Influencer Naomi Neo Didn’t Expect So Much Flak For Sharing About Her $600K Lamborghini

When Naomi Neo unveiled her hot new wheels, a flashy purple Lamborghini Huracán, on Instagram earlier this month, it sparked off quite a controversy online. Not only was the 24-year-old bombarded with comments that she was showing off, netizens also questioned her purchase at such “a sensitive time”.

Not that she didn’t see it coming. What she didn’t expect, though, was to be so affected by the comments that she “started feeling upset about something that was meant to make myself happy”.

All she wanted to do was to create content, ‘cos, um, that’s her job, but the comments were “very negative,” Naomi tells 8days.sg. “There was a guy who wrote an entire essay about the purchase, and others said the money could have been put to better use [like donating to charity] and it really affected me ‘cos I felt very accused or misunderstood.”

She then took to Instagram to stand up for herself. The expectant mum, whose second child is due in January, shared that she had been planning her purchase since last year, and while she did have second thoughts when COVID-19 hit, she decided to go ahead with it ‘cos she had finally found her dream car. Speaking to us today, she adds: “I want to use this opportunity to explain and answer the many questions people have been asking me, like why I need to justify my purchase, and [curiosity about] the car, like the price and why I chose this model.”

“Over the years, even without the pandemic, I've never been afraid to give [to the less privileged]. I just never talked about [my contributions], so people think I didn’t do anything. But the truth is, I try to do a lot within my ability to help. But if I talked about it, wouldn’t people find it weird? I felt accused ‘cos the last thing I want is for anyone to feel upset about my purchase,” she explains. It was only after some probing that Naomi finally let on that she and her family distributed 100 bags of food and essentials to under privileged households during Circuit Breaker.

Naomi says she decided to share about her car to inspire others to go after their dreams. “I wasn’t deliberately trying to [be boastful]. I was hoping it would kind of serve as an inspiration or motivation to people who felt like me, whether they are a mum, or if they relate to my life ‘cos I was constantly looked down on by the people around me. So, that’s the story I wanted to share, and hopefully people can learn that despite all these obstacles, you still succeed.”

And then there were netizens who assumed that it was her husband Han, who owns a car rental company, or her parents who bought it for her. “I constantly feel that women are looked down on when it comes to being able to afford their own stuff. I've always believed in independence. I started earning my own money at 15 [making online videos] and that was also the age when I stopped taking money from my parents. And I am very blessed that I am still doing pretty well,” she shares.

And by well, the influencer, who has 632,000 followers on Instagram and 448,000 subscribers on YouTube, means a six-figure annual income which derives from “mainly sponsored content”.

Earnings aside, Naomi says the deal was also too good to pass up. The five-year-old Huracán, which Naomi purchased second-hand for about $600,000, came complete with all her dream modification, and was, in her words, “quite a steal”.

“The base price for the Huracán is $1 million, but I got this, which was the unit that I really wanted, for about $600,000 — the modification alone cost more than $100,000. I am the third owner but the past drivers didn’t drive the car that much, so the mileage was low,” says the driving enthusiast.

“But the insurance is crazy,” she sighs. “I pay $10,000 a year just for the insurance, which is why I registered the car under my father-in-law’s name and I am a named driver. It would cost 50% more [if I registered it in my name] because of my age.”

Despite splashing more than half a million bucks on the supercar, Naomi isn’t giving up on her first ride, a two-year-old Mercedes C Class — which she also bought with her own money, thank you very much — anytime soon.

“I am keeping it because it is a daily drive car. And also ‘cos my son, who’s two, in school now, and I’m usually the one picking him up, so my Lambo is more like a weekend car. In the past three months, I think I’ve only driven it ten times.”

I got it in May. I'm quite spontaneous with my purchases, but obviously not with this one ‘cos it’s a bit pricier. But if I really want something, I'll try my best to get it. To me, it is like a challenge, especially if I can achieve what I want. My main concern about getting the car during the pandemic was that people will think it is a bit insensitive, so I was kind of scared. But I don’t think there's anything wrong with it. I eventually decided to get it because I found the unit I really wanted. I've been on the lookout for the past year and for me, so I wasn’t ready to let it go.

I grew up in a family where my dad would constantly tell me that if you didn't do anything wrong, you don't have to speak up because that will prove you are guilty. But since young, I've always felt misunderstood, so it's exactly because of this that I felt the need to stand up for myself.

Even when I told you about why I decided to talk about my car, there was a purpose behind it. I just feel accused when people think that I don't have a heart for the people around me and all I care about is using the money for myself. There were a lot of people who stood up for me as well, saying that I don’t have to explain how I spend my money, and I'm very thankful for it. Someone actually messaged me saying that no one has to feel that they need to give their money to someone else just because that person is going through [a rough patch]. It’s a good thing to do if you're able to, but it shouldn't be seen as something wrong, or bad because it's a personal choice.

