A sign of things to come?

Been running into car trouble recently.

The battery died on us while were parked in a shopping centre on a public holiday, luckily a kind soul helped us jumpstart the car so that we could get to a workshop. Oh and a few months before that, the tyres blew out whilst we were out for a drive on another public holiday - that eventually necessitated the change of the whole set of tyres.

Then J scraped against another car at a carpark (she insists it's the other drivers' fault) but the settlement from the repairs eventually came up to roughly $5000. Thank goodness for insurance but surely the other driver had taken advantage of the accident and rectified other parts of his car. We are not looking forward to the increase in our insurance premiums.

The latest incident came in the form of a broken down aircon radiator in the car, which necessitated the change of the whole radiator. We considered holding off on the repairs but driving in Singapore without the airconditioner is rather unplatable. How do those drivers in convertibles get by? Is the need to be seen cruising in an open-top worth the heat beating down on them and the breathing in of exhaust fumes?

We even considered momentarily if we should have driven into Johor Bahru to save on the costs of repair but eventually decided that it wasn't worth the hassle. Hats off though to the money-smart Singaporeans who patronize JB.

The recent breakdowns also caused us to ponder what it would be like if our car were to break down in Australia. Would help be readily available? Would repairs there be more costly? Cheaper? J jokingly suggested that we should take up automotive courses if we were over there - which actually is not that bad an idea.

Imagine breaking down on one the many long stretches of road with no cell coverage and no town in sight!

Anyway, back to the story at hand. Is our government on to something? Do cars really only have a shelf life of 10 years before they start breaking down all over the place? Our Toyota Wish is probably in its last 2 years of its' current 10 year COE (Certificate of Entitlement), so maybe all these breakdowns are a sign that we should give up driving. It's getting too prohibitive to own a car in Singapore.

A quick check shows that the COE for this week is $75,829 (yup, you pay this price to qualify to purchase a car) and a new Toyota Wish costs $151,888 (with a guaranteed COE). Ludicrous prices.