Can you afford a car?

vblues

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blah said:
Once in a while, a forumer will appear with details about his salary and expenditure and seek the advice of fellow HWZers about whether he can afford a car.

The answers will predictably fall into four categories.

(1) "Wah, you earn so much, can afford any car you like" (for any salary above $2.5k)

This type of answer is usually posted by non-working forumers like students or those serving NS, who think that anything about $1k is a lot of money.

(2) "I like honda civic type r because chio. u shld buy"

This type of answer is useless for budgeting purposes, but simply for +1 purposes. Again, this type of posting is usually by students or those serving NS.

(3) "I earn $5k/6k/7k per month but still take bus and eat rice + tau you"

This type of posting is usually by a forumer who earns a fair amount, but thinks he earns a lot and wants to show off how financially savvy he is.

(4) "Singapore cars so expensive if I go live in USA/Australia/Europe/Africa/North Pole the cars are so much cheaper, women more beautiful, jobs plentiful and food is tastier"

These are postings by 'politically aware' (i.e. PAP bashing) Singaporeans who seem to think that their job skills will allow them to migrate easily to other countries to work, when they don't realise that their skills can be done by a Chinese/Indian at twice the speed and half the price.


However, today, I will answer this question for you once and for all.

Step 1 Take your average monthly salary over the last 6 months and minus your average monthly expenses over the last 6 months. Note: If you don't know how much you earned or saved over the last 6 months, car ownership is likely to leave you in financial ruin.

Step 2 Add car allowance (if any).

Step 3 Minus public transport costs.

Step 4 Do you have enough money left to maintain the car you are thinking of (car loan, insurance, road tax, petrol, parking, ERP, maintenance, upgrade budget)? Note: If you never owned a car before and you do your calculations and you think 'oh my god, this cannot be right as it is so expensive'. Congratulations, add 10% to your figure and you now have the cost of car ownership in Singapore.

If YES, you can afford a car FOR THE TIME BEING (assuming you are happy to reduce your savings by the same amount). Note: If circumstances change (change job, lose job, lose car allowance, get married, got baby, loved one falls ill and needs medical expenses), then depending on whether you can sell the car without having to come out with money, you may be financially screwed.

If NO, you cannot afford a car. Sorry. Work harder or spend less, then maybe in the future can.

I just bought a Civic! lol...really ex...min have to spend 1.3k/mth, and that's excluding ERP,fines,servicing,parking outside home.
 

Silkworm

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vblues said:
I just bought a Civic! lol...really ex...min have to spend 1.3k/mth, and that's excluding ERP,fines,servicing,parking outside home.

you earn a lot issit?
 

carey

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patryn33 said:
gas is cheap at US$2.6 per Gal.
insurance for full coverage perhaps around US$70-150 a mth.
pay in full to get a car great. if you need to take loan.. APR is like 7-9%! like 2x of SG rate.

income tax is higher.. at 20-35%. still need tp pay health+dental insurance and what not.
earn US$60K Fed tax 20%, pay health insurance at $100; and social security and tax tax maybe another 5-10% gone.
no CPF, have 401K, put in 6%, company maybe match 6% max.

in Japan it is cheap to get Japn cars. To get import cars tax is so high.. to own a Ford explorer in Japan, you can own 2 in USA!

Go China loh.. get foreign made cars. country still new, sure can find a tons of ways to siam income tax!

Cars in Japan are cheap but try paying for a carpark lot...

It may cost as much as the car itself :s22:
 

alvinaloy

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vblues said:
Definitely not. Middle income at most. If you wanna own a car I doubt you can go lower than 1k/mth.
Depends on amount borrowed and length of repayment mah. I also just bought Civic but my monthly loan repayment is around $800+ a month.
 

legacy_gt

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one thing to point out, for people wanting to buy "sports car" or higher cc cars. e.g. Type R, MX5, wrx, evo, rx8, golf gt, please please take note of the insurance and road tax you need to pay every year.

e.g. Age 23, driving a Subaru WRX very stylo right ? If it's "daddy's car" insurance maybe still allright, but if it's going to be under your name without any NCD, prepare to draw blood.

FYI, age 21 ~ 27 sports car insurance is around 3 ~ 4k per year. 2.5cc, road tax is ~2k.

You may be able to afford the monthly car fee of $800 ~ $1k, but insurance and road tax CAN hit you very hard.
 
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leaving_footsteps

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Cars are too costly. Unless for work, I wouldn't buy one.

As for migration, the issue isn't really about cars or is it?

