3 reasons why car-sharing, not car ownership, is for you – especially if you are a new driver

Sure, owning a car as a status symbol is still a thing in today’s society, but is ownership – one of the five ‘Cs’ – truly worth it?

With Singapore being the most expensive country to buy, use, and maintain a car, this social status comes at a hefty price tag of $50,000 to over $100,000. That’s almost the cost of a two-room HDB flat!

If you are not ready to kiss goodbye the savings you squirrelled away through your first few years of #adulting, consider car-sharing.

With Tribecar, Singapore’s largest vehicle-sharing operator (in terms of fleet size), ‘owning’ a car for less than a dollar an hour can be your new reality.

Still need more reasons why car-sharing is for you? Read on.

You get to switch daily between a new car, motorbike, van, or even a lorry 

A Mercedes-Benz C series on Monday, Toyota lorry on Tuesday, Mazda 2 on Wednesday, Infiniti Q30 on Thursday, Honda Fit on Friday, and BMW MPV for the weekend?

100 per cent possible – if you have the necessary license.

Unless you have a fixed daily schedule, you'd probably have varying needs for a car.

Running errands and picking up groceries near Tampines IKEA? Rent a BMW MPV for an hour or two. Live near Kovan or Serangoon? Pick up the new Mazda 2 for brunch dates over the weekends.

Interested to take a manual car for a spin? Tribecar has got you covered too.

Moving to a new place by yourself? Get a lorry or van from just $2.86 per hour with a click of a button. Typically, renting a van with a driver would cost you at least $50 an hour.

Just pick the vehicle you fancy on Tribecar.com. Indicate the time you start and end as well as the location to pick up your ride from. You’d then be informed on the exact rental cost.

Head over to the designated carpark indicated in your booking email. Locate your vehicle, verify its condition, upload your start-trip photos of the vehicle's exterior, tap a button on your phone, and you’re all set to go.

With prices starting from $0.54 an hour at Tribecar – the most affordable among the car-sharing market – you can have your cake and eat it, too.

Still on a P-plate and finding it tough or expensive to rent a car from regular car rental companies? At Tribecar, you too can have your pick. 

Choose either a Suzuki Swift ($2.14/hour) or a Honda Fit ($2.68/hour), from the largest new driver fleet – over 400 cars – in Singapore.

You can make some moolah on the side without all the cumbersome maintenance

Looking to buy a Toyota Altis for personal as well as commercial use? Comparing just the Open Market Value (OMV) of $19,678 alone, you could have driven the car for over 7,000 hours with Tribecar, which lists the vehicle under the Super Econ category costing between $0.54 and $4.82 an hour.

Factoring in the Certificate of Entitlement (COE), registration fees, Vehicular Emission Scheme (VES), taxes, and duties, you would have to fork out at least $102,000 to buy one.

You could have driven the same car on Tribecar for seven years at eight hours every single day!

And that’s not the end of it.

You’d still require time and money to send your car for washing, polishing, maintenance, and servicing. That’s almost $1,000 monthly from your pocket.

By car-sharing on Tribecar, you need not worry. All you have to do is to make sure there is enough petrol for the next user.

Picking up extra cash with Grab, Lalamove, Foodpanda is now as easy as pie.

Just complete three steps – sign up, book, unlock – and you’re ready to drive.

You can easily access a vehicle from anywhere on the island

Tribecar currently has over 600 vehicles – the largest fleet in Singapore – for all your car-sharing needs.

With that fleet size – over 450 heartland locations islandwide – this means that all  vehicles are accessible within five minutes in any neighbourhood.

Want a ‘new’ car? Just tell the guys at Tribecar – all their offerings are based on the community’s requests.

Think about the season parking you would be paying for your home and office. Then think about how much you’d save by picking up a car on demand – it’s a no-brainer to choose car-sharing.

Ready for your new reality of ‘owning’ a car for less than a dollar an hour?

Check out Tribecar’s fleet and prices on its website here.

New to Tribecar? Sign up here.

This article is brought to you in partnership with Tribecar.