How much does it cost to own a car in Singapore?

Buying and running costs in a nutshell

Let’s just do a quick calculation on the average price of buying a car and yearly running costs.

Here is an estimate based on the profile of a 45-year-old single male motorist with 5 years driving experience, a 0% NCD on a Toyota Corolla Altis.

A new Toyota Corolla Altis costs around S$104,998.

Insurance costs in Singapore could set you back on average S$1,473 a year.

Service and maintencance costs about S$621 per year.

Annual road tax costs about S$742.

Petrol costs approximately S$2,341 per year.

Here’s the full  breakdown. 

Initial purchase costs

Expect to spend in the range of S$106,000 for a sedan, S$107,000 for a small SUV/crossover, and S$183,000 for a luxury car. And then there’s the Certificate of Entitlement (COE), or the right to purchase and own a car.

Registration fees and taxes

Besides the price of the vehicle and the COE, the purchase price of a car usually also includes the standard $140 Registration Fee (RF), the Additional Registration Fee (ARF), and often the first payment of the road tax.

(Source: LTA)^[1]

The ARF is a significant expense but car owners can recoup the cost of the ARF if they deregister their car before it turns 10 years old through the PARF rebate system. ^[2]

Carbuyers must also pay an Excise Duty that is 20% of the car's OMV in addition to the typical Goods & Services Tax of 7% on all consumption goods.

Emissions surcharge

Under the Carbon Emissions-Based Vehicle Scheme, the car may also be subject to a CEVS surcharge or rebate. Depending on the car, the CEVS could decrease or increase its price by up to about S$30,000, with the Toyota Prius qualifying for the highest rebate and the Lamborghini Huracan incurring the highest surcharge. 

Insurance premiums

How much you need to pay in annual insurance premiums depends on a variety of factors that insurance companies consider pertinent to the risk you pose. These factors can include characteristics such as gender, age, driving experience, qualification for No Claim Discount (NCD) and occupation. Taking into consideration Singapore’s most popular insurance companies you would expect to pay on average S$1,473 a year.

Car Loans

The average car loan taken out is about S$60,000. An average interest rate on that is about 2.18% to pay off a new Toyota Corolla Altis. You'll have up to a maximum of 7 years to pay off your car as per MAS regulations. Therefore, to pay your car loan off in time, you'll need to pay S$770.82 per month.

Maintenance costs

For reference, servicing a Toyota Corolla Altis would cost about S$621 over the course of one year for two servicing appointments. Maintenance is recommended either every 10,000 kms driven or every 6 months, whichever comes first. Most Singaporeans drive under 20,000 kms per year, so for the average driver it will likely be the latter.

Road tax

The amount of road tax you pay depends on the engine capacity of your vehicle or your cc. The bigger the engine, the more road tax you’ll have to fork out. You can estimate the road tax for your vehicle using Sgcarmart's road tax calculator. Just to give you an idea, the road tax for petrol-using vehicles is calculated as follows:

(Source: LTA)^[3]

Miscellaneous costs

Motorists pay continually for petrol and parking. A Toyota Corolla Altis, for example, gets an average of 15.4 kms per litre. Taking petrol prices at about S$2.06/litre, driving 17,500 kms in one year in this car would cost you S$2,341.

Tolls/ERPs

Singaporean drivers are further required to pay road tolls on a daily basis. Through Singapore's Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system, drivers are required to pay for driving on highly congested roads during highly congested times. The LTA has a calculator available on its website where you can check the ERP rates for your type of vehicle on the roads you use most frequently. 

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