Is it worth having a car here? If you have a car, do you rent or buy, and why?

When our daughter was young, we had a car and we felt it was worth it then. We could load a day’s worth of stuff – gym, beach, shopping and so on, and be out and about the whole day. But now that we both work from home and our daughter is older, we have given up our car and don’t miss it. In fact, we feel better without it. We order all our things online. The fantastic public transport is a joy to use. Grab and Gojek make it easy and much more economical to get a car when one needs it. Goodbye to the stress of driving on the expressways or finding parking spots!

Anu Ceri

It’s not worth buying a car – you can always rent one if you need one.

Nina Stephan

We don’t have a car, but we’ve rented one during weekends occasionally and loved the freedom to explore far-flung corners of Singapore beyond the public transport system. Renting was very easy.

Calvin

Having a car is incredibly expensive here. It’s also not really necessary, though we did recently lease a car through my husband’s company and it has made exploring the island more convenient. We would never pay the full COE though. It’s now nearly $100,000!

Amber

I DON’T THINK DRIVING MAKES MUCH SENSE IN SINGAPORE, AND I’VE NEVER THOUGHT OF GETTING MYSELF A CAR. FIRSTLY, THE INVESTMENT IS TOO HIGH, AND ALSO PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS SO EFFICIENT THAT THERE’S NO REAL NEED TO DRIVE. ALSO, DRINKING AND DRIVING IS A NO-GO HERE, SO I’D RATHER HAVE A FEW DRINKS AND LET OTHERS DRIVE ME!

If it wasn’t for the kids – three of them – I may not own a car. It’s expensive to buy a car in Singapore, so as a compromise, I own a weekend (off-peak) car. Recently, I have been contemplating to change my car and still evaluating if it would be better to rent. No conclusion yet!