Cars are a terrible use of money

[tokie]

I am getting sick of seeing so many cars. There is so much congestion and they are a big waste of money. They make little to no sense for most people living within 20 miles of a major urban center.

Whenever I see a parking lot of cars, I think of the giant amount of capital that is being wasted. Cars typically have utilization rates of less than 10%, which means they are money pits the rest of the time.

Public transit + Zipcar + a good bicycle is much better financially.

Let's consider the financials behind car ownership. Here I assume that someone lives near a decently sized (> 1 million) metropolitan area, and drives 2 hours each day of the week.

Total hours driving per month: 60 hours
Insurance: $100/month
Parking: $100/month (including land value of parking at home)
Gas: $240/month (assuming 30mpg, $4 per gallon of gas, and 30 mph average speed)
Cost per hour of driving: $7.33

This does not include the actual price of the car, which for many Americans is > $10,000. It also does not include maintenance.

If you have access to car-sharing services like Zipcar, which costs around $9/hour, then why would you own a car? With internet shopping, home delivery, taxis/Uber, and cheap car rentals it makes no sense to me.

 

[IronWing]

"It's not just your car; it's your freedom."


Back when I was a starving student I didn't have a car until I was in grad school. I also was financially much better off without the car. Something about riding my bike in the rain every night (this was Kentucky so, yes, it rained every night, and every day and every time someone lit a cigarette which is to say it rained all the freakin time) pushed me over the edge so I bought a car. Car was much mo beter than not a car even if it bit had financially.

 

[KLin]

"It's not just your car; it's your freedom."

This

 

[Paladin3]

But without cars how are we supposed to drive AWAY from those >1 million metropolitan areas and find somewhere better to live?

 

[Zee]

"Cars didn't drive on roads to make great time. They drove on it to have a great time."

 

[SamQuint]

We are Americans damn it and want our cars and freedom!

Southern California, no good public transportation here...

 

[jaedaliu]

because my 13 hour work day (with commute) means it costs me $117/day to get to work with a zip car.

Let's pretend there's 4 weeks in a month. I work 4 days a week (would be worse if I worked 5 8 hour days) so it costs me $1872/month to get back and forth to work.

I think I can stop there.

 

[Mai72]

When I worked in South Korea I was so happy to not have a car. No insurance and I didn't have a monthly car bill. Everything was walking distance. If I needed a cab ride to go somewhere it was initially $2 USD and got as high as $4 USD. This was long distance. If I needed to go to Seoul I would pay $11 USD one way. Their buses are clean, safe, and comfy. Also, no tipping required.

Now I'm home. I don't have a car but I desperately need one. The shopping center is a good 15 minutes by car. I took a cab ride last week that cost me $26 plus tip.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I look at my car as a necessary evil. I can't move closer to my job because my wife has an established business where we live currently and my son is enrolled in school there and has all his friends there. Oh, and there is no public transportation option available for my commute nor is it feasible to ride a bicycle 60 miles round trip to and from work each day.

So, I bought a car that gets great mileage and is adequately sized to transport our family of 3 to the various places we travel regularly in the SoCal area.

My wife's car is paid for and we have no immediate plans to replace it.

 

[highland145]

My contribution to global warming. You're welcome.

 

[Mai72]

I read an article that stated Millennials are opting to live in urban areas, and the reason is they don't want to buy a car. How can they buy cars when they have monthly student loan payments.

I wonder what the effect this will have on our economy in 5-10 years.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-...llennials-don-t-buy-cars-homes-153340750.html

I am a millennial and I can tell you we don't have cars because we simply don't have the funds. We are the generation that watched our parents lose their careers and retirement funds because their jobs got outsourced. We watched them lose their homes. We have a long, pessimistic future ahead of us. We finish college in debt and instead of being greeted with jobs in our field of study with plenty of wage growth potential, we are instead greeted with the same jobs we had when we were in high school. We have lower wages and higher utility bills. Even if wages kept up with inflation, so what? Everything else has surpassed inflation: college tuition, rent, gas and electric, health insurance premiums, car insurance, food, etc. On top of that, we have to deal with being called lazy, spoiled, entitled, unmotivated, and overgrown children. If we didn't need to go into debt to pay for cheap state college, then it would be so much easier to begin our adult lives.

 

[IronWing]

Look at it this way: the rest of the world is trying to achieve a high standard of living. In doing so they will devour resources at an unprecedented rate. Any resources we don't use to satisfy our desires will just get used by someone else. So gulp that oil before someone else does.

 

[poofyhairguy]

If you have access to car-sharing services like Zipcar, which costs around $9/hour, then why would you own a car? With internet shopping, home delivery, taxis/Uber, and cheap car rentals it makes no sense to me.