I’ve always liked fast cars since I was young, so I started Googling about them and the Lambo caught my attention the most. I was attracted to how it looks and when I started learning more about the car, like the specs, I really, really liked it. There were several models that I considered but in the end I chose the Huracán because comparatively, it's good for a daily drive, even though it's not something I would drive daily. It's just really smooth, easy to drive, and I really enjoy it.

It isn’t very practical to drive a supercar in Singapore with so many traffic lights and so much traffic.

I don't really head out in the morning when people are going to work or in the evening when people knock off, so I don't think that congested roads are a big issue. The scary part about the traffic light is every time my car is stationary, I notice people staring or taking photos of it. The 10 times that I have driven the car, I've never once gone without someone photographing it. The worst is when you stop in front of the traffic light ‘cos you see pedestrians walking then they slow down to take videos. I feel a bit stressed out because I can’t even pick my nose leh. Imagine doing something embarrassing in the car and then getting caught on camera!​​​​​​​

Not with this car, but it happens all the time with the Mercedes. I think just because my car is modified, it looks like the car has to be raced. People just want to challenge me. Other modified cars like to suddenly come in front of me or tailgate me, which I find a bit annoying because I try not to be like a road hogger or someone that's very irresponsible on the road. I just won’t give way.

I think one of the other stressful parts about getting this car is that I feel the need to be even more responsible on the road just because it's louder and ‘cos of how it looks. And also because people tend to get the impression that those who drive such cars are a**holes and I don’t want to belong to that category. So I don’t try to challenge anyone, I try to give way to people and stay as low key as possible, like don’t purposely go and rev engine at people and I don’t turn on the sports mode, which is like five times louder.

I do have quite a few crazy neighbours who will come knocking at my door to pick a fight about random things. So the first or second time I drove this car, this neighbour came knocking on my gate ‘cos my car engine was very loud when it started. Exotic cars have this thing called the cold start [where it warms up the vehicle’s engine when it’s cold] so you have to wait about 30 seconds before the noise softens. So I tried to reason it out with her, explaining that I can’t control the sound of the engine, but she was just screaming at the top of her lungs and threatened to call the police. I told her to go ahead and she just went home.

It’s tougher than my first pregnancy with my son. In the beginning I had morning sickness for almost the entire first trimester but now it’s all good. And because I am kind of stretched out already from the first pregnancy, I feel a bit bigger in size which does make me feel a bit insecure. But I’m trying to embrace it.

You surprised your husband with the news about your pregnancy on his birthday earlier this month. How did you manage to hide it from him for two months?

A lot of people don’t know this but the baby bump only tends to be more obvious in the later part of the pregnancy like in the mid-second trimester or towards the third trimester. For the first one and a half trimesters, you can’t really see or feel it. It just looks like a food baby, so he didn’t suspect anything. Plus, he’s quite oblivious.

And also during that period, my husband was very busy with work, so whenever he was in the room with me, I would run downstairs to my helper’s room to hide and vomit. But the funniest thing was he didn’t notice that I was going up and down all the time. He was just very engrossed in his own stuff.

What are your thoughts on the recent allegations that he sexually harassed teenage boys?

At this point, none of us are certain what actually happened so I don't want to be so quick to judge. At the end of the day, we don't know to what extent the allegations are true. I hope they are not, and if they are, I hope he learns from it. I also hope the victims are better now and that they don't have any issues coming forward to speak about this or have any future trauma because of this. But I completely understand why they took so long to speak out because if it were me… I wouldn’t dare speak out, what more someone without a public voice and an online voice?

I wanted to ‘cos I can relate to people when they say that they've been a victim of like his so-called ways. It was something that affected me for very long time. I used to go to school crying because of something Dee Kosh said about me online. Friends don't do this to each other, even if it's for content’s sake or humour.

Years ago, I did speak to him about this and I told him that I wished he could put himself in someone else's shoes to understand why it's something that people are not okay with, but he told me that it was his online persona, and that it is nothing personal. I just felt backstabbed ‘cos one day we could be talking and the next, I would wake up seeing something about me online by Dee Kosh, and that really affected me.

I’ve never spoken up about it because I was afraid, because firstly, I was a lot younger back then. Secondly, I've always felt that he had very strong backing. He has many friends in the industry and they're all very big names, so I've always been very afraid to retaliate just because I feel like I can never win an argument with him. He's just very powerful.

Ultimately, I decided not to post my opinion on the allegations because I feel very empathetic. As much as I'm upset with the things he has done over the years, I try to understand it from his point of view. If it is for the sake of keeping up this online persona, so be it. I don’t want to be the person who judges and says what you can or cannot do. That’s not my call.

Photos: Alvin Teo

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