Renting cars in Singapore

To own a car in Singapore is expensive nowadays, considering how high the COE (certificate of entitlement) price is. The latest COE pricing can be referred here in Oneshift. For families with children, it is sometimes convenient to drive a car, especially if you plan a trip to remote places in Singapore (or to Malaysia).

For me, I love DriveSg because I can get a decent car for as low as sgd 60 per day. For a family of four, that translate to sgd 15 per head. A premium for convenience. The booking system is very convenient. The search return produces list of cars from different pickup and return locations and finding one near my place is easy. For added cost, I can drive the car to Malaysia. Sometimes, DriveSg will give discounts and promotions that are tantalizing.

E.g. Searching for any car from 16th (Mon) to 17th (Tue) Feb 2015 returns a list of available cars from sgd 51 onwards (Drive.Sg). From there, I can select the type of cars I would prefer.

There are some cars that allow entry to Malaysia as indicated by the red circle. You have to add-on extra cost for that.

The usual rate for entry to Malaysia varies, the lowest I have seen is sgd 15 per day. The rate is sgd 15 onwards.

The payment method is via Credit card (Visa or Mastercard etc.) and direct bank transfer (DBS etc.). DriveSg is a platform for car rental companies to provide competitive and attractive packages for car rental. As consumers, we have a nice platform to search for the most attractive price (or attractive add-on) from different companies (or private entities) that car-for-rent service.


In addition to DriveSg, there are other online car rental services

• Avis Singapore. However the average car I normally see in the search is above sgd 100, which is too costly for me. For example, a compact during week day's drive is sgd 140 per day.

 

• Smart Car Rental Pte Ltd. The search engine is sub-optimal because I can't search for any car. It's a hassle to select car type for each search. Most of my tries return a notification, "sorry, your choice of car is unavailable". The search is just to unintuitive.

Difficult to find a car with Smart Car Rental search engine. Most of the hits I got is the "choice of car is unavailable". It turns users off.

• AceDrive. AceDrive has no search engine to browse for available cars and rental rates.You will need to email or contact them to get a quote or for promotional items. I prefer to look at the price onscreen rather than wait for a reply.

 

• Budget car rental. The search engine is good. The price list is more costly, in which average above sgd 100 per day and not inclusive of taxes and surcharges, e.g. for Toyota Vios from 3 Feb 2015 to 4 Feb 2015, it would cost me sgd 158.40 per day plus sgd 11.09 taxes/surcharges (total sgd 169.49). Furthermore, the pickup and return location is around Changi area, which will be inconvenient for most people.

 

• SgCarMart. This site provides a list of car rental companies in Singapore. Refer to the list of car rental companies listed in SgCarMart. Similar to Drive.Sg, SgCarMart is a platform to look for the best bargain for available cars.

 

• Hertz car rental. Price is around sgd 100 per day exclusive of GST (for Toyota Vios type). There are three pickup and return locations in Singapore. I have not tried Hertz because the pickup and return locations are not convenient to me.

 

• MyCarForum also provides searches for car rental or leasing. I have not tried looking for a car there.

 

There are many other car rental services in Singapore and you can search for them via Google.

Self notes

• To drive one big round in Singapore only takes 90 km (circumference). For companies that offer unlimited mileage in Singapore would mean that the mileage would be less than 90 km for me. Normally, I'd be driving in Sg for shopping, outdoor activities such as going to the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, or hunting for favourite local food.