The Singapore Forum

Hi, I'm moving to Singapore shortly with my wife and our baby girl and we're wondering how most people with babies get around. We don't want to buy a car given it's so expensive - can you hire a car and driver and if so what sort of price range are we looking at?

Also we wanted to know how Singapore deals with babies in cars - do they need to be in a car seat? Do taxis have car seats or would we need to bring ours with us?


Thanks!!

I think it is supposed to be the law for babies/small children to ride in car seats, but clearly no one enforces this law given the number of 2 year olds I've seen standing in the front seat of a moving car or the number of front seat passengers in a moving car holding a small baby in their arms.

No, a taxi will not have a car seat for you. You will have to bring your own.

Sorry, I have no idea what it costs to hire a car and driver. Seems to me most people who employ a driver actually own the car too, but I don't know for sure.

I've used taxis and even MRT with two children on a really huge double pram. No issues moving around. Normally most people don't bring a carseat for taxis.I tended to strap them in with me when they were that young. As they get older, you can buy a strap adjuster from major supermarkets that would not cause the seat belt to strangle the child.

For car rental, there are lots of places. I currentluy hire a car - a very basic automatic nissan sunny in the mid - high thousand range/month. You can get a manual car in the high hundredth range rental but you will need to shop around.

Seems an awful lot of work for one trip to McRitchie.....

Don't know if still same, but seemed a lot of taxi drivers had regulars they'd set up with. For example morning runs to work. If you set up a routine for some activities, making arrangement with regular taxi driver might assist. But not so easy infirst instance until established locally and get to know a regular in your area.

I think Satellite is talking about hiring a car and driving it herself, not hiring a car and driver, for those prices.

I could see the possibility of finding a taxi driver willing to set up a regular run to the office but I can't see how that would work for the guy's wife who just needs to get around during the day with the baby. Most of those trips aren't going to be so regular. However, with one baby, using the MRT shouldn't be a big problem particularly if you live close to a station.

New cars are indeed very expensive to purchase, but buying used will bring the price down. Keep in mind you can get a 10 year loan on a used car, so if you stick to basic models (meaning stay away from the Porsches, BMWs and Mercedes, etc.) you can end up with a payment under or even well under S$1000 per month, but maintenance and repairs are on you.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!