Originally Posted by
chewybrian
What's left from $1,000 after insurance, depreciation, maintenance and tags; maybe a couple hundred if you are very lucky? That will get you gas for 3 or 4 miles a day, which you could easily walk!
If you spend $9,000, at the IRS numbers of something like 52 cents a mile, you can go 17,000 miles in a year, or closer to 50 miles a day, which might meet a need, and justify owning a car. (And that would be with a fairly new car, dealer service, etc...no heroic effort required.)
Individual people "justify" owning a car, and what kind of car, by determining
their own requirements, desires, and resources. Not by how much the "average" cost is for a new car, nor by the average miles driven by the entire population, nor by IRS business deduction numbers, nor by the requirements, desires, and resources of a slice of the population that is living a totally different lifestyle than their own. The point is that they don't
have to spend exorbitant amounts to meet that need unless they choose to spend it.
I expect that most people who have a "need" for an automobile do not set a cap at $1000 a year. They are smart enough to figure out that they need to come up with sufficient money to pay for meeting their needs and if they can't meet the financial requirements then its time to come up with an alternate plan. For many, especially families, older people, and those living in locations with extreme weather conditions, owning a bicycle is NOT a suitable alternate to owning a motor vehicle.