To car owners, how much do you spend monthly on car expenses? Do share tips to cut down on costs if you have any!
23F (fresh grad) I do not wfh so I have to travel ~30km*2 to and from work monday to friday and I incur ~$400 in petrol expenses monthly. Thankfully, parking is FOC at my workplace. Obviously I feel the pinch and would like to ballpark my own expenses amongst other car owners.
“It’s either you spend or don’t own a car”
it depends what car you’re looking at, first there’s the monthly installment. which is currently pretty high due to the coe rise. i’m paying 2k / month.
than there’s petrol. I’m paying around $200 per pump which last for a few days (this also depends on what car and how much you commute)
there’s insurance which is a yearly thing. as for maintenance, it’s cost a few hundreds to service, wear and tear depends on the repair needed. ranges from a few hundreds to thousands.
having a car in Singapore is really not affordable. you’d need to make sure you have more than enough to comfortably pay all these, no matter what car you get.
there’s no tips on how to cut costs on owning a car, it’s either you spend or just don’t own a car.
New car will cost more but long term cheaper
Before petrol prices went bonkers and just before I sold my car, I was spending about 950-1k per month all-in, including averaged maintenance costs and paper value depreciation. If I had a 60km commute daily, my all-in expenses might have gone up to about 1.2-1.3k, also factoring in higher maintenance costs.
It was a pre-loved (actually loved and taken care of, not abused) 13 year old Japanese car.
A new car will certainly cost way more than that, but cheap and good actually exists on the used car market if you “buy the dip” (bought mine in 2018 when COE was low) and spend the time and effort to learn how to spot common issues with cars in general and also the model(s) that you are eyeing.
If you want convenience of owning a car, look beyond money
Ballpark – $1.6-1.8k/mth incl Instalment, Insurance, Petrol, Road Tax, Season parking etc. If you wanna get a car just to go work and back and $$ is the sole factor in your decision, just take cab.
You want the freedom and convenience of owning a car, u may wanna look beyond the dollars and cents as key factor.
$400/month on petrol is “average”
As a fresh grad, you got a car, you are already doing better than quite a lot of others.
From your comparison, I believe this car was a gift to you
Anyway, to answer your question, $400 per month is quite average in sg based on our governments take on increasing petrol prices in an article last year. If you still wan cheaper petrol, you may have to change your driving style or visit our neighbour.
Car related expense such as maintenance repairs, tyres, card top up and car wash items have to be included too.
Maybe you can do your own calculations and add in these figures. I will provide you a list to fill up
Instalment Insurance Road tax Petrol x 12 Season parking x 12 Cash card top up $150 per month (depends on your usage) Repair (depends on new or old car, new mostly under warranty) Servicing (based on your mileage, 2 times a year) Tyres based on your mileage, change every 2 years. So find out how much your tyre cost and divide half Car wash (if you wash yourself and buy products yourself, probably $200 a year)
For me, I enjoy modifying my car so probably not the same comparison. There is no fixed amount for expenses since people use and treat their car different.
So if you really wan to ballpark, perhaps fill up the list and see what is your total expenses, rather than just one item