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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For new cars, sure. Used cars are a lot less than that, but even a couple hundred a month is significant for someone on minimum wage, and even worse when it is the month that something breaks....
As someone who put $2500 and dozens of hours and sweat and blood into a used car in the last three months: They’re not always cheaper.
On average they are. Insurance is cheaper, and that adds up. Registration is cheaper, and that adds up. If one is able to do their own repairs, parts are generally a lot cheaper.
There are periods of time when costs spike, and that is horrible when on a lot income (yes, I know personally), but occasionally costing far more than expected is different than costs less. Hell, a newer car can have thousands in repairs for stuff shortly after the warranty ends, or be for something the warranty doesn't cover.
Yeah, I saved about $1800 replacing a turbo myself including having to buy a bunch of tools. Even if I broke the turbo I put in I can still buy another one and have saved money
Or if they have a single health issue they need medication for.
That’s the main problem, you either spend a lot up front or a lot in random, unpredictable intervals.
I’m really fortunate to be able to rely on public transit despite living in LA, because I can’t imagine paying for everything associated with a car on top of rent.
So when I said $1000 a month I'm including that your going to have to repair. You can't really escape it unless you really understand cars. Sure the used car is cheaper up front, but those hidden repair costs can add up right quick if you don't know how to deal with a lot of them on your own. And that time to understand cars is also taking away from your self development. So even with cheap used cars, my estimate of $1000 a month is pretty spot on.
Edit. I forgot to add all the opportunity costs from travel instead of studying on a train. $1000 is really probably low balling even with a cheap used car.
Look, I'm not saying that a train and other mass transit are not far superior. I am saying $1,000 a month is the average total cost of ownership for a new car including taxes, titles, insurance, etc. There isn't a need to inflated the costs when a few hundred dollars is already many times the cost of mass transit per month.
It's not about inflating the costs. It's the reality of car ownership. Any financially literate person understands the concept of opportunity cost. Even if you go with cheap cars, you're now in the world of opportunity costs eating away at you. As long as you own a car, there's no escape. And the horrifying reality is, it's so absurdly high that when you just put it out there and calculate what it's costing your family regardless of new or used, it really highlights how screwed Americans are.
Edit: In fact I would argue that cheap used cars are worse than new cars exactly because of opportunity cost. Those who would buy a cheap used cars are the least able to afford the opportunity costs, but since they have to save on the upfront costs, the opportunity costs are inevitable. Whether that be lost wages because your car broke down, or having to pay too much to a mechanic because you didn't learn how to work with cars or even working on cars taking away time from after work college degrees. Just estimating it at the new car cost really undersells just how much damage it's doing.