5 Hidden Costs Of Owning A Car In Singapore

From the 3rd year onwards, your car will require inspections every 2 years by the Land Transport Authority. You might think this is a straightforward procedure if you’ve never done it before – but the cost of inspection depends entirely on whether your car has aged well or not.

For example, the first time I went, my brakes were found to have uneven stopping power across the front and rear wheels. I then had to send my car to a workshop to have the wheels aligned properly and the brakes checked out.

Whereupon it was discovered that my brake cylinders were leaking and hence a new set had to be changed – which included the master brake pump as the whole system was recommended changed at one go. And then after that, it was back to the inspection centre to get the car passed.

Long story short, I was out of pocket by about 600 dollars on that day.

As cars get old, they get more expensive. Past the 5 year mark, many cars start exhibiting signs of ill health. Take for example, the automatic gearbox. Auto cars are by far the most popular in Singapore, but one seldom-mentioned fact is that at some point in 10 years, that auto gearbox is going to need an overhaul.

An overhaul can cost thousands of dollars, and many workshops recommend dropping in a replacement gearbox instead, which costs even more.

The 5 year mark is also the time when most manufacturer’s warranties run out. In my case, the car chose the 100,000 odometer mark to lose power and fuel efficiency over the course of 3 weeks.

The first workshop I went to found a hole in my exhaust pipe, which was explained away as “the metal gets thinner and thinner over time until a hole is made”. That was a simple repair which cost only $20 to weld shut. But the loss of drivability and bad fuel consumption continued.

My next visit was to a workshop which specialized in Korean cars. It uncovered an expensive problem: presence of metal dust in the timing belt assembly. Turns out, the pin which holds the crankshaft pulley to the crankshaft had been inadequately torqued on at the factory. This allowed the pulley to work loose over 100,000 kilometers, grinding away the slotted crankshaft where it sits until enough play had developed to throw the timing belts off, causing loss of power and efficiency.

The solution was a 3 thousand dollar crankshaft replacement, which included all all-new timing belts, water pump, and clutch plate.

My point is, these major repairs weren’t expected when I bought the car 6 years ago. How was I supposed to know that I should have added three thousand dollars more to the sticker price 6 years ago?

Of course, not all cars will have these surprise “features”, but problems like these are common enough to make most Singaporean drivers change their cars for new ones every 5 years, back when COEs were cheaper.

Sure, you’ll enjoy a no claim discount (NCD) if you have an immaculate accident record. But still, once you get into an accident, unless you bought an NCD cover, you’ll lose whatever NCD you’ve accumulated right up to that fateful accident.

So expect your insurance premium to rise by a few hundred dollars if you get into that inevitable accident, like I did last year.

So hurray for me! Good work trying to save money on driving over the last year! As you can see, I didn't do a very good job. Better luck next year, I guess?

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