Originally Posted by
cvskates
So, just to throw it out there:
My commute by Car2Go varies from 16 minutes to 18 minutes. That means the one way cost is $8.37, and the daily round trip is $16.74 (were I inclined to drive both ways).
Based on the 180 days a year I work, my annual cost to drive Car2Go in both directions would be $3013.20. My annual fuel and insurance cost for the truck I recently sold was $3388. Never mind depreciation, parking, tires, oil changes, incidental repairs, interest, or anything else, just the cost of fuel and insurance more than cover me taking car2go to work every single day I work.
If we use the 28 minute average commute mentioned earlier, the annual cost of driving Car2Go in both directions goes up to $4716. If we assume you work a more conventional M-F job 50 weeks a year, that's $6550. Your math will vary, but my annual cost of ownership was $9694 if we included everything but parking and interest. Still $3000 a year cheaper for Car2go.
My short point said long is this: If you're using a vehicle almost primarily for commuting, and you can get past the emotional component of vehicle ownership, and it's feasible to use Car2Go, you might be surprised at the savings possible for car2go.
Please don't feel the need to defend your commuting choice - at the end of the day it's a choice, and everyone's commute, priorities, cost of ownership, and personal needs vary enormously. I'm not telling you to sell your car like I did, or bike to work, or use Car2go. I'm just saying when I did the math for my own situation, I was blown away by how much money I was wasting by owning a vehicle; I was paying more than $52 a day to get to work - and [I feel] that's just silly.
The annual cost to own a small sedan was $6,729 last year. That's driving 15,000 miles annually and assuming you buy a new car every 5 years. That small sedan would most likely be bigger and be more pleasant to drive than a Car2go.
This is according to
AAA.
Of course if you drive fewer miles, buy a reliable used car, pay cash for it, and keep it longer than 5 years, your costs can be much lower than that. And you can take the car anywhere you want. We have two cars, one 13 years old and the other is 9 years old.
Again, I'm not knocking Car2go. I think it's great as supplemental transportation. As a main form of transportation, - even if it's just to work, I think there are less expensive options including owning your own vehicle. But yeah situations vary. I can avoid paying for parking most of the time if I was willing to walk a little bit and my insurance costs aren't high. But since I bike a lot of the time, having 2 cars wouldn't make much sense if it were just my wife and I. Once we're empty nesters, cycling and car2go will likely replace one of our vehicles.