'No more stressing about looming payments or interest': Man ecstatic after giving up his car in SG
Photo: Vecteezy/Saranyoo Chantawong (for illustration purposes only)
SINGAPORE: The number of privately owned cars in Singapore fell from 524,312 in 2025 to 516,237 in 2026, according to data from the Land Transport Authority (LTA). That represents a drop of 8,075 vehicles in just one year.
Recently, one of the locals who gave up his car this year shared on social media that this decision was perhaps one of the smartest moves he had ever made.
In a post on Reddit’s r/askSg forum, he wrote: “Woohoo...finally gave up my car, I’m so happy! This is a day of freedom for me.”
“Seriously, that feeling of being completely debt-free is like the ultimate liberation. It's like you've finally broken free from a huge burden,” he added.
The man said he had owned the car for 12 months before realising that he was not using it often enough to justify the expense.
His occasional Lalamove work, he added, only covered the cost of petrol.
“No more stressing about looming payments or interest. You can finally breathe easy and make choices based on what you want, not what you owe. It's pretty much the best kind of independence there is.”
“Congrats on not sinking more money into something that you are severely underutilising”
In the discussion thread, one commenter congratulated him, but also warned him not to simply replace the car expenses with another unnecessary indulgence.
“Good for you! Hopefully you won’t replace that expenditure with something else,” the Redditor wrote, adding that with the market not being great at the moment, “every cent saved is better than none.”
Another wrote, “Yeap, lotsa folks don't realise they’re slaving so hard to pay vehicle company, bank, insurance company, towing company, repair shop, government, LTA, parking companies, petrol companies, hospital, medical bills, funeral parlour, etc. why bother, save all the money!”
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A third said, “This could have been avoided altogether if you did your due diligence in the first place, but hey, congrats on not sinking more money into something that you are severely underutilising.”
A fourth added, “This post is about a man who realises he actually had the power to stop shooting himself in the foot.”
Read also: ‘I’ve had enough after 10 years’: Maid says employer keeps pushing her to renew contract
Contributing writer at The Independent Singapore