The idea of the most expensive cars in the world often conjures up images of Ferrari and Lamborghini and McLaren supercars. And while brands like that can easily command more than a million dollars, where you're driving is just as important as what you're driving. In a place like Singapore, a car as mundane as a Toyota Corolla will cost more about $120,000.
Singapore has long been the world's most expensive place to own a car; and according to a report by CNBC, the market for car ownership just got pricer.
The island state, in an effort to limit the number of cars on the roads in a 5.3 million person country the size of Austin, Texas, recently imposed new measures that include increasing the minimum down payment on a car to 40 percent of the price, capping the life of auto loans at five years, and increasing already high automobile taxes.
Even though Singapore has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, many people have been priced out of the car market.
"It's out of my reach, very far away," said 43-year-old Andy Siew, a personal trainer with a monthly household income of 12,000 Singapore dollars ($9,650), in the CNBC report. "Any couple earning within that region cannot afford to buy a new car right now."
All new cars sold in Singapore attract an ownership tax of at least 100 percent, CNBC reported. New car owners must also buy a certificate of entitlement, which gives them the right to own and drive a car for 10 years.
The cost of a COE costs about 87,000 Singapore dollars, nearly $70,000 USD.
Using the example of a Toyota Corolla Altis, the cost of the sedan in Singapore would be almost $120,000. The same car would cost about $16,000 in the U.S., the report stated.
"The COE system is well-intended in that it does limit the traffic to some extent and pollution, but it bumps up the price of even entry-level cars to a ridiculous level," said a business executive quoted in a Bloomberg report.
Singapore's lackluster public transportation system is one of the reasons people choose to own and drive cars at such high prices.
"Our transport system is not exactly that good, the infrastructure is not catering to us right now," Siew, the personal trainer, who lives in Singapore's northeastern suburb, said, according to CNBC. "The trains and buses are not on time, and taxis are so difficult to find sometimes, especially, on rainy days and peak hours."
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