Written by Alex Bach
Ever since the invention of the Model-T, cars have been front and center in the public eye, only growing in popularity as a means of transportation. They’ve become faster, safer, more reliable, and–of course–more expensive. And that’s not even considering the auxiliary prices of gas, parking and other fees related to your car. The car’s price, fees and availability mean these convenient modes of transportation are not always convenient around the world, and certainly not always cheap.
Here are some of the most expensive places to have a car in the world.
Purchases
The markup for cars in Singapore is incredibly high. Compared to Cuba, where cars are expensive because of their lack of availability and relative poverty of the country, in Singapore, an affluent Asian country, the cars are expensive for different reasons. Like Cuba, cars are not easily available, but that is because Singapore doesn’t want them to be too available, and thus charges extremely high fees: the car is marked up about %150, with entitlement fees anywhere from $15-$20 grand–and none of this includes the cost of importing the car! A $30,000 car in Singapore can cost over $100,000 when all said and done. Many other countries, other Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, North Korea and China, are also extremely expensive, as are Nicaragua, Brazil and Cuba.
(Keep in mind Schumacher Cargo ships cars and other vehicles by the thousands every year; which means it will likely be more affordable to ship your car with us versus buying new.
Parking
You’ve got the car, now where are you going to park it? Parking is another huge expensive when driving in other parts of the world. A major city like New York may charge as much to park your car as it does for your rent (depending on where you live): about $500 per month–and that’s just the average! Other cities, like Sydney, average around $600 per month. Hong Kong averages about $750 and London is the most expensive, costing drivers around $1000 a month just to park your car.
Fuel
Until the proliferation of electric cars becomes more prominent, people are going to have to rely on gas to fuel their vehicles, and gas is not cheap! The cost of fuel prices is another major concern when driving around the world. Hong Kong, Monaco and the United Kingdom, for example, charge roughly $7.27 per gallon. And it goes up from there. Gas prices in Norway are over $8.00 per gallon. Turkey is at at a whopping $9.54 and Eritrea holds the title belt with $9.61 per gallon.
As much as we love driving our cars, it is not always the cheapest mode of expedience when we are traveling. Remember, it might just be cheaper to ship your car, or put it in storage.
