Newspaperguy

I've known I was saving money by driving as little as possible, but I didn't realize how much.

Gasoline here is $1.13 a litre as of today. A 50 litre fill costs $56.50. Filling the car once a week for a year will cost $2,938. That's just the fuel cost. It doesn't include maintenance, repairs or regular servicing.

Going car-light and filling up once a month costs $678 a year, again not including maintenance, repairs or servicing. The difference in fuel costs alone will come to $$2,260 a year.

Even if I lived in Vancouver and needed the most expensive transit pass in the area, I'd still walk away with money in my pocket by going car-light.

I might have to use my calculations the next time starts to whine about fuel costs.

Cowtown Cumuter

Yes I go car or in my case pickup truck light...I love my truck and use it for its intended purpose (hauling) but most days I go to work on my bike. The truck gets used only in the worse of weather where it is dangerous to ride a bike because cars can slide into me...or to haul stuff to the dump, do heavy landscaping, haul my families bikes around or the groceries home on up the the Rockies skiing in the winter. I figure I save at least $100- $150 per month on fuel, not including wear and tear as well as the stress of driving in traffic.

johann

If you are car-lite, call up your insurance agent and tell them you do not drive it frequently. I do not remember the threshold, but I believe you can save a substantial amount on premiums if you drive say less than 4000 miles/year.

Nachoman

I go car light. But I live only 6 miles from where I work. So economically it's not much of a difference, especially if I bike to work only 3 of the five days per week. Assuming my car gets about 18 miles per gallon and I drive 36 miles per week less, I save about two gallons per week (about $4.00). Over a period of a year that's a savings of about $200.00.

Newspaperguy

I understand what you're saying, Nachoman. I live 1.5 km or just under one mile from work. I'll save some fuel, but not a lot, because I commute by bike. But my savings are quite a bit more substantial. I use the bike as my primary source of transportation so instead of taking the car to the grocery store, the library, church and various appointments, I'm cycling. None of my in-town trips are all that long and the gas savings on any one of them would seem pitifully small. But added up, I'm saving quite a bit of money, I'm keeping fit and I'm enjoying the rides.

And saving $200 a year is quite good. Put that money into mutual funds or term deposits and watch your finances grow.

Cowtown Cumuter

Okay perhaps the savings isn't much right now because gas is still not totally out of control where it costs $300 to fill a vehicle (I think those days are coming soon). But think of the health benefits you are gaining. Huge health benefits.

Ian Freeman

Being car-free is how I'm going to keep my budget a little more open when I move. People like to think about fuel cost savings when they commute or run errands by bike, but they still write their check for car insurance every month regardless of whether the vehicle is just sitting in the garage. Simply the cost of having a car functional and available, should you choose to use it, is a lot of money every year. Depending on the fuel efficiency of your current automobile, how often you use it, and how far you drive, thousands of dollars can be saved every year by deciding to ditch it completely and let your breakfast give you 30 m.p.g.

MattFashion

i gave up my car a year ago to go fixie only in my city.
gas here is roughly $3.00 a gallon.
my honda had a twelve gallon tank and got 40mpg.
thats 36.00 a fill. one fill a week.
1728 a year in gas
3600 a year in insurance (300 p/month)
350 a year in tires
75 a year in parking permits
300 in oil changes (50 per change, every other month
total of $6053.00 PER YEAR
ASSUMING YOU NEVER BREAK DOWN!!!!!

i sold my car for 3500.00.
i built my fixed gear for a hair under $350.0


go back to a car********** rightt..........

FXjohn

gears are scary

Newspaperguy

Congratulations on going car-free, MattFashion. At $3,600, your insurance rates are a lot higher than mine. That cost alone would provide a strong incentive for ditching the car.

I'm a little curious about the logistics of going car-free for you since you're in a rural area. Do you have an inter-community transit in place as a backup if you need to get to a neighbouring community or is everything you need available where you live?

bragi

Car lite is a very good thing financially, but, as has been mentioned, it's the non-fuel costs of having a car that drag one down. When I had a car, my monthly expenses were:

fuel: US $120 (I quit driving when gas cost $2.50/gallon)
Car payment: $150.00
Insurance: $75.00
maintenance: roughly $30.00 (assuming no major repairs)
Registration/taxes: $10.00
Parking: $20.00

Total monthly expense to own a car: $405.00
Yearly expense: $4860.00

I don't know about you, but for me, that's a lot of money....

