Both of you are right. Overall car population is controlled by COE. However, privately owned cars has decreased. Remove those bids by lion city rental, coe should be $1. However, coe constitute about 8% of govt revenue. It also affects the consumer index. So brand new cars are bought by you know who to rent out as uber to maintain the Coe at above 45k. All car salesmen know it.WTF are you rambling about? Your analogies all nonsense, car population is controlled by COE quotas, the number of COEs released is always balanced by new demand and old COEs being released back and ATM COEs are always oversubscribed.
It is also reported here. http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/car-numbers-sink-to-five-year-low