Originally Posted by bragi

If you live in a medium-sized or large city, it's not really practical to have a car. You don't even have to consider societal effects. Just from a purely self-centered point of view, dealing with cars in an urban area just isn't practical. They're expensive to own and operate, parking is a pain in the ass, you have to spend a lot of time cleaning and maintaining them, and they depreciate almost instantly. Not having a car frees up a lot of money, that you can use to live in a more pleasant neighborhood, travel more, further your education, or just drink better beer in larger quantities. The idea that one has to own a car is the greatest fraud ever foisted upon modern man, that is, if you live in a city. If you live in rural Nebraska, a car isn't such a bad idea.

And another thing: for the sake of argument, let's say you do live in a city, but you have a family with kids, and don't have the desire to figure out how to live without any cars at all, so you decide a car is something you want. Okay, but does your family really need more than one? Doesn't it make more sense to use the money you would've spent on the second car to save for the kids' college? (I'm reminded of the family who lost their home because they bought two SUVs, and to make the car payments, decided to refinance the house with an ARM.)