Maintain Car In Singapore

koh · Post by **koh** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:51 am

Hi,

Anyone in this forum knows about this country, Singapore ? It is in the Asia region, to be exact, Southeasteast between Malaysia and Indonesia.

It is an island, expanding at this moment with reclaimation of the land from the sea. Due to its small size, the government is restricting the car population and maintaining its traffic flow.

We have a system that maintain the car population. It is called certificate of entitlement. Every month, the government released two biddings to the public for bids. Each bids has a limited number of cerificates. So, if this month has 200 certificates. If your offered price is within the 200th counting from the highest price offered, you got it. With this cert, you can purchase a car and use for 10 years. After 10 years, you have to either scrap off or bid again for that cert.

So, the current price for the cert is around S$ 17,000 ( S$ 1- US $ 1.7). plus a car price around S$ 40,000. The total price would be around S$ 57,000. It would be the price for a chrevolet, Opra.

Petrol price has government tax, car parking would be S$1.00 per hour and S$1.00 per half hour in the city. Private car park operator would charge around S$ 0.70 per half hour. Insurance would be around S$1,500. On top of that, if you travel among congested area such as city, highway, you pay highway tolls about S$0.50 - S$ 2.50 depending on the time you enter the toll gate. Moreover, a three year old car need to go for annual inspection for any modification, road worthless test.

So, I really envy you guys in this forum on sharing experience for various cars models, modification on engine, upgrade. Because, I cannot modify the car as the government regulate that all cars cannot be modify.

HOw about your country.

john_trickle · Post by **john_trickle** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:00 am

welcome to the forum i just like to say that at present im not to happy with singapore at all.

koh · Post by **koh** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 3:16 pm

Hi,

I know why you are not happy with my country over that incident. It is really a sad one to me. My deepest sympathy.

My objective in this forum is to gain and share experience of owning a car. Most important is to get to know helpful and nice people over the world.

Audacity Racing · Post by **Audacity Racing** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 3:52 pm

57,000 dollars is nearly 5 times the amount of an optra5 here in the states. my lanos was 9,000 dollars brand new (1999 model purchased in 2000).

welcome to the forum and stick around. there is lots of good info to be had around here

koh · Post by **koh** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 4:50 pm

Hi,

I purchased my Lanos SOHC 1.5 manual gear at S$ 44,000.00 (USD 1- S$ 1.7). It is already two years old when I purchased at 2004. On top of this, I had to pay registeration fees, insurance about S$2,000.00.

Road tax would be S$ 890.00 per year.

Post by **PrecisionBoost** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:04 pm

Hi Koh, sounds like cars definitly need to be worth while to spend that much money on a vehicle.

What area of Singapore are you from??

koh · Post by **koh** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:45 pm

Hi,

Singapore is small island and we do not have a capital. Capital is Singapore itself. I stayed in the southern part of Singapore.

Yes, it needs to be worth to spend for my point of view as I am not very rich. Yet, you still can find Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, BMW and top Jap models cars as there are many rich peoples around.

The reason I bought Daewoo lanos is that the scrap value is still higher comparing to other popular makes. For example, if you drove out a brand new Chrevolet opra out from the dealer and want to return it. You tend to lose at least S$15,000-S$20,000 as the scarp value is much lower than the selling price of the car. The trick is the government tax levied on the car.

So, for having a car, it is convenience in Singapore. Public transport is quite comprehensive there. But, crowded buses, long waiting period for buses, packed subway trains and lack of cabs during peak hours still present there.

I intend to scrap the car in the event if I am jobless or major breakdown in the car.

genie47 · Post by **genie47** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:57 am

Hi koh,

The flag says it all. I'm on the northern end (as if 20km north of you means anything)and benefit from JB's cheaper petrol thanks to the exchange rate.

I save by servicing most of the car myself.

genie47 · Post by **genie47** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:02 am

Erfinder@PrecisionBoost wrote:Hi Koh, sounds like cars definitly need to be worth while to spend that much money on a vehicle.

