When your car hits 10 years, you either scrap it or you renew the COE. To renew COE you pay the Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP) for your category, which in June 2026 sits around $118,357 for Category A and $121,218 for Category B for a 10-year renewal, or half that for a 5-year one (LTA / renewcoe.sg, June 2026). Renewing buys another 5 or 10 years without bidding, but it quietly closes two doors at once: you forfeit the PARF rebate you would have got from scrapping, and a renewed COE pays you nothing back when it expires. This guide gives you the live 2026 PQP rates, the exact 5-year versus 10-year math, the road tax surcharge that creeps in after year 10, and the honest call on when renewing beats scrapping and buying again.
A Certificate of Entitlement gives you the right to keep one vehicle on the road for 10 years. When it runs out you do not bid again. Instead, you renew at the Prevailing Quota Premium, the PQP, which LTA defines as the moving average of the quota premiums from the last three months of bidding. Because it tracks recent bids, the PQP moves every month, but you skip the auction entirely.
You choose between a 10-year renewal at the full PQP, or a 5-year renewal at exactly half the PQP. The 5-year option looks cheaper, and it is, but it comes with a catch most owners miss: for a normal car (Category A or B), you can only take the 5-year route once. When that 5 years is up, the car must be deregistered. There is no second 5-year extension and no switching back to 10 years. Renew on a 10-year COE instead and you can keep renewing in 10-year blocks indefinitely, because cars have no statutory lifespan in Singapore.
You must pay before the COE expires, or within one month after with a late fee of $50 to $250 depending on vehicle type. Miss that window and the car has to be disposed of immediately. To work out whether the renewal even fits your monthly budget alongside insurance, petrol and maintenance, run the numbers through our car cost calculator before you commit.
The PQP is the whole cost of renewing, and it is close to (but not the same as) the headline COE price from the latest auction, because it averages three months. Here are the figures as of June 2026. Always check the current month's PQP on OneMotoring before you pay, since it resets at the start of each month.
A 10-year renewal costs the full PQP. A 5-year renewal costs half. So a Category A car renewing for 5 years in June 2026 pays roughly $59,179, while the same car renewing for 10 years pays about $118,357. That 5-year number is the cheapest way to keep a sound car on the road, as long as you accept the car dies at the end of it.
| Category | Vehicle type | 10-year renewal (PQP) | 5-year renewal (50% PQP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cat A | Car up to 1,600cc and 130bhp | $118,357 | $59,179 |
| Cat B | Car above 1,600cc or 130bhp | $121,218 | $60,609 |
| Cat C | Goods vehicle and bus | $82,868 | $41,434 |
| Cat D | Motorcycle | Check current PQP | 50% of PQP |
| Cat E | Open (converts to A-D on renewal) | Converts at renewal | Converts at renewal |
This is the choice that traps people. The 5-year renewal saves you half the PQP today, but it is final. Once you renew a Category A or B car for 5 years, the clock cannot be reset: at the 5-year mark the car is deregistered, full stop. The 10-year renewal costs double but keeps the car renewable forever in 10-year blocks.
The honest way to decide is to ask how long the car will realistically last and how long you want to keep driving it. A 5-year renewal is the better value if the car is solid now but you would not bet on it past five more years, or if you are buying time before switching to public transport or a new car. A 10-year renewal makes sense only if the car is in genuinely good mechanical shape and you are confident you will still want it past the five-year line.
The PQP is not the only number that changes once a car passes 10 years. Two extra costs kick in, and one big rebate disappears the moment you renew.
First, the road tax surcharge. From the day a car turns 10, LTA adds a surcharge on top of normal road tax: 10% in year 11, climbing 10% each year to a cap of 50% from year 15 onward. On a typical mid-size car that is roughly an extra $70 to $300 a year, small against the PQP but real. Second, insurance. Most insurers will not write comprehensive cover for cars past 10 years, so you drop to third party or third party fire and theft, and premiums often run 10% to 20% higher than for a newer car. Compare what you would pay first using our cheapest car insurance in Singapore comparison.
The big one is the rebate you give up. If you scrap a car within its original 10-year COE, you get back the PARF rebate (a percentage of the ARF you paid) plus any unused COE rebate. The moment you renew, the PARF rebate is gone forever, because PARF only applies to cars deregistered inside their first COE. And here is the part owners forget: a renewed COE earns you no COE rebate at all when it finally expires. You pay the full PQP and get nothing back at the end. The exact mechanics are in our scrap car COE and PARF rebate guide.
The deciding question is what a renewal buys you per year versus the alternatives. A 5-year Category A renewal at about $59,179 works out to roughly $11,800 a year just for the right to keep the car, before petrol, insurance and repairs. Buying a new car instead means paying a fresh COE near $124,000 plus the car, the ARF and the OMV-linked taxes, but you get a warranty, lower maintenance and a future PARF rebate.
Renewing wins when the car is mechanically sound, you know its history, and you genuinely value keeping it over the next 5 to 10 years. It loses when annual repair bills creep toward $1,000-plus, when you would rather have the safety and efficiency of a newer car, or when the car needs major work that a renewal does not fix. Run your own break-even before deciding, and sanity-check the affordability against your wider budget with our personal budget calculator.
If you are weighing renewal against simply buying again, the COE price itself drives that call. Our COE price Singapore guide tracks the latest bidding results so you can see whether a new COE is cheaper or dearer than renewing this month.
| Option | Upfront cost | What you get back | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-year renewal | ~$59,179 (50% PQP) | Nothing at the end | Solid car, short remaining horizon |
| 10-year renewal | ~$118,357 (full PQP) | Nothing at the end | Great-condition car, long horizon |
| Scrap and exit | $0 | PARF + unused COE rebate | Car worn out, going car-lite |
| Buy new | New COE ~$124k + car + taxes | Future PARF rebate | Want warranty and reliability |
The renewal itself is quick and done online. The hard part is paying for it, since the PQP is rarely something people have sitting in cash.
Because a 10-year renewal can run past $118,000, many owners finance it. Banks offer COE renewal loans, usually capped by the same total debt servicing limits as other car loans, with tenures up to the renewal period. A 5-year renewal at half the PQP is far easier to cover in cash or a short loan, which is part of why it is the popular choice for older cars. Whatever route you take, treat the renewal as a five or ten-year commitment, not a one-off bill, and check the monthly payment fits before you sign.
You pay the Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP) for your category. As of June 2026 that is roughly $118,357 for Category A and $121,218 for Category B for a 10-year renewal, or half those amounts for a 5-year renewal. The PQP changes every month, so check OneMotoring before paying.
No. For a normal car in Category A or B you can take the 5-year renewal only once, and the car must be deregistered when it expires. If you want to keep renewing, choose the 10-year renewal, which can be repeated indefinitely for cars because they have no statutory lifespan.
No. A renewed COE pays nothing back at the end. You also permanently lose the PARF rebate the moment you renew, since PARF only applies to cars scrapped within their original first COE. That lost rebate is a real cost you should weigh against renewing.
Often yes upfront, especially a 5-year renewal at half the PQP, which can cost around $59,000 for a Category A car versus a new COE near $124,000 plus the car and taxes. But renewing means higher maintenance, pricier insurance, a road tax surcharge after year 10, and no rebate at the end. It wins mainly when the car is in good mechanical shape.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.