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October 2009: Money no enough is what Singapore motorists think of when they talk about their dream pursuit of owning and maintaining a car.
The cost of maintaining a car today is from $1,200-$1,500 a month, says Limtze, a reader of the MyeCitizen.sg Web site. This amount includes the loan installment repayment, parking fees, ERP charges, petrol cost, insurance premium and road tax, and maintenance cost.
To own a car is a dream that many pursue, but if you fail to plan your income and outcome correctly, owning a car could turn out to be a nightmare.
Sufficient disposable income
Hence, the important consideration before making a big ticket purchase like a car is to ensure you have more than enough disposable income each month to cover these expenses.
The reader also warns that in your financial planning, you should not take into account "future money", money that has not been earned, in order to justify to yourself that you can afford a new car.
Make weekend cars affordable
Make weekend cars affordable to most families, and lower the carpark fees, road tax and petrol tax for these cars, says reader Pedro.
It would be a pro-family gesture if the taxes and car park fees for weekend cars are reduced to make it affordable to families with monthly total income of between $1,500 and $3,000.
With a weekend car, families could at least take a leisurely drive to explore Singapore. Making such trips riding a bus and train is a hot, tiring and skin-prickly experience.
Bus lanes in outlying areas
Reader KL Cheng couldn't understand why bus lanes are found in outlying areas where the roads are narrow and there are only a few bus services. During rush hours, traffic congestions are created in the rest of the lanes while the bus lane itself is relatively empty.
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Driving downtown for lunch is a cakesim affair - the parking charge would cost more than your meal.
What we hate to see
In holidays abroad, there is the ugly Singaporean who enters a souvenir shop to pick and poke the goods and bargain down the price, and then walks away without buying. Singaporean tourists also don't think twice about throwing their pee-sai (nostril shit) and slimy facial tissue on foreign street pavements.
Back home, the ugly Singaporeans dare not litter, but they can do certain things just as ugly. Reader Suneileen mentions these examples:
- Driving off-peak vehicles on the road during peak hours, displaying invalid coupons or
- Parking illegally alongside the road, or not displaying the necessary coupon in the carpark.
- Parking very close to another car and then swinging their door out, causing a dent on the side of the other vehicle. Eileen calls them "the Armstrong family".
- Stopping their vehicle such that it takes up more than one parking lot.
- Driving in the night without switching on the headlights. "I wonder how much petrol they can possibly save by driving in the dark and running the risk of being hit by other drivers?" asks Eileen.
- Parking in lots designated for the "Handicap"; this occurs frequently in HDB carparks and in crowded shopping malls.
The ultimate ugly and probably death-defying act of the Singapore motorist is to stop the car at Bishan or some green park, switch on the airconditioning at full blast and sit put. Usually there would be two people armlocked inside (could they be discussing the state of the nation's economic performance?) for more than an hour.
Such action not only pollutes the atmosphere but releases carbon monoxide. Scary, eh?