My point is, I think lots of people may readjust their perceived cost and benefit analysis in owning a car in Singapore if they had lived long-term in another location where public transport is not readily available. Owning a car may be a necessity for some people, but for most Singaporeans the public transport system is sufficient and should be treasured (even though I took it for granted myself when I was in Singapore). As to the pleasure of driving, that’s something that only each person can determine for him or her self.

it all depend what you want. I got sick to clam in a crowed bus and MRT train and got my life risk on reckless taxi driver. I prefer to drive and not worry of travel at anytime after midnight which public transport are less avaliable.

Some ppl spend more in liquor then in Car hahahaaaa

Interestingly, I started out like person B (bought a jap car when i was earning 4K-plus), now person A after growing in my career and investments (mid-30, salary above 10K, condo in prime district fully paid-up), but still using the same average jap car to ferry my wife and kids around.

That’s also why we are now in recession!…cos the banks take our monies and replace it with paper money that are not real assets and then pass these out as bonuses through ‘unrealised but positively reported investments’.

The only way we can really know if a bank really has money and not just talk is to shut it down and rampage its books.

Money is really just a piece of paper and its value is determined by our demand and valuation of it.

I share the same sentiment as Kevin:
‘I feel responsible to highlight the risks of certain decisions (financial in the case of car ownership, health in the case of smoking) to people I care about.’

Without going into too much details, let’s just say I am watching real life shows with Person A and Person B.

Person A: Employee (late 30s, Manager). Salary greater than S$10K. No car. HouseS paid in full.

Person B: Employee (Mid 20s). Salary ~S$4K. New average Jap car. ‘Ethically’ challenged to advance career.

Will update if this thread is still active in future.

Citing outliers are not meaningful in any form of discussions or decision-making. Any leader knows that.

What is a no-brainer is that the more you earn, the more you can afford a car without hurting your ability to spend normally on other stuff.

If you make $6 or 7k gross, you can afford a car while still spending comfortably (or normally) on the other things necessary for a fruitful and comfortable life.

So if the more you make, the more you can afford a car COMFORTABLY, which means you don’t need to “forgo consumer surplus”.

So at the end of the day, it boils down to your earning power.

Do you seriously think someone earning $10k or $20k have the same spending powers as someone earning less? At the end of the day, its down to how much you earn. And not some outlier. if you earn a lot, you can buy a car, finance it every month and eat in restaurants often, give money to parents, and still have room for investment and savings.