What area of Singapore are you from??

Its not worth the while. The convenience is good. We can drive up to visit the bigger northern neighbor for cheaper stuff but we are still screwed.

Even when leaving this country, it is illegal to drive up with an empty petrol tank.

They do check your fuel gauges to make sure you have are at least 3/4 of a tank of petrol. I know it might sound anal but imagine thousands of cars leaving to go up north just to fill up with cheaper gas. We only have 2 bridges connecting to Malaysia. Might even anger the Malaysians too. Their petrol is subsidized while ours is not. So getting gas from Malaysia is akin to "robbing" tax dollars from Malaysians.

Its a crazy world we live in.

genie47 · Post by **genie47** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:10 am

koh wrote:Hi,

I purchased my Lanos SOHC 1.5 manual gear at S$ 44,000.00 (USD 1- S$ 1.7). It is already two years old when I purchased at 2004. On top of this, I had to pay registeration fees, insurance about S$2,000.00.

Road tax would be S$ 890.00 per year.

Explains why my first car is a COE car. I paid fully in cash for it. Drove it, modified it to my heart's content then got rid of it.

Another weird thing about Singaporean car owners is this obsession with bodykit mods. Pretty much a very expensive exercise on an item that technically have only 10yrs of "paper life". For an old COE car, its OK. The car is cheap to begin with. For a new car, it doesn't make financial sense.

koh · Post by **koh** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:29 pm

Hi,

Mine first car is from my dad's 1978 Daihatsu Charade XTE. By the time, I started to work and use this as my sales transport. It is over 18 years. Well, it lack of maintenance so it gives white flumes as the gaskets had gone off.

One of my ex colleague got a Toyota Corolla, 9 years old. When he took over, it give white flumes and got a warning by traffic police.

It that worth to go JB for fuel. You go at 3/4 and comes back full. What car you drive ? Is that worth ??

genie47 · Post by **genie47** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:33 pm

I live in Woodlands. I is worth it if you live here but not when you are further south of Yishun or Sembawang.

I drive the 1.4L DOHC Aveo.

koh · Post by **koh** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 3:10 pm

Aveo is the replacement for Lanos or I should say Kalos. Nice car as it had grown bit taller and slim. I heard the fuel consumption is better than the old Lanos engine as Aveo has a new engine. How is your fuel consumption ??

I litres can go how far ?

Do you know there is a shop in Jalan Besar that sell Daewoos, Hyundai spares ? The shop is called Siong Yi. Been there to get your spares ? Let me know if you want to know where ? I am not one of the shareholders.

genie47 · Post by **genie47** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:18 am

Mine can fetch 13km/L consistently. Dunno why some other people can get disastrous 9 or 10km/L with their automatics. There is this pretty good fella that gets 12km/L with the automatic.

For Daewoo spares, go to Songyi in Veerasamy Rd. Search the Yellow Pages.

tango · Post by **tango** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:23 am

I'm sorry I missed this post. Welcome my friend! In Jamaica Singapore is a country that is highly respected. Let me just say that the discipline and the order that your society enjoys can ONLY be dictated by YOU, nobody else. Your laws are there for a reason and if the people who live in or visit Singapore cannot abide by the rules then they deserve what they get. Regardless of nationality. Be it that rotten little bastard who spray-painted the cars or that a$$hole who tried to walk in with heroin. Jamaica has a SERIOUS crime problem and part of it is that our government refuses to do what our laws say must be done. I commend your Prime Minister for his decision on the recent hanging and may no appologies to anyone be forthcoming from him.

That said, I also enjoy the spoils of Singapore directly. My current car is a Singapore spec Toyota Corolla LX. Singaporean cars are becoming very popular here as well. They cost less than the Japanese domestic imports and have a lot more luxury ammenities (leather seats, alloys etc).

Once again, glad to have you here.