2 Responses to How much does it cost to own a car?

1. 

   rodney on March 19, 2009 at 10:28 am

   Very interesting article. The animal commonly know as the closed minded individual, is in no danger of becoming extinct any time soon.

   Barely surviving my most recent truck repair, I found I logged about 325 cycling miles in a 3 week period.

   The area density makes travel by bicycle easier, at least in my case. I can handle my “business”, grocery, shopping, bill paying, banking, etc. within a 3 mile radius of home. Guess you can say I am one of the fortunate.

   Several co-workers continually mention (read complain) to me about making the choice to live so far from work. They did so in order to obtain reasonable housing. Tolls, high fuel consumption, traffic jams add to the stress.

   We live in an age of excess and it is stressful. Urban sprawl is the devil. By going car-free, or at least car-light, the financial burdens can be greatly reduced as evident in the article. Diesel fuel peaked at $4.96/gal for me.

   I do not miss the $115/bi-monthly fuel cost and now enjoy my bicycle commuting and the current $65/monthly fuel cost.

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2. 

   fred_dot_u on March 19, 2009 at 8:32 pm

   Today’s new client told me she got rid of her car and is currently unemployed (unrelated), but that she determined it cost her $750 a month to own the blasted thing.

   She is a sidewalk rider, so I left her with a copy of the FL Law Enforcement Guide ( the only resource I had) and that might help improve her safety.

   I wish I could convince my wife we can ditch the 500 mile a year minivan, but when it rusts out or fails catastrophically, it’s not going to be replaced, regardless.

   Rodney, you mentioned stress, but I’m sure you’ve discovered that cycling is the absolute best stress reliever you could ask for! Mental and physical health benefits one cannot put to a dollar value.

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