Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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1000 a month for owning and operating a car seems like a lot. Maybe i am out of touch because we own our car outright, but its not nearly that expensive for us. Even with a parking spot rental.
I live in an awesome urban neighborhood, and still wouldnt want to be without the car. I dont use it when it doesnt make sense, but ive lived both with and without, and with is worlds better. Grocery shopping (especially at places like Costco) is much easier. Errands that would be an all day affair without the car become a few hours affair. Friends and family across the city are much easier to see. Things like that.
Dont get me wrong, i love a walkable neighborhood with a walkable downtown. Its why i dont live in a suburb abomination. When it makes more sense to use PT I use it. But life is better with the car overall. Its not a zero sun game. We can have both. And bike lanes. And pedestiran plazas. Etc.
I mean it's not crazy IMO, running cost is probably 500 but depreciation is a major factor. A rule of thumb is around 10-15% of the value of the car each year so if you can sell yours now for 35000 depreciation is in the range of 300-400 a month. Older cars have a lower depreciation but higher maintenance. Then also not applicable in your case is financing cost which varies a lot.
In your case I'd look at how much just paying for a taxi for Costco and full day rental for day trips would cost compared to owning a car.
Try adding in the cost of depreciation and it makes a lot more sense. I owned a used car for 10 years and didn't commute using it for most of that time, so it didn't even rack up that many miles. It still cost me over $500/month on average over that time period including depreciation, maintenance, gas, registration, and insurance. I'm sure it would be a lot more if I drove as much as the average american. Though I think the average is probably somewhat skewed towards the most expensive cars.
Needless to say I am now happily car free. $500/month can buy me a very nice ebike, as well as more taxis or hourly car rentals than I need.
Between parking, gas, insurance, and maintenance 500 is more within the realm of reason.
Yeha if you were hardly using it then why have the extra expense? In my family its used daily (mostly for work commute to a poorly connected by PT workplace). More than worth it for the conveniance and lifestyle it enables
Yes I think I probably should have sold it as soon as I stopped using it to commute. I was mostly just ignorant of all the alternatives to car ownership. Car ownership is not worth it in my opinion unless you truly need to use it several days out of the week every week. And people should be doing pretty much everything they can to avoid being in that situation.