The cars that I have driven over the years

I learnt to drive a car after completing my SPM (O level equivalent examination), and successfully obtained my driving licence a few months later.

I took my motorbike driving test around the same time, but unfortunately did not clear the test. As I didn't anticipate myself driving motorbikes that much in the future, I had perished the thought of sitting for another motorcycle driving test for good. My family did not own any car then. So the driving licence was left idle for a while.

I then pursued my pre-university study in Singapore after being granted Asean Scholarship. My father bought a family car in 1981-82 - my elder sister was the only person with driving licence then, and she was the chauffeur driving my parents around for supper/errands when the needs arise. I would have some practice runs when I returned home during school holidays.

The first family car that my father bought happened to be a 1.3L Toyota Corolla. It was a small but reliable car, but had served our family very well. It left a very good impression on me - so much so that the subsequent cars I bought had all being Toyota Models!

I bought my first car in 1993 after I got married. Car is considered as a luxury item in Singapore. The COE (certificate of entitlement) the piece of paper that entitled you to purchase/ own a car for 10 years cost about $30,000 then. The meager salary that I earned as a medical officer was certainly insufficient for me to get a new car then. I bought a pre-owned Toyota Starlet (3-4 year-old model). Apart from a major breakdown which occurred when we were shopping in Johor Bahru (and we had to get the AAS to tow the car all the way across the causeway back to Singapore), the car was quite reliable and did not give us much trouble. Another major repair took place sometime in 1997, when my car was rammed from behind by a Mercedes Benz while driving along Upper Bukit Timah Road (caught in the early morning rush hours then). I left for Alabama for my subspecialty training in Child Neurology in 1997, and sold my Toyota Starlet to my brother-in-law.

My wife posing with our first car:  Toyota Starlet

I bought another pre-owned 1.5L Toyota Corolla on arrival to Alabama. It served us well for the next 3 years, bringing us to various places along the east coast and north-east region of USA (Alabama, Mississippi, Disney World at Florida, Smoky Mountain, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Niagara Falls, Toronto). I rammed my car into a deer when driving in the Smoky Mountain (it was dark with heavy fog then), leaving a small dent on the front bonnet; the deer miraculously was still able to limp away to the woods. I chalked up two traffic offences in US. I was stopped by traffic police for speeding through a town (I drove at 80miles/hour, when it was supposed to be 50 miles/hour) when driving towards Florida, and was fined over USD100 for the offence. I was also fined for failing to put my infant child in the car seat once. I bought the car for about US7,000, and sold it off for about US4,000 to a car dealer in Boston then.

Our car covered with snow on the rare occasion it snowed in Alabama:
Kids having fun

Driving our car all the way from Birmingham, AL to Boston, pulling the UHaul trolley along

Upon our return to Singapore in 2000, I bought a 1.6 L Toyota Corolla for about $80,000 (COE was about $30K); this served me well till 2008, when I turned over the car to a car dealer and bought a new Camry 2.0 for $86,000 (COE was at miraculously low of $6K then). The interior of Camry was indeed spacious, with a lot of leg-room for passengers. However, it is quite bulky and has inevitably suffered a few scratches here and there. I was involved in a chain collision along PIE during morning rush hour 2 years ago - I managed to stop in time and narrowly avoided ramming into the car in front - and the boot was badly damaged and had to be kept in body repair shop for 5 days for overhaul. I was given hybrid car Prius to drive during those 5 days.

With the recent COE sky-rocketing to the high of 70-80K for small car (<1.6L), and $90K for large car (2L and above), I am not sure whether I should dump the car for public transport when the current COE of my car expired in another 5 years' time!