audiojunky wrote:Taikoo, THANK YOU for your answers. So essentially you're paying around $1230/month on your car after paying 10% down!! That is a LOT of money!!! Wow! On top of that, you might have to pay a handy change once you trade-in or sell your car. Car definitely seems to be an expensive proposition in Singapore unless the company compensates for certain things like parking.
Would appreciate some more responses. Also would appreciate if this post is not hijacked to discuss used cars or other topics - you can quite easily post another discussion thread
Hi guys, have u considered a long term lease vehicle? Depending on make/model, you're probably looking at bet $800-$1200 per month for a 1600cc sedan, but you can knock off depreciation, insurance and maintenance costs as the owners will take care of that...
With regards to used car dealers, I think the stereotyping of them being nasty/dishonest is true to a certain extent, but if you have someone you can trust to suss out the best deal, then it may not be such a harrowing experience. I suppose, from their point of view, expats may not be aware of local market conditions regarding used cars, so they may see it as an opportunity to mark it up a bit. If you can get somenone local to ask the questions, things could turn out differently...
Owning and running a car in Singapore is never cheap. ERP, season parking, fuel prices... it all adds up, plus a considerable yearly depreciation, it might not make sense for an expat to buy a car here. It's actually the same with most locals. They tend to change cars every 3-5 years, so it's the same situation for everyone living here... But ultimately, it boils down to convenience. Public transportation costs in Singapore isn't all that cheap. Of course if you compare it to similiar cosmo cities like London, NY and Tokyo, it's cheap, but Singapore is home for the next few years, so maybe it's not a good idea to compare. Buying a car here is not as bad as it seems if you work out what exactly you need in a car.
Of course let's not talk about exotics like Ferraris or Lambos. If a comfortable runabout is all you need there are actually many reasonably cheap options. The best bet in Singapore would be a small cc japanese saloon or MPV. Small meaning 1600-2000cc. There are a lot of such cars flooding the market now, since current COE prices are less than half of what it used to be. The most popular cars are the Toyota Altis, Nissan Sunny, Toyota Wish, Honda Civic, Honda Stream, you get the idea.
An owner loses out badly when he sells off his car within the first 2 years. In other words, he's absorbed most of the depreciation. So taking the Wish as an example, the owner would have bought it new for abt $95k (abt 3yrs back). Currently, the new car is about $65k. So the owner can't possibly be looking to sell at anything over $53k-$55k, depending on what he's fitted in his car (a good stereo system, nice bling bling wheels etc). If he'd sold it to a dealer, the dealer would have probably offered about $48k for it. If you're lucky enough to get hold of a newer car, you're probably gonna pay a negligible premium. When it comes time to sell, how much you end up losing depends on how much you loaned to buy the car. But with those cars, it's likely to be a lot less than most other makes.
Why these particular models? Because they're hugely popular. When the owners of these cars start to upgrade or change cars, there'll be a bunch of them in the market. Dealers would have taken them in at a reasonably low cost cos of supply/demand issue. Now, with new car prices so low, these dealers would have a problem letting go of those cars at a tidy profit. They're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Should they sell at a loss or minimal profit or let the car sit and not know when another customer might look at it again? Dealers are businessmen. They know when to cut their losses. But it takes a hard man to drive a hard bargain. That's where a little inside help may come in useful. One bargaining tool you can use is to say "the other dealer I visited had a similiar model going for $xxxx less". Of course we're talking about said popular models, not rare ones. Once you say "lemme think about it", they'll hold you back and counter "tell me your best offer and I'll check with my boss". Of course his boss has already given him the lowest price he's allowed to close the deal. The dealer then has to decide how much he wants to earn from the deal. Most dealers have a quota to hit, so he may be looking at the big picture and give you the deal.
The fixed costs of running a car in Singapore can't be avoided. If you feel it's comfortable, then the convenience of owning a car certainly trumps public transport. When you decide to buy a car, I hope these tips may have helped you get the best possible deal for your set of wheels. If you need more help about selecting and bargaining, you can always PM me, I'll be happy to help.
You actually used "reputable" and "used car dealer" in the same sentence? I'd have a hard time putting them together on the same page! 
