Singapore drivers must not only cough up the money for a car, but now also face a $106,000 fee too.
As if everything in life wasn't expensive enough on its own already, the minimum bidding price to become part of Singapore's 10-year 'certificate of entitlement system' (COE) has risen even higher.
It's like when you go to the checkout of your food delivery order and, seeing the delivery fee set at $2.99+, resolve you can't justify your $60 order. This, but on a very much greater scale and imagine if the delivery fee outweighed the cost of your actual food order - we're not kidding.
Not only do Singaporeans now have to save up for the cost of a car, but they also have to scrabble around for a whopping S$106,000 if they want permission to own the car and make it one of the roughly 950,000 vehicles allowed on the country's roads.
Yesterday (4 October), the bid for a COE of a large car in Singapore quadrupled from 2020, according to Reuters.
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And $183,000 will just about cover your COE, registration fees and taxes, oh as well as the actual car - a Toyota Camry Hybrid - as per Sky News.
The quadrupling of the bidding price for a COE has resulted in cars now only being affordable for the upper class - middle class members of society are having to resort to selling their vehicles if they bought them in years with lower COEs to make a profit.
Insurance agent and father Jason Guan told Sky News he spent $47,000 on a Toyota Rush and COE in 2008.
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However, the 40-year-old has since parted ways with his noble steed because of the soaring costs.
People have been flooding to social media astounded by the price increase and concerned the same system may spread across the globe.
One X - formerly known as Twitter - user said: "How much do they charge to breath oxygen?"
"Which is crazy as the public transport system is incredible and the furthest you can drive in SG is 25 miles. It is all about prestige," another wrote.
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A third commented: "One more reason I'm glad I don't live there."
And a final resolved: "Coming to a country near you soon."
As sociologist Tan Ern Ser puts it to Reuters: "There is a need to lower one’s aspiration from achieving the 'good life' to settling with a 'good enough life'."
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So, sorry guys, it looks like the only car that's worth popping on your Christmas list is a toy one. Too soon with the Christmas reference?
Topics: World News, Money, Cars
Poppy Bilderbeck