It’s cheaper to buy a car in Singapore and Brunei than Malaysia
Shaun · Aug 20, 2021 02:59 PM
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First, let us point out how we define cheap to buy a car - we took the average car cost for the same model (Toyota Corolla) and weighted it against the average annual salary in each country.
This gives us the percentage of a country’s average annual salary required to buy a car. All figures were sourced from numbeo.com.
Let’s start with Malaysia, according to the source, the average monthly net salary is RM 3,429. Multiply that by 12 for the annual salary and we’ll get RM 41,148. The price of a Toyota Corolla stated at the site is RM 121,688. Weigh those figures together and the percentage of annual salary required is 295.7%.
Comparatively, the average monthly net salary in Singapore is SGD 5,214, which translates to an annual salary of SGD 62,568 while a Toyota Corolla is priced at SGD 107,499. Those numbers calculate to a percentage of 171.8%.
This means it’s almost twice as affordable for an average Singaporean to buy a car than for the average Malaysian in the respective countries.
We’ve also looked at neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Here are the percentage figures:
Percentage of annual salary required to buy a car
Indonesia
799%
Vietnam
660%
Philippines
647%
Thailand
371%
Malaysia
296%
Singapore
172%
Brunei
85%
Average salary and car price
Country
Annual salary
Price of Corolla
Indonesia
IDR 50,867,448
IDR 406,440,309
Vietnam
VND 121,245,816
VND 800,148,914
Philippines
PHP 179,088
PHP 1,158,699
Thailand
THB 228,048
THB 846,451
Malaysia
MYR 41,148
MYR 121,688
Singapore
SGD 62,568
SGD 107,499
Brunei
BND 32,892
BND 27,999
Based on the figures, Indonesia is the most expensive country listed above to buy a car. Though the surprise came from Singapore because if we were to take the absolute price of a car, it would’ve been the most expensive. But when average salary considered, it becomes a different story.
However, these numbers are the average value which can be one-dimensional as standard deviation isn’t taken into account. Perhaps the distribution curve of salaries differ greatly from one country to another.
Nevertheless, it has been interesting to find out the affordability of cars in our surrounding countries. We’ve said before that cars in Malaysia are expensive but it really put things into perspective in comparison.
The quest for automotive knowledge began as soon as the earliest memories. Various sources information, even questionable ones, have been explored including video games, television, magazines, or even internet forums. Still stuck in that rabbit hole.