Get the idea now?

    Economic growth is a cycle. You can’t break it. Too bad… the world works this way – even before money was invented!

    IMHO, we are here in a developed country. We have our problems. Whether we like it or not, we either suck it up and make the best of it so you can live a better life here, or think about how you can get away if you can find a greener pasture elsewhere.

    BTW, don’t get me wrong. I’m not in favor of any political party. Actually I’m interested to see what the opposition has to say. Most have a lot of rubbish to say but no solution yet. We shall see!

  • To Hire and Be Hired

    So wifey’s colleague will be going on a long leave for a period of 3 months and she had to sit-in in an interview of a new guy who would be covering her colleague.

    According to her, the interviewee – a FT, apparently, from another part of Asia – was able to describe his job scope and responsibilities so well she felt that Singaporeans were at the losing end for being really bad at articulating their work experiences.

    However, wifey had a feeling this guy was half bullshitting as he used the term “we” more often than “I”, meaning he was describing his team’s work rather than his individual contribution. However when probed, the interviewee was capable of elaborating details of processes, so she couldn’t really ascertain if it was really bull or not.

    Then I spoke to another friend who had some bad brushes with FTs and he asked if her colleague had asked more objective questions rather than open-ended questions such as “describe your role in your previous job” and wifey said: “Not really.”

    So there are two problems here. We suck at both ends – as an interviewee and interviewer.

    When I was in my first job in a small local start-up I had similar problems with interviewing, so I came up with a 3-page technical test. Rather fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) the test filtered out a lot of candidates and it became really difficult to find a decent hire and eventually we were a little starved for manpower. Over time, some random hires got in and were asked to go, or quit shortly after anyway.

    Where have all the good people gone?

    I’m suspecting the big companies are sucking them all up, leaving small start-ups in the ditch.

    So it leaves all the Tom, Dick & Harrys (hereinafter “TDH”) to search for small-timers who are desperate for manpower to fulfill their growing business.

    But if small companies don’t firm up their hiring process and start hiring any TDH, they may be in for a rough ride.

    TDHs don’t really bother with company culture. They follow some rules set out by HR just for the sake of it. And for a start, many small start-ups lack culture, so TDHs will readily mess that up.

    A lot of TDHs I’ve seen are in for the money, or it’s just another job to fill their idle time. TDHs lack commitment, and will readily switch jobs when a better monetary offer comes along.

    Lastly, TDHs are a waste of time if you send them for certifications. They lack passion and will use your certifications as an opportunity to get a better hire elsewhere, and all your money would have been gone to waste after a year of intensive training.

    So if you run a small start-up, I’d like to suggest that you firm up your hiring process. One good employee is better than many crappy ones. They bring a lot of intangible benefits to a company.

    It’s really not difficult to weed out the TDHs. Test their thought processes, ask them whacky questions, push them to the limits of their answers. A passionate hire will pay attention to detail and will offer creative suggestions. TDHs will probably just answer “I don’t know” and go in search for the next easier target.

    However, if you’re on the opposite side and is going for an interview soon, learn to talk. It’s really a skill, especially if you’re still in school – take your presentations seriously and aim to capture your audience. These are real life skills. If you can’t sell, you have no money! I wished I had taken them more seriously 10 years ago, but it’s a little too late for me now 😉