(I'd like to say that I've used these savings to put more money into my IRA, but, in all honesty, I used the extra money to buy and maintain a sail boat )

Nightshade

I just wish I could go car-free but due to my location I can not.

It's really hard to go car-free when you live in a rural county that
has NO public transportation nor do you have a way to share a ride
or rent a car when needed. Rural living for the aged is not great
at times.

I'm on a pension income and dollars that I have to tie up in a car
would be very welcome for other uses I can assure you all !! But,
alas, I must keep a car. Damn!!!!

JosephPaul86

Here are my projected savings annually from ridding my life of a 2002 F150 and riding to work and college.

Insurance------------------$2300 yr/full coverage
Gas------------------------$2400 yr@3 tanks per month
Maintenance(self done)------$500 yr(tires, brakes, repairs, being very conservative)
Gym membership-------------$400 yr
Tickets----------------------$300 yr(underestimate )
Inspection/Emissions----------$45 yr
Registration-------------------$80 yr
----------------------------------------------------
total saved-------------------$6025


Note: This was after I paid off the truck. I canceled the membership since I am losing weight commuting. I don't eat junk food anymore since its not convenient and mainly, I have saved myself time. I don't have to wrench under my truck in the rain/Tx heat or get too greasy. I can now sit in air conditioning tuning/lubing the bike.

I love it too much.

bhtooefr

My current costs:

Insurance: $1320/yr minimum coverage, and that's going up after an accident on Wednesday
Fuel: Between $160 and $220/mo - call it $2100/yr, and that's low.
Maintenance: Don't ask.

After going car-lite... I'm not sure how far the insurance will go down, if any, but the fuel costs will go down to about $20/mo (taking two months to go through a tank of fuel, instead of 5-7 days ,) for a total of $240/yr. Maintenance will go down, too. However, living expenses will go up a LOT - $300/mo rent and ~$200/mo utilities, up from $100/mo rent at home. (Income's going up a lot, too, to support this, though. )

Nachoman

Very true. But only if you go car free, as opposed to car light. As referenced above, I commute by bicycle three of five days per week. But I still have to pay full auto insurance, full taxes, and a full monthly parking pass. But as others have pointed out, I get many other benefits, tangible and intangible.

kickflipjr

Being car-light also has advantages to the car. I would assume many car-light bike trips would replace short distance car trips. During short car trips a car uses more gas, pollutes more, and has more engine ware per mile then on longer trips.

bragi

I totally agree that, in rural areas, cars are a lot more necessary than in larger cities. Which presents people on a fixed income with an interesting dilemma: You can live in the country, where it's less expensive, and then have to carry the expense of a car, or live in the city, where it's pricey, but not necessary to have a car at all. I guess it all depends on what you want, and how much car you think you need, if you end up living in the sticks. Personally, if I were retired, I'd live in a modest condo in an interesting urban area and get a cheap bus pass, but that's just me.

bragi

That's what I was trying to say (I guess I was unclear); the fuel costs, while significant, aren't the bulk of the cost of car ownership. It's owning the car itself that costs a lot. If you absolutely need a car sometimes, maybe it would be more cost-effective to ditch the car you have now, and sign up for Flexcar or some other car-sharing service.

Newspaperguy

In North America and possibly in other places as well, a completely car-free lifestyle is only practical in larger urban areas. Services are nearby and transportation alternatives are in place. In some larger cities, a car can become a needless hassle.

In small communities, especially those far from neighbouring centres and without practical tranportation alternatives, car-free doesn't work all that well and it won't until good transportation alternatives become available. I don't foresee that happening any time soon.

Nightshade

In the rural area where I live we used to have rail access to the nearest city on a "day shopper"
time table i.e. leave in the morning, shop and return at dusk, for a very low fee. That stopped with
death of local passenger rail and growth of the two car family.

adgrant

Unfortunately this is the big flaw with living 'car lite'. The variable costs of driving are can be lower than the variable costs of mass transit.

e.g. The mass transit costs to commute from Manhattan to Stamford, CT (a common 'reverse commute') are $339 (assuming you need a subway pass). The cost in gas an tolls if you drive is about $200-$250. Unless you live near Grand Central Station and work next to the Stamford Railroad station (in which case you would only be spending $264), driving is also quicker.

You don't really start to save money until the car goes. There are some tax incentives to encourage the use of mass transit but the tax incentives to drive are much more generous.