Is owning a car in SG worth it, or just Grab/public transport?

Question

Thinking of buying a car but COE prices are insane and there's road tax, insurance, ERP, parking, petrol. My partner says just Grab and take MRT. When does owning a car actually make financial sense here?

Working Mum Denise · Accepted Answer

Ran this spreadsheet in detail before deciding to stay car-lite. The brutal reality: owning a car in SG easily runs $1,500-2,500+ a month all-in once you amortise the COE + car price over 10 years and add road tax, insurance, ERP, parking (season + ad-hoc), petrol, and maintenance/servicing. That's $18k-30k a year. For that money you can take a LOT of Grab and MRT. So purely financially, for most people who mainly commute on decent public transport routes, car ownership does NOT make sense, it's a lifestyle/convenience purchase, not a money-saver. When it DOES make sense: you have young kids and/or elderly parents to ferry (car seats + Grab daily gets painful and expensive), you live/work in areas with poor transport connectivity, you need it for work, or you genuinely value the time/comfort/flexibility enough to pay the premium and can comfortably afford it. My take: if it's just you and your partner both near MRT, Grab + public transport + occasional car rental for weekend trips is dramatically cheaper. Do the honest monthly all-in math including COE depreciation, most people underestimate it by half. Buy a car for lifestyle, not to "save money", because it won't.

Poly Lecturer Shirley · Answer

With kids everything changes. We were happily car-free until baby number two, then lugging car seats, strollers, groceries and a sick toddler around in Grabs became a nightmare and the Grab bills ballooned during peak/surge anyway. Bought a car and for our life stage it's worth every cent for the sanity. It's not about pure math then, it's about family logistics. Life stage is the real deciding factor.

Tuition Teacher Wendy · Answer

Middle path a lot of people miss: car-sharing / rental for occasional needs. We use the hourly car-share services for the weekend IKEA run or JB trip and take MRT daily. Costs us maybe $150-200 a month vs $2k to own. Unless you drive daily and far, you probably don't need to OWN, you need occasional access, which is way cheaper. Match the solution to actual frequency of use.

Startup Founder Nadia · Answer

Don't forget the invisible cost: a car sitting parked 22 hours a day is depreciating COE the whole time whether you drive it or not. That's the part people ignore, you pay the huge fixed cost regardless of usage. If you drive under, say, an hour most days, the per-trip cost is astronomical vs Grab. High fixed cost + low usage = terrible value. Only worth it if you actually rack up the mileage or have needs Grab can't cheaply cover.

Is owning a car in SG worth it, or just Grab/public transport?

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