Breakdown of Singapore Car Prices via their OMV

I have always been very interested in finding out exactly how much more people in Singapore were actually hemorrhaging for their cars, but needless to say, I have never actually gotten down to doing my homework - UNTIL NOW (wow it took me quite a while to get this all sorted out!)

Well well, the results have really quite surprised me. I knew that we were always paying in excess, but I didn't know we were actually paying that much more in comparison to our counterparts in other countries! The drawbacks of living on a small red dot on the map.

For the benefit of those who are interested to know (especially people who cannot live without cars like Mr Goh), I shall teach you how the prices are derived.

So basically, this is how the costs are broken down in Singapore:

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Open Market Value (approx. the price to buy & get the car from the car manufacturer to Singapore shores, excluding singapore tax. I quote from the Land Transport Authority website:
"OMV price includes purchase price, freight, insurance and all other charges incidental to the sale and delivery of the car to Singapore." . I think it is approx the price outside of Singapore and probably slightly lower than what they call MSRP *manufacturer suggested retail price* in the U.S. )

+ Customs Duty (20% of OMV)
+ Government Service Tax (7% of OMV)
+ Additional Registration Fee (100% of OMV! <-- :( :( :( ) + Registration Fee ($140) + Certificate of Entitlement ($5000)

= Basic Cost

+ Premium (25%-50% OF Basic Cost) [Insurance & Dealer commission mostly, with radio license and car plate but these are miniscule in comparison]

= Singapore List Price.



In equation form, assuming premium is 45% of Basic cost:

Singapore List Price
= 1.45 [ OMV + 0.2 OMV + 0.07 OMV + 1.0 OMV +140 +5000 ]
= 1.45 [OMV + 1.27 OMV + 5140 ] <- Govt taxes $ (1.27OMV + 5140)
= 3.3 OMV + 5140 <--- We pay 3.3 times of OMV approximately.

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The basic cost is called that because it's the cost that an agent has to incur to bring the car into Singapore. Basically it's OMV + Amount that government imposes as tax (CD/GST/ARF/RF/COE)

So as we can see, depending largely on the Premium(can vary between 25%-50% OF basic cost), the amount that the government takes can vary around 30% to 50% of the list price.

The Premium's bulk is from dealer's commission & insurance(insurance is based on type of car; 2 door, 4 door, how fast , age of driver etc - higher risk of accident, higher insurance)

In my eagerness to see if it all added up, I went to calculate the Singapore list prices starting from the OMVs - and guess what, they tally quite well!

Here are some with Pie charts to illustrate (all prices in SGD$):

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The BMW 740i starts with a relatively high OMV so it's funny that COE only consitutes 2% of the List price. Here, the dealer is greedy or insurance is high so the premium is rather steep.
Government taxes consitute around 39% of the list price.
(Areas in blue except for OMV 2+29+2+6 = 39 )

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I was amazed by the low premium of the Honda Civic.
22%!
So in this case, because of the low premium, the Government taxes consituted 50% of the list price!

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And lastly, for the 556, I realized I made 爸 give 40% of the list price to the Gah-men.
erps.



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In Conclusion, we're paying approximately
3 times the OMV(or MSRP)

If you buy a Honda Civic (List price(sgcarmart.com): SGD$71,300) in Singapore, you can use that same amount of money and buy a BMW 5 Series (528i) (List Price(MSRP from edmnuds.com) : SGD$68,892.35 or US$45,800) quite comfortably in the United States.
=
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If you buy a Mercedes Benz S350L (List price(sgcarmart): SGD$320,888 = USD$212,000) in Singapore, you can use that same amount of money and buy a 2009 Bentley Continental GT (List price(edmunds): SGD$296,477 = USD$197,100) quite comfortably in the United States.
=

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If you buy a 2009 Bentley Continental GT (List Price(SGcarmart): SGD$730,000 = USD$485,307) in Singapore, you can use that same amount of money and buy a 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe ( List Price(Edmunds): SGD$652,822 = USD$434,000) quite comfortably in the United States.
=

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And I know alot of car loving guys probably want to know,
what is the equivalent (in terms of price) in Singapore of a
Lamborghini Murcielago in the United states?:
An Aston Martin!

If you buy an Aston Martin V8 Vantage 4.7 Coupe (List Price(SGcarmart): SGD$549,000 = USD$365,000) in Singapore, you can use that same amount of money and buy a 2009 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 ( List Price(Edmunds): SGD$532,480 = USD$354,000) quite comfortably in the United States.
=

(The 2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage in the U.S. (SGD$179,751 = USD$119,500) costs the equivalent of a BMW 1 Series Coupe (135i) in Singapore (SGD$179,800 = USD$119,531) )

Ok , that was just the most heart breaking:
With the cash you use to buy a pudgy looking BMW 1 Series Coupe in Singapore, you can purchase an ASTON MARTIN in the States?
Hmmmmm............
=
This just doesn't make sense. Ha.



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Alas, don't be sad Car Loving Guys!
It might not be much consolation , but we do get cheap food ;)


Thus, after my long long long research,
I hope you guys have been enlightened about the black hole that is Car prices in Singapore.

I've realized that the gah-men gets alot of tax money out of cars.

SO they BETTER, BETTER, BETTER
keep the roads smooth and pothole free,
manicure the plants nicely so that when we drive by we feel good,
maybe have like neon coloured road separators,
maybe also make the roads coloured,
maybe give us free GPS systems (thousand plus only la!)
or set up free car wash areas so that all the cars in Singapore look nice and clean.

They better not use the money to put more speed cameras to fine us more!