There is some excellent advice in this thread for those who are still clinging to a car while trying to live car-free. I have found the ultra-carlite lifestyle to be surprisingly wasteful. You do save on gas, some wear and tear repair, and possible parking fees, but you still have all of the other endless costs of owning a black hole (a car). And meanwhile, it loses value every day.
Plus, as noted in some posts here, a car has to be "exercised" and can't just sit all the time; I've incurred extra costs by
not using the car enough, particularly with batteries going bad from lack of use. Since I try to never use it, I have to take the car out for occasional exercise just to keep it running - which is obviously
insane and even more environmentally irresponsible than a normal car trip.
For those who must still be car-clingers, for whatever reason, are there any threads or websites with helpful advice for keeping a car "alive" at a minimal cost until a person can finally take the magical car-free leap? (I apologize if this is slightly against the LCF spirit.) In my case, I'm currently job-hunting, and I'd first like to find the job, of course
, and be sure that I can handle the yet-to-be-known commute car-free. But I can't wait to dump my automotive beast, and I'm always sooooo envious of the truly car-free people at this forum.