Edit: Selling soon. :D Any takers?
 

juzaguuy

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legacy_gt said:
one thing to point out, for people wanting to buy "sports car" or higher cc cars. e.g. Type R, MX5, wrx, evo, rx8, golf gt, please please take note of the insurance and road tax you need to pay every year.

e.g. Age 23, driving a Subaru WRX very stylo right ? If it's "daddy's car" insurance maybe still allright, but if it's going to be under your name without any NCD, prepare to draw blood.

FYI, age 21 ~ 27 sports car insurance is around 3 ~ 4k per year. 2.5cc, road tax is ~2k.

You may be able to afford the monthly car fee of $800 ~ $1k, but insurance and road tax CAN hit you very hard.

for a car that is 0.0025 litre, the road tax is indeed very high.. haha
 

vblues

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juzaguuy said:
for a car that is 0.0025 litre, the road tax is indeed very high.. haha

My "kar" power is more than that but my insurance is way lower :s13:
 

Yowe55

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I am already 30 year old, and have been jobless since year 2004.

I have been earning nothing since then, and I have been living off my past allowances/savings. Having said that, I am currently sourcing for a car - a suzuki swift or a nissan latio.

We only live once - to own a car, is no big deal nowadays. If Its only a 1 day ownership before some finance company tow away the car, I wouldnt mind too.

More good years ahead...
Thank you.
 

blah

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Yowe55 said:
I am already 30 year old, and have been jobless since year 2004.

I have been earning nothing since then, and I have been living off my past allowances/savings. Having said that, I am currently sourcing for a car - a suzuki swift or a nissan latio.

We only live once - to own a car, is no big deal nowadays. If Its only a 1 day ownership before some finance company tow away the car, I wouldnt mind too.

More good years ahead...
Thank you.

You should print this out and attach to your loan application - it will help the loan officer 'process' your application very quickly.
 

alvinaloy

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blah said:
You should print this out and attach to your loan application - it will help the loan officer 'process' your application very quickly.
Bah, he's been posting about being jobless everywhere in HWZ. He's working but considers his work beneath him. Has been flamed to death in the Job Seekers sub-forums.
 

Lancelot

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alvinaloy said:
Bah, he's been posting about being jobless everywhere in HWZ. He's working but considers his work beneath him. Has been flamed to death in the Job Seekers sub-forums.

I think he is just being sarcastic & he is not actually talking about himself.
 

machocheng

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I juz sold my sunny for a civic 1.6A, monthly installment is around 600+. I consider myself to be in the middle income range. Civic is still affordable though I could have made life much easier for myself financially if I choose other cheaper models in the same range. But I also believe that life is short, so might as well enjoy it while it lasts. The new civic is my dream car in my "affordability" range and I fell in love with it the moment I test drove it. No other models in the same range come close to the civic in my personal opinion.

So for my case, yes I can afford the civic but I would be able to invest or save more $ if I had chosen other cheaper models. However, I know that I'll be happiest driving my dream car. So as long as I dun maintain my car on a unrealistically tight budget, especially in s'pore when having a car is a huge liability (in financial sense), I hope to keep a balance between personal enjoyment and financial control.
 

ethirteen

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blah said:
Once in a while, a forumer will appear with details about his salary and expenditure and seek the advice of fellow HWZers about whether he can afford a car.

The answers will predictably fall into four categories.

(1) "Wah, you earn so much, can afford any car you like" (for any salary above $2.5k)

This type of answer is usually posted by non-working forumers like students or those.........................................................
i slaute u~

wat u sae is all true.. hahahahah~

i belong to those got car with bleeding pocket...... hai~ guess maybe im too materialistic.....
 

weng

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machocheng said:
I juz sold my sunny for a civic 1.6A, monthly installment is around 600+. I consider myself to be in the middle income range. Civic is still affordable though I could have made life much easier for myself financially if I choose other cheaper models in the same range. But I also believe that life is short, so might as well enjoy it while it lasts. The new civic is my dream car in my "affordability" range and I fell in love with it the moment I test drove it. No other models in the same range come close to the civic in my personal opinion.

So for my case, yes I can afford the civic but I would be able to invest or save more $ if I had chosen other cheaper models. However, I know that I'll be happiest driving my dream car. So as long as I dun maintain my car on a unrealistically tight budget, especially in s'pore when having a car is a huge liability (in financial sense), I hope to keep a balance between personal enjoyment and financial control.

same here. civic is my dream car. but i wouldn't imagine settling for the 1.6. it's either 1.8/2.0, or another toyota. :D
 
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