Singapore Expats

Hi all,

I recently joining a new company, and they require stuff to have their own transport, I am not Singaporean and applying S-Pass for this current job. Company will give me 1k car allowance.

Not quite familiar with car buying in Singapore, so maybe need some suggestion and opinion from you guys. I heard that there is some COE car that can drive for 1 year or more, is that worth and what really is that mean? where can I get it? how bout normal 2nd hand car?

any better ideas for me if you are in my current position, cause I really strain , some even ask me try rent a car to try.

Thank you so much for any suggestion or opinion been given.

your trully,
sean

For Example:

Right now there is a car for sale online registered in May 1997. The COE expires in April 2012 (that's basically your one year car) advertised at $6,888 and you might be able to negotiate a couple of bucks off it. The car is Japanese like 80% of all the others on the road so spares and maintenance will not cost a bomb but your $1,000 per month covers everything.

A typical 2-3yr old small Japanese hatchback will cost around $60,000. In the 4-5yr bracket you might be looking in the $40-50,000 range so take a loan on that and repayments might be $500-600 a month then the rest goes on maintenance and road tax etc. so again, $1000 should cover it.

Make sure you avoid buying the OPC (off-peak cars) with red license plates, you cannot drive them during peak business hours.

Set a reasonable budget (eg $35k) which should get you a 4-5 years old car like a Subaru Impreza 1.6. This was the sweet spot for me when looking at price/performance. A slightly newer car was 50% more expensive, and there was nothing I would admit to driving that costs less than $30k.

urthebest88 wrote:Hi all,

I recently joining a new company, and they require stuff to have their own transport, I am not Singaporean and applying S-Pass for this current job. Company will give me 1k car allowance.

I hope you know that S pass holders are not allowed to drive for work related purposes unless you have written authorisation from MOM.

This includes tasks such as,
- Being a driver to drive people around
- Making deliveries (courier, packages etc.)
- Transporting staff around
- Picking and dropping up people

etc. etc.

If caught by TP (traffic police) you might get in trouble and have your S pass revoked and sent back to your country.

If in doubt ask MOM.
Check with company HR, if they say no need retain email copies which *might* save you from deportation.