Car ownership in Singapore is going up despite it being expensive as compared to other countries.

A quick rule of thumb is if you don't have $1,000 spare cash every month to feed your car, then you may not want to own one.

Besides the capital cost of buying a car that can be in the $30-100k depending on model, cc, off-peak car (OPC) or "normal" car, you need to factor in petrol, road tax, servicing, car wash, insurance etc.

Check out One Motoring as they provide some info about car ownership.

I am not a car owner...but is $1000 really enough? Can somebody share their experience? Eg. car model, bought when, breakdown of expenses etc...

Hi badlammy...

Am currently an Off-Peak car owner, or rather known as week-end car.

Ermm... at the moment, $1000 a month is still quite alright. But, if you are taking a "normal" car.. without any restrictions... then $1000 may be stretching this a bit.

If it helps... this is a rough round-off breakdown on what I have been paying....

Monthly installments on car loan : $400
Petrol : $60 every 1.5 to 2 weeks.
Monthly parking (covered carpark) : $90
Servicing (almost every 2 to 3 mths) $110
Insurance (a year) : $1000
Road Tax (A year) : $150
My stash of OPC license (10 pc a mth): $200

So... on the average.... I spend about $900 to $1000 a month... and this is only an OPC ... so... you can do your sums if it is a normal car.

What I don't understand is why you would buy something that you can't afford - if you don't have the cash to pay for it upfront, you shouldn't be buying a car. Although I hear from friends that have bought cars that car dealers actually penalize you for paying the entire amount upfront, which sounds crazy and just perpetuates the idea that the credit culture is a good thing.

Well, maybe they penalize you to make up for the loss of interest rates.

I agree it's crazy but that's how the market works.

Car dealers receive some commissions from banks for car loans and hence, they actually offer lesser rebates if you pay for your car in cash for full. What I did was to take a smaller loan amount over a shorter loan period to qualify for the rebate and also to incur less interest cost from car financing.

Be well and prosper.

You look like a million dollars.You lood outstanding. : > ---

There's an interesting article that shows us how we can all calculate how much we can afford to invest in a car - complete with a step-by-step equation!

Read it here: http://moneybanter.com.sg/blog.php?b=16

It took one comment from my friend to tell me (a non driver) that there are alot of money that goes into car ownership other than petrol and car loan.

So i thought why not come up with a calculator for that.

I hope it is helpful for people planning to buy a new car as on the average even a 1.5 litre car cost nearly 1000 per month overall.

An introduction to Cost of Car Ownership Calculator

Quick link to the calculator