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SINGAPORE: Singapore topped the list as the most expensive country in Southeast Asia to own a BMW 3 Series (G20), based on a comparison shared by the Facebook page Sea Rising.
According to Sea Rising, while car prices vary from country to country due to taxes, shipping costs, and other factors, Singapore ranked first as the most expensive.
“Having a car in Singapore is indeed very costly. Car prices there are significantly higher than those in other countries,” the page wrote.
The page compared prices of the BMW 3 Series (G20) across Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Prices were based on the official BMW websites of each country — except for the Philippines, where they were sourced from autodeal.com.ph, as the official BMW Philippines site does not list car prices.
While neighbouring Malaysia pays around US$62,425 (S$81,514.56) and Indonesia US$71,606 for the BMW 3 Series (G20), the price in Singapore shoots up to US$218,998. Thailand follows with a price tag of US$79,600, while the Philippines and Vietnam pay approximately US$63,833 and US$58,760, respectively, for the same model.
Singapore is known to be one of the most expensive countries in the world to own a car, partly due to strict regulations on vehicle ownership in this land-scarce city-state. The Certificate of Entitlement (COE), which drivers must obtain to own and use a vehicle, may hover close to S$100,000, except for motorcycles.
The COE can be renewed for five or 10 years, depending on the vehicle category and its statutory lifespan. To keep their registered cars, vehicle owners must renew their COE; otherwise, the vehicle must be deregistered or disposed of.
One netizen commented, “The Singapore government knows how to make money every 10 years and [the car] must be scrapped, then forced them to buy a new car again.” Another pointed out that despite high car prices and the COE requirement, “traffic jams are pretty much not diluted” in the city.
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In late March, a Reddit user said the rising COE prices were a concern for them ahead of the General Election, questioning “what policymakers are thinking in regards to spiralling COE prices”.
Meanwhile, another commented, “Why do people not understand that high COE prices are a feature, not a bug? ” — with one more adding that without such controls, the country would “swiftly” become “the world’s largest parking lot”. /TISG
Read also: ‘Why Indonesia?’: Singaporean couple share 5 reasons why they moved after their HDB MOP
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