There’s this photo enthusiatist group called Singapore Exotic Car Spotter that takes really great photos of exotic cars (read: flashy supercars) they spotted around Singapore (duh!), and each time I look at the photos, it never fails to deflate my ego. I mean, I never realised there were so many Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martins running around this island that’s barely 710 km² in size.
I suppose if ever there’s such a record, we’d be one of the top countries, in true-blue Singaporean fashion, for having the most number of supercars per capita or per square foot, or whatever measurements are appropriate to bring across the point.
I sometimes wonder how the owners of these supercars would feel to see their cars being photographed without their knowledge or permission and being put up for all to view. Especially if you were a bookie trying to hide from attention or if you were some towkay trying to evade taxes, I mean, I would go, “wah piang, don’t pichar lobang leh…later I kenna asked to pay more income tax next year…”
Of course, that’s just me being silly. Coupled with the fact that we’re supposed to have more millionaires per capita compared to anywhere else in Asia, and the fact that we have more and more billionaires each year according to Forbes, it’s only natural we’re seeing more of these supercars (per sq km) that each come with a drool-factor of 10 (per envious mouth).
But if you referenced the reaction of the Fast & Furious 6 stars like Vin Diesel and Luke Evans when they were told the prices of cars in Singapore, you’d think every damned car in Singapore was “exotic”– where else in the world would you find Hyundais and Toyotas going for the price of BMWs in, say, Germany or the USA? Uniquely Singapore!
Vin Diesel probably realises the price of one Toyota Prius could buy 4 Chevy Camaros in the States.
I mean, consider this: a 2014 Ford Mustang convertible (a sexy-enough car in my opinion) costs USD 61,000 in the US, but a not-so-eye-candy Toyota Vios costs SGD 122,000 or USD 95,600, here in Singapore. You’d think for that price, the Vios driver would totally pimp his ride with gangsta bling, huge-ass shiny rims and equip his car with boom-boxes loud enough to blast the clothes off any lady he wanted to impress… but no. For USD 95,600, bro, you gonna get a car with a steering wheel that rattles when you hit above 140kph (not that there’s a need to, given speed limits here are 90kph and less), and it wouldn’t make heads turn when you drive up the porch to some black-tie event at the St. Regis.
Valet would go “eh Sir, please move to the side if you waiting for someone so the bad-ass Murcielago behind you can make its grand entrance” — not enough boom, so to speak.
No wonder Singaporeans are pissed off: here we’re paying USD 80k and above for non-headturner rides, and denied the red carpet treatment at the atas hotels. I think from now on, there should be a new law that says everytime a Singapore-registered Honda Civic/Kia Forte/Hyundai Elantra/Toyota Corolla etc rolls into the front porch of Raffles Hotel or The Fullerton, journalists should stand by to start snapping photos in anticipation of the next Singapore multimillionaire. He/She would be halfway there anyway, once they sold off their 5-room executive HDB flat. Macham-macham only, as my late grandmother would say.
I have friends who are still hoping for COE prices to come down so they can upgrade their cars. No need, I say, because COE, and hence car prices, are unlikely to come down much, so you may as well work on the assumption you need to figure how to finance 3 to 4 Camaros’ worth to purchase that Honda Civic.
For my overseas friends, a COE, or Certificate of Entitlement, is a little piece of paper that says you are allowed to purchase a car. Yes, we are that bloody efficient administratively so much so you even need to be licenced, so to speak, to qualify for a car purchase.
So, to the guys in SG Exotic Car Spotter: how about stroking my deflated ego for once, and put up a picture of my not-so-sexy looking car on your site, if only to make me go “wah, my car also exotic leh”. For the price I paid for my car, I would be driving a Porsche Carrera (in comparative terms) in the US or Europe, so why not indulge me? You have my permission to snap away.
The Peranakan Dude
*The writer blogs at http://practicalrealism.wordpress.com/