{"id":298,"date":"2006-05-15T13:11:55","date_gmt":"2006-05-15T13:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/?p=298"},"modified":"2007-01-11T06:11:02","modified_gmt":"2007-01-11T06:11:02","slug":"the-math-of-car-ownership-in-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/mathematics\/the-math-of-car-ownership-in-singapore-298","title":{"rendered":"The math of car ownership in Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I arrived in Singapore 9 years ago I already knew that car prices were nothing short of stratospheric. A standard Corolla was just under SGD$100,000 (or about USD$70,000 or $100,000 Australian dollars at the time).<\/p>\n<p>So I have been fine without a car here. Public transport is good and taxis are mostly plentiful.<\/p>\n<p>I think the Singapore model of restricting car ownership is a good one, except I am concerned with their 4% growth rate per year - that's high.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, costs have gone down in recent years - that same Corolla costs around $75,000 - a steal.<\/p>\n<p>A recent Straits Times article explains the costs of car ownership in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>A car starts with an OMV (Open Market Value). This is determined by Customs, and takes into account the cost price, freight, insurance, handling plus whatever.<\/p>\n<p>Added to that is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ARF<\/strong> (Additional Registration Fee): 110% of OMV<\/li>\n<li><strong>COE<\/strong> (Certificate of Entitlement): You have to have this before you can buy a car. The price is determined by an aucttion system. Currently the COE for a Corolla is around $10000.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Excise Duty<\/strong>: 45% of OMV<\/li>\n<li><strong>GST<\/strong> (Good & Services Tax): 5% of cost including excise duty<\/li>\n<li><strong>Registration Tax<\/strong>: $140<\/li>\n<li><strong>Road tax<\/strong>: $1000 per year for a Corolla<\/li>\n<li><strong>Transfer fee<\/strong>: 2% of the vehicle's value<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whew! So our $20,000 Corolla can grow to $75000 with all the extras.<\/p>\n<p>Added to that is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ERP<\/strong> (Electronic Road Pricing): A clever system that removes money from a cashcard as you drive under a gantry. Used duing peak hours for controlling traffic flow - oh, and gaining revenue.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fuel costs<\/strong>: Around $1.40 a litre<\/li>\n<li><strong>Maintenance<\/strong>: Ever tried to service a modern car? Ya gotta pay someone to do it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tyres<\/strong>: They change them every year<\/li>\n<li>And so on...<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But Singaporeans love to drive - and love the status symbol of car ownership.<\/p>\n<p>Me, I'll walk...<\/p>\n<p class=\"alt\">See the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/mathematics\/the-math-of-car-ownership-in-singapore-298#comments\" id=\"comms\">3 Comments<\/a> below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Car ownership costs are very high in Singapore - and I think it is a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intmath.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}