BMW Z4 Transforms Into A Big Flower Pot

A BMW Z4 transforms into a big flower pot as owner gets creative with his car after deciding not to renew its COE.

Facebook posts that go viral usually show either the weird or the wonderful, and the most recent auto-related viral Facebook post by Singapore's SG Road Vigilante shows how strange things can get when a vehicle owner does not wish to renew their COE.  

The viral video showed a beautiful first-generation yellow BMW Z4 basically being used as a flower pot. Located at Chin Bee Avenue, the posting of the Z4 and its surrounding flora simply had the caption of "best-decorated bus stop bmw z4, white elephants". 

Judging by the comments on the post, we presume the owner of the BMW Z4 did not want to renew their COE and instead used the Munich machine as a bit of a decoration piece for his lovely front-of-house plant shrine. The plant showpiece also had a white elephant at the rear of the Z4 and a couple of bicycle wheels hanging out from the top of the Z4. 

So what is a COE, and why did the vehicle owner not want to renew it?

The cost of living and vehicle ownership in Singapore is high and if you don't believe us, just check out the price of the Perodua Ativa's cousin, the Toyota Raize, which retails around SGD94,988 (RM294K) in the Lion City.

Its price is around 300% more than the Ativa's, which seems ridiculous considering they are essentially the same car. Why is this, though? Is it because all cars in Singapore are lined with gold?

Unfortunately, the answer is no gold lining, but what makes cars so expensive in Singapore is taxes imposed on them and this fabled thing called COE.

The Certificate Of Entitlement or COE for short is a market-driven certificate, which allows a car to be driven on Singaporean roads for ten years. The prices of COEs fluctuate depending on periods of vehicle demand, which for the most of 2021 is hovering around SGD47k for CAT A (car up to 1600cc and 130bhp), SGD56k for CAT B (car above 1600cc or 130bhp), and SGD58k for CAT E (open).

COE Price credit: SGCARMART

After ten years, a vehicle owner would have to renew their COE to drive their car on Singaporean roads, and the renewal price depends on the Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP). The PQP is calculated by taking the moving average of COE prices in the last three months, which means you would have to pay around SGD40k-60k (RM124k-RM154k) just to get your car back on the road. 

Suppose they do not wish to renew their COE. In that case, their vehicle will, unfortunately, need to be scrapped, so perhaps instead of doing that, the owner of the Z4 thought he/she could get away with using the car as a decoration piece instead of seeing it completely gone from his/her life. 

According to a comment on the post, the car now has been taken by the authorities and unfortunately headed to the scrappers, presumably because of the viral video. 

Hey, we might even see this yellow Z4 on Malaysian roads soon because there are always syndicates illegally importing Singaporean scrap cars into Malaysia and repurposing them.