The cost of owning a car in Singapore is exorbitant. Cars are so expensive that people from other countries would think it is a joke.

In 2013, when the movie stars from the Fast and Furious franchise were asked to guess the prices of cars in Singapore, none of them got it right – not even close. And they were literally shocked when they were told about the actual numbers. The lead actor Vin Diesel said: “$154,000 for a Prius?! Let me ask you a question. Is the moral of the story ‘don’t buy cars in Singapore?’”

He got that part right. Singapore government implemented some abhorrent measures to discourage – ‘deter’ is a more appropriate word – people from buying cars, ostensibly for saving the tiny city from traffic nightmares. But setting the prices so high is still extreme by any standard.

Before you can buy a car in Singapore, you have to obtain a piece a paper – Certificate of Entitlement (COE), which is required for every vehicle on the road in this country. Below is the CEO data from November 2017:

Category	COE Price
Cars up to 1,600cc	$46,791
Cars above 1,600cc	$57,390
Open COE (any vehicle type except motorcycles)	$57,501

That’s not all. There are also other costs and taxes for car purchases, such as Additional Registration Fee (ARF) and Excise Duty & GST.

To give you a clear picture of how ridiculous car prices are in Singapore, here are two comparisons.

If you drive an Audi A5 Cabriolet 2018 in Australia, which is about AUD83,500 (SGD86,995), you can trade that for a Hyundai Elantra 1.6 GLS (A) (SGD86,999) in Singapore.

If you own a Mercedes-Benz E-Class 200 4matic in China, which is about RMB450,000 (SGD92,010), the equivalent model you can buy in Singapore will be Toyota Vios 1.5 G Grade (A) , which costs SGD92,988.

Oh, you are still SGD978 short!

In comparison, you can buy a Hyundai Elantra for about AUD23,400 (SGD24,380) in Australia; or get a Toyota Vios 1.5 G for RMB90,000 (SGD18,402) in China.