stlgrym3

iTrader: (4)

just came back from there a month ago, just gave me perspective how lucky we are in the US. my relative just bought a VW Touareg 3.6 in Shanghai, the car price by itself is 900,000 RMB which comes up to USD $146,000. that car cost $50k here, that's almost triple the price here. on top of that, at least in Shanghai, new license plate is on a bidding system, the current rate for one is $10k. so you can buy some Chinese made no name brand used car for cheap but you still have to pay $10k USD for a plate. with this said, i still saw a ton of Bentley, Porches and even some American muscle cars there.

mikez

There are also a lot of rich people in Shanghai. By order of richness:

- Corrupt govt officials
- Coal mine owners
- Private Owners of formerly massive state controlled companies
- Sons and daughters of the three above
- Business owners who went IPO
- RE developers / investment bankers
- Some lucky SOB who made it big on the stock market

lol

spwolf

welcome to rest of the world... it is not just China, it is everywhere. Only US has such low prices.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Fast and Furious stars shocked by Singapore car prices and you will be too

The moral of the story: Don't buy cars in Singapore.

That nugget of knowledge comes courtesy of Fast and Furious 6 star Vin Diesel, who came to the realization after learning that a Toyota Prius rings the registers at an astounding $154,000 in US funds. Other notable vehicles that shock and awe the cast of FF6 include the Subaru BRZ at $130,000 and the BMW 6 Series Coupe (engine not specified) that empties the Singaporean wallet to the tune of $330,000. "That's gnarly!" announces Michelle Rodriguez, who reprises her role as Letty in the flick. Luke Evans, who plays the villain Owen Shaw, is similarly surprised to find out that a Honda Accord costs $130,000 in Singapore.

Why the ludicrous pricing? According to the video below, much of the high cost of cars in Singapore is due to taxes designed to discourage the purchase of automobiles on account of traffic concerns. The solution, according to the government of the small island nation, is to make cars so expensive through the use of what's known as a COE, or Certificate of Entitlement, that nobody (except the very rich, of course) wants to buy one. Problem solved.


http://www.autoblog.com/2013/06/02/f...-prices-video/

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

I must say despite the high prices I miss living in Singapore. Very beautiful, modern and clean with lots of heritage too.

My family had a car there a tiny little Ford Laser. But most everything we needed was within walking distance or there was the MRT or Mass Rapid Transit which is similar to the Metro or BART in the States

SteVTEC

Yup cars are taxed like crazy in Singapore. I think 100 or 200%, sounds like 200% if the prices above are real. Used to go there a lot on business, and loved it so much I brought my wife there once for a private vacation. Very nice country. And yes, normal people who really need a car tend to drive tiny ones, which are the only ones that are affordable. Public transportation is indeed very good in S'pore. I just took a taxi when I was there to wherever I needed to go, including Sentosa. They all speak English and prices are reasonable too. The taxis, the last time I was there, are mostly extremely old Toyota Crowns and Nissan Cedrics, with naturally aspirated diesel engines not turbo, and they just keep on rebuilding them over and over again because new ones are too expensive, lol.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

you have to buy a license to buy a car in Singapore. They only give out a certain amount of licenses a year and its an auction basically. Thats in addition to buying the heavy taxed car. Since only rich people can own a car there, all cars there are high end ones for the most part. Its like Cars and Coffee everyday there.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Cost of car ownership varies from state to state as well. Somewhere in West Bubblepluck, VA you can just buy a car, and pay a few hundred a year for insurance, while here in NYC insurance is easily quadruple that, and a parking spot can be $300+ a month if you don't own a house with your own driveway/garage. Not to mention $115 parking tickets.

When looking at cost of car ownership in other countries, its also important to look at their incomes and taxation. For instance cars in Russia cost almost double what they cost in the US, because many taxes are added into the price, but people only pay flat 13% rate on their income.

mmarshall

And guess what China's top-selling car is?

The Buick Excelle....known in the U.S. as the Verano.

gengar

While being impressed by a lot of Singapore, I actually thought Singapore public transport was terrible. Your experience with the taxi system might be skewed a bit by staying at hotels or being in the downtown area, as taxis can actually pick up at hotels. Otherwise, taxis only pick up at designated taxi stands (the ones with the big red queue signs), so even to take a taxi a typical resident will have to walk to a taxi stand - and they aren't that saturated, so it can be a ways. Taxis won't pick up residents at their homes.

I also didn't like that subway stations can be quite far apart (outside of the downtown areas, it's not atypical to be a mile from the nearest station, in my experience).

mrraider

Private car ownership is out of the reach of most people in the world. Fact of life.

Whitigir

Yupe, this is so True. Therefore, The U.S is the Heaven for the rest of the World. The American here has been taking many things for Granted, and just not the Automotive Pricing Either.

I love the U.S