Originally Posted by
sjanzeir
...In fact, I’ve grown to find the very idea of buying me another car slightly depressing, if not outright appalling. I feel done with automobiles. Done with the very prospect of what it actually takes to own a vehicle. All the upkeep. The oil changes. The never-ending hunt for spare parts. The dealerships. The independent mechanics