{"id":78587,"date":"2026-09-24T04:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/the-real-mark-of-luxury-in-this-bustling-metropolis-owning-any-car-at-all\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T04:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:36:18","slug":"the-real-mark-of-luxury-in-this-bustling-metropolis-owning-any-car-at-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/the-real-mark-of-luxury-in-this-bustling-metropolis-owning-any-car-at-all\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Mark of Luxury in This Bustling Metropolis? Owning Any Car at All"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"@container mb-[25px] rounded-sm overflow-clip py-0.5 pr-0.5 pl-2.5 bg-success-100\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-m overflow-clip rounded-[6px] !bg-success-10 p-3 @[420px]:p-m\">\n<h2 class=\"m-0 flex items-center gap-s text-[19px] !text-[#1c1c1c] md:text-[20px]\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"10\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 10\" fill=\"none\" class=\"shrink-0 text-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M1 1.5h14\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><path d=\"M1 8.5h10\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><\/svg><span>Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"m-0 flex list-none flex-col gap-m pl-0\">\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Singapore\u2019s COE has capped car ownership since 1990, with permits recently topping $75,000.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Andre Lee ditched his $24,000 Kia Forte after Singapore\u2019s ownership costs became too much.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Singapore puts 80% of homes near transit, showing what\u2019s needed when driving gets expensive.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In Singapore, the first hurdle to car ownership is a permit that can run about $75,000, before you even factor in the vehicle. The city-state\u2019s Certificates of Entitlement, sold in twice-monthly auctions and valid for 10 years, turn an ordinary set of wheels into a status marker reserved for people who can absorb eye-watering overhead. Insurance agent Andre Lee learned that the hard way after paying $24,000 for a 2010 Kia Forte, a price he later found impossible to justify once running costs piled up. Meanwhile, many residents skip the whole ordeal and ride a transit network where long metro trips can cost under 2 SGD.<\/p>\n<h2>Why \u201cluxury\u201d can mean a plain old set of keys<\/h2>\n<p>If you spend your days tracking Silicon Valley\u2019s next big bet, it is easy to think luxury is a new gadget or a faster GPU. In Singapore, it is simpler than that: owning any car at all. The city-state has turned private driving into a scarce, heavily priced permission slip, and it offers a sharp lens for US debates about traffic, climate, and access.<\/p>\n<h2>The price of permission: the COE system<\/h2>\n<p>Singapore\u2019s core tool is the <b>Certificate of Entitlement (COE)<\/b>, introduced in <b>1990<\/b> to cap how many vehicles can exist on the island. You cannot register a car without first winning one in auction, held 2 times a month, and the certificate lasts <b>10 years<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>That auction is where the signal gets loud. Average COE prices have hovered above <b>$74,000<\/b>, which means a modest sedan can end up priced like a high-end luxury car in the US. The policy works as congestion control, but it also makes \u201cI have a car\u201d a social marker rather than a default household choice.<\/p>\n<h2>The real-world math that changes behavior<\/h2>\n<p>The New York Times cited an insurance agent, <b>Andre Lee<\/b>, who paid <b>$24,000<\/b> for a <b>2010 Kia Forte<\/b>, roughly 5 times what that model might cost in the US used market. He later sold it after fuel, parking, and maintenance piled up, even with a strong income.<\/p>\n<p>Another example: businesswoman <b>Su-Sanne Ching<\/b> paid <b>$150,000<\/b> for a Mercedes-Benz, including <b>$60,000<\/b> for the COE alone. Convenience was the point, but the story reads like a warning label for any city that tries to ration road space using price without building enough alternatives.<\/p>\n<h2>What US tech and city leaders can take from it<\/h2>\n<p>Singapore can be this strict because it built a credible substitute. About <b>80%<\/b> of households are within a 10-minute walk of a metro station, and long rail trips cost roughly $1.50. That is not a \u201cmobility app\u201d fix, it is infrastructure that makes car-free living realistic.<\/p>\n<p>For US audiences, the parallel isn\u2019t copying COEs tomorrow. It is understanding the bundle: pricing plus capacity. New York\u2019s move toward congestion pricing, California\u2019s EV push, and the rise of Uber and Lyft all circle the same question: if driving gets more expensive by design, do we have enough fast, safe, dependable ways to get around?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/featured\/the-real-mark-of-luxury-in-this-bustling-metropolis-owning-any-car-at-all\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways Singapore\u2019s COE has capped car ownership since 1990, with permits recently topping $75,000. Andre Lee ditched his $24,000 Kia Forte after Singapore\u2019s ownership costs became too much. Singapore puts 80% of homes near transit, showing what\u2019s needed when driving gets expensive. In Singapore, the first hurdle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":78588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}