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It’s cheaper to buy a car in Singapore and Brunei than Malaysia

Shaun · Aug 20, 2021 02:59 PM

It’s cheaper to buy a car in Singapore and Brunei than Malaysia 01

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.

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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%.

Also read: Malaysians pay over RM 10 billion in car taxes every year. How did we end up like this?

It’s cheaper to buy a car in Singapore and Brunei than Malaysia 01

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.

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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

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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.

It’s cheaper to buy a car in Singapore and Brunei than Malaysia 04

Photo by Deva Darshan on Unsplash

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.

It’s cheaper to buy a car in Singapore and Brunei than Malaysia 05

Photo by Mohd Jon Ramlan on Unsplash

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.

Also read: Want cheaper cars in Malaysia? Best solution is to pay higher fuel prices

Shaun

Senior Writer

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.

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