Singapore's car population has been on the up and up. There were 539,540 passenger cars at the end of July, 8.1 per cent more than at the same time last year.

But it is not because more people are turning up at showrooms. Rather, fewer cars are being taken off the roads.

This year's certificate of entitlement (COE) supply provides for 6,388 cars to be scrapped or re-exported a month. But between January and July, an average of only 5,190 cars were deregistered each month - 12 per cent fewer than the same period last year.