Those zipcars are the size of a go-cart. The way my wife buys groceries I would have to take four trips a week instead of one just to fit it all.

Plus I still wouldn't have room if I needed to take my two boxers to the vet.

 

[Uppsala9496]

And here is why I own 2 cars and my wife and I each drive separately to the exact same place of employment:
Child

Wife drops daughter off at my parents in the morning, I pick child up at school in the afternoon.

No bus service for my daughter. She is in kindergarten so a parent/designated person needs to physically pick her up at school each day. Or I could go the after school care route and spend far more each month than the cost of operating my cars.

 

[JM Aggie08]

I make good money and enjoy my car. That and public transit is a joke around here.

Stay home if you don't like it, bitch.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Those zipcars are the size of a go-cart. The way my wife buys groceries I would have to take four trips a week instead of one just to fit it all.

Plus I still wouldn't have room if I needed to take my two boxers to the vet.

Huh, I don't think you know what zipcar is. I can rent a zipcar that's a SUV if I wanted to.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

It makes sense in certain cities. It doesn't in others.

 

[Fritzo]

Where I live, everything is grouped 5 miles apart. No car means you're a recluse.

 

[cabri]

Quality of public transit is the biggest factor within that 20 mile radius.
If transit can be less than twice the vehicle time; many will consider it for reasonable cost differential.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Huh, I don't think you know what zipcar is.

Probably not.

 

[Rudee]

I don't have a commute as I work out of a home office, and probably only put about 6000km on my vehicle a year, but I still recently forked out $44k for new Ford Explorer. Why? Because I can. I also don't have a mortgage anymore as I paid it off recently, so can afford some nice toys now.

 

[xanis]

I could probably do without a car, but it would be extremely inconvenient, even living in a major city. I luckily have a new car that I paid cash for in 2012, so my payments and maintenance costs are nonexistent at the moment. I have a fuel-efficient car and a short commute so there's little wear-and-tear and fuel use. The biggest expense is insurance at ~$127/month.

 

[gorcorps]

I am getting sick of seeing so many cars. There is so much congestion and they are a big waste of money. They make little to no sense for most people living within 20 miles of a major urban center.

Whenever I see a parking lot of cars, I think of the giant amount of capital that is being wasted. Cars typically have utilization rates of less than 10%, which means they are money pits the rest of the time.

Public transit + Zipcar + a good bicycle is much better financially.

Let's consider the financials behind car ownership. Here I assume that someone lives near a decently sized (> 1 million) metropolitan area, and drives 2 hours each day of the week.

Total hours driving per month: 60 hours
Insurance: $100/month
Parking: $100/month (including land value of parking at home)
Gas: $240/month (assuming 30mpg, $4 per gallon of gas, and 30 mph average speed)
Cost per hour of driving: $7.33

This does not include the actual price of the car, which for many Americans is > $10,000. It also does not include maintenance.

If you have access to car-sharing services like Zipcar, which costs around $9/hour, then why would you own a car? With internet shopping, home delivery, taxis/Uber, and cheap car rentals it makes no sense to me.

While you have some points I agree with, your math sucks so hard.

- I have a nearly new 2014 Grand Cherokee that's fully covered, and I'm still less than $100/month. Before this car my tops was $80/month

- Parking has a cost in the city, but you can't pull $100/month out of your ass for homeowners. That would imply you would pay $100/month less on a mortgage if you didnt' have a car, which isn't true. Parking for homeowners has zero cost because that money is gone regardless of if you drive or not (it's called a sunk cost).

- Why would you calculate anything per hour of drive time? The mile is a standard unit of distance that fuel economy is based on... and doesn't rely on some arbitrary assumed average speed (how the hell do you get 30mph average anyway?). You should use $/mile, which you could then easily scale based on how far away you are from work and such. (Based on your 30mpg and $4/gal, you get $0.133/mile)

 

[JM Aggie08]

Why does anyone own a high-end computer OP? Sound equipment? Nice clothing? Quality tools? Anything, for that matter.

 

[IronWing]

While you have some points I agree with, your math sucks so hard.

I ran rough numbers for my cars. Using purchase price, expected life expectancy, and residual value (WAG), insurance, fuel, and maintenance I came up with:

FJ Cruiser ~= 33 cents/mile
Honda Fit ~= 28 cents/mile

I expect the FJ should have no trouble hitting 250k miles. I don't expect the Fit to make it more than 200k. If I use 250k for the Fit then the cost per mile drops to 22 cents.

I used $3.50/gal for fuel.