Certificate to own car in Singapore rockets to $106,000

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/04/singapore-cost-car-certificate

by adrian_mrd • 3 years ago

41 30 3 years ago

Beyond the high price to just purchase a car, Singapore freeways are loaded with tolls which make the price to operate vehicles even higher.

The flip side, the roads/infrastructure/landscaping of Singapore are the best I've ever seen. Modern and pristine, at least we know those funds are being put to good use.

addicted• 3 years ago

Singapore is the only country that prices cars appropriately. Every other country simply externalize the cost of a car onto everybody else including other car drivers.

leereeves4• 3 years ago

Even if that's true, it allows poor people to own cars, so it's probably a good thing.

ttymck• 3 years ago

Only because public transportation is inadequate. Registration, gasoline, maintenance and insurance are huge burdens.

People, rich OR poor, shouldn't need to babysit a two-ton machine just to live their life.

malermeister• 3 years ago

The fewer people own cars, the better for society and the planet.

fxtentacle• 3 years ago

That's such an US centric view. In Singapore, public transit is clean and reliable and everyone uses it. There's also no "you are poor" stigma attached to it so when we wanted to get to the afterparty of a startup event, everyone (including the CEOs) just took the MRT together. There's truly no need to own a car. Unless maybe as a status symbol or a collector's item.

MandieD2• 3 years ago

Car ownership being deceptively cheap forces poor people in places like Texas to spend a large chunk of their meager income on a car so they can continue working, instead of having enough riders to resurrect the bus systems they had in the 1930s-60s, or better yet, motivate intercity trains and suburban rail. My mother was able to take the train from Lubbock to College Station in the early 60s to visit her boyfriend. There's not been a practical way to travel between those cities without a car in my lifetime - Greyhound outside of a few city pairs is very, very theoretical.

janalsncm• 3 years ago

If the U.S. knew how to build decent public transportation at reasonable costs it wouldn’t be an issue. But of course there’s always corruption. Singapore has extremely low corruption so it’s not an issue there.

wait_a_minute4• 3 years ago

Oh yeah? How do you figure?

Daishiman4• 3 years ago

Singapore literally has no extra space to accomodate cars. Every square meter of car infrastructure is a square meter taken away for anything else. Thus pricing land and infrastructure use appropriately is extremely important.

Beyond a certain number of cars congestion is net negative for everyone. With a bidding process you allocate car ownership to where there is actual economic value.

Ekaros• 3 years ago

Nah, there is other expensive countries too like Finland. Where taxes on cars were higher than income taxes...

fomine3• 3 years ago

Moreover, Singapore externalize entire rural area to foreign countries.

c_o_n_v_e_x• 3 years ago

The rising COE prices also impacts the used car market, making vehicles more expensive.

dharmab• 3 years ago

_Supposedly_ it's now common for cars to be "stolen on a trip to Thailand" near the COE expiration. (This allows the owner to store the car out of country rather than being forced to sell it in Thailand.)

didntknowya• 3 years ago

it's fine to have a heavy cost to private ownership because they have a decent public transport.

throw9away62• 3 years ago

Is that per year or like a taxi medallion?

MatthewWilkes• 3 years ago

What's a taxi medallion?

andrerpena• 3 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_medallion?wprov=sfti1

Certificate to own car in Singapore rockets to $106,000

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