New Car

We had to purchase a new car for here.  Most cars are fairly small and only seat 5.  There are a few things that are different here.  Singapore is an island with about 5-1/2 million people on it.  The island is only about 26 miles across and 22 miles up and down.  With that many people, the government tries to control the amount of cars there are.  The way that they do that is two-fold:  1)  they only sell so many certificates each year...a certificate allows you to purchase a car and 2) they charge A LOT of money for those certificates and the taxes on the car.  For example, our car was S$25,000 (or about USD$20,000).  The taxes on it would have been about S$80,000.  No kidding.

Most US citizens who are here with their company, receive a leased car paid for by the company.  Since we aren't with a private company and obviously, our employer doesn't pay for "private-use" items, we either use public transportation (which is very well run, clean, easily acceptable, and fairly cheap) or we purchase our own.  Because of our "employer" we are exempt from paying the taxes.  That said, we have to go through a very, very long paperwork process within the Singapore government.  This car's paperwork took eight WEEKS.  Typically, for employees such as ourselves, we purchase from someone else who is leaving because we can sell amongst ourselves who are exempt.  There were not any cars available that sat more than five when we needed one.  Here it is:

So the car is actually shorter and thinner than it looks in the pictures.  It does turn really well, which can be super-important around here!  The driver side is on the right side.  There's a little black box on the inside of the windshield above the steering column close to the frame.  It holds a little card (which you add money to at 7-11) that has money deducted from it in any parking lot anywhere in Singapore, or when you drive down certain roads, or when you drive down certain roads at certain times.  We do have captain's chairs in the middle row, which not all cars do, most have a 3-seat bench in the middle and therefore you have to fold part of it down everytime someone needs to get in the back.  The engine on this vehicle is located UNDER the front passenger...just flip the seat bottom cushion up.  I was a bit surprised when the dealer lady showed me this, so then I had to go check out what was under the hood (which by the way they call a "bonnet").  It's mostly just fluids and electrical lines.  Our first drive (with the new GPS) was to McDonald's.