Not owning a car is better quality living

One of the measures introduced in the 2013 Budget that will come down hard on the people is the control of car ownership. It hits the people in two ways, higher ARF, lower loan allowed and lesser time to repay. On face value many Sinkies aspiring to own a car as a convenient mode of transport will have red faces and veins protruding from their necks. Those that really need a car for business, for ferrying little ones or ancient ones, or physically difficult ones, will be less forgiving. I am expecting a public outcry on this alone.

But putting the anger and disappointment aside, not buying a car is really a good thing. Really, trust me. Look, this is a depreciating asset that will run out of value in 10 years. It runs out faster than the 99 year HDB flats. Why pay so much for it? Further, public transportation is so cheap, convenient and efficient. There is no need for a private car.

And with the prices of cars getting only more expensive, taxi fares, even if they go up, will still be so much cheaper. There are plenty of rooms to raise taxi fares as there is a big gap between the fares here and the big cities. So enjoy the cheap taxi fares when you can before someone claims so hard to get a cab.

Actually the Govt is doing the people a big favour by discouraging those that cannot afford to buy cars not to buy one. Too expensive lah. But if you can afford it, can pay for higher ARF and put up bigger cash payments, ok lah, go for it.

Many people will be saving a lot of money for not buying cars. It is like people saving money by not going to eat in restaurant. It would be different if people don’t eat or can’t afford to eat in order to save some money. Eat they must, just like some people cannot move without cars. For such desperate cases, just too bad. Sure the Govt will empathise with them, hand over heart. No, cannot say if cannot afford cars take public transport lah. This is a cruel thing to say. Politically incorrect. By the way, with another 1.6m talented foreigners coming in, they too will need cars. Let them pay the COEs and ARF and the Govt can redistribute to the needy citizens. Good huh.

The quality of life sure will not be affected, just like living in smaller flats will not affect the quality of life as well. Think quality of life will be better as promise in the White Paper.