Why not rotate the Subaru regional finals venue?

MOTOR IMAGE chief Glenn Tan (left) awards the symbolic key to Singaporean Gan Yu Shen Tholmas

After 78 hours and 30 minutes, the Subaru Challenge 2012 regional finals ended in Singapore last Tuesday when 42-year-old Singaporean Gan Yu Shen Tholmas remained the last man standing with his right palm on a Subaru Impreza.

Gan clocked the second-longest winning time in the 11 years of the Challenge, an endurance contest organized by Motor Image Enterprises, the regional distributor of Subaru vehicles and MediaCorp, Singapore’s leading media company. In the Subaru Challenge, contestants have to endure the hot sunny weather, rain, sleep deprivation, fatigue, cramps, hunger and thirst to keep their right palms firmly on designated decals on Subaru Impreza cars parked in the center of Ngee Ann City’s Civic Plaza.

The contestants are given a break every six hours to eat, drink, go to the toilet or have a massage. At the 7 p.m. break, family members and friends are allowed to approach and cheer on their contestants.

Gan bested another Singaporean, 47-year-old catering officer G. Jaishankar, who was eliminated after marshals saw him lifting his hand a bit. It was Jaishankar’s third violation of a rule, so Gan was immediately declared the winner. Gan’s reward: a brand-new 1.6-liter Subaru XV worth 80,000 Singapore dollars (about P2.72 million at an exchange rate of P34 per Singapore dollar) but without the COE (Certificate of Entitlement).  Runner-up Jaishankar received a cash prize of S$5,000.

Country winner. Among the 10 contestants from the Philippines who qualified and were sent to Singapore all-expense paid for the finals, a four-time veteran, Alex Neblasca, was declared the Country Winner for outlasting his fellow Filipinos with a standing record of 44 hours and 46 minutes. Neblasca, a 30-year-old mechanic, was awarded S$1,000. Five of the 10 Filipinos were repeaters like Neblasca. This year, unlike in 2011, there was no female Filipino contestant.

Ever since the Subaru Challenge began in 2002, the regional finals—called The Asian Face-Off this year—have been held in Singapore and Singaporeans have always won the grand prize. As the MediaCorp press release acknowledged, “[t]he regional contestants put up a great fight but could not match the staying power of the acclimatized locals to win the competition.” Aside from Singapore and the Philippines, the countries represented at the 2012 Subaru Challenge finals were Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand.

REGIONAL CAMARADERIE Frendi Salim (in wheelchair), country winner of Indonesia, greets the Philippine team beside the Subaru Challenge regional finals arena at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza while Motor Image Pilipinas marketing executive Kevin Buenaseda holds aloft the Philippine signboard. Alex Neblasca (sixth from left) was the country winner of the Philippines.

The weather during the four days of the Challenge (October 27-30) was unusually hot and humid for October, relieved only by a brief rain shower or two, Motor Image Group president Glenn Tan admitted. Even Lee Wai Mun, the CEO of the Automobile Association of Singapore, commented on the unusually humid weather when we had coffee and afternoon snacks at Jones The Grocer on Dempsey Hill.

Venue. Since Singaporeans have won the grand prize every year for the last 11 years of the Subaru Challenge, “acclimatized” as they are to Singapore weather, isn’t it time to give the regional contestants a chance by holding the event in another country? If the venue of the Subaru Challenge is rotated every year or every two years, the Subaru brand would gain more extensive international exposure and media mileage.  Moreover, the tourism potential of the host country will be enhanced and camaraderie among the regional contestants would increase.

Meanwhile, winning the Subaru Challenge if you’re a Singaporean doesn’t always mean that you get to keep the car you won. That’s because the government of Singapore requires residents of Singapore who plan to buy a car to bid for a COE, which allows the holder to own a motor vehicle for 10 years. After 10 years, the COE holder must scrap or export the car or bid for another COE at the prevailing rate if he/she wishes to continue using the car for another five or 10 years.

Established in May 1990 to limit car ownership and thus the number of vehicles on Singapore’s roads, the COE is restricted in number and its rate has been rising. In October 2012, a COE for cars and taxicabs 1.6 liters and below cost S$71,000. The bigger the engine displacement, the higher the rate. The COE leads to speculation that winners of the Subaru Challenge regional finals, Singaporeans all, would rather sell the prize car at a discount rather than pay the astronomical COE to keep the car.

But the COE imposition doesn’t seem to bother the generally affluent Singapore population. How else can you explain that the best-selling automotive brand in Singapore is BMW, followed by Mercedes-Benz? Might as well get your money’s worth when bidding for a COE by buying a prestigious European car.