Ha, ha. Yes, cars here are incredibly expensive, not to mention each is restricted to a max lifespan of 10 years
Well, like they say, humans adapt to things and we're sort of used to it already.
Mine is a year 2000 Boxster S and I paid about US$110k for it a couple of days ago. A brand new model would set us back by about US$195k depending on the price of the entitlement certificate which I will explain below.
To own a car, one has to bid for a Certificate of Entitlement (COE). The price varies between US$12k (current price given the bad economy) to a max of US$60k when economy was good. Once you get a COE, this will enable you to own a car for 10 years. At the end of which, you will need to either export the car or scrap it.
Road tax for a 3.2l car is about US$1.8k per year. It can get as high as US$5k for a 5.5l car. Insurance is another killer. I'm paying about US$2.2k per year and that is with 50% discount for a straight 5 year of clean non-claim records.
For these reasons, most cars here are small capacity ones. Mostly 2l and below.
There are also tons of taxes levied to jack up the price of the car. Reason being it's a very small country and cars need to be limited in numbers to avoid congestion.
The cheapest car here is about US$38k for a KIA. A GT3 is about US$380k (my dream car) and a Modena is about US$510k. Yes, all can only be owned for 10 years.
Glad you liked the food here. The price and variety is a plus point compared to US I guess, or most parts of the world in my opinion. I'm not rich, just that my priority is in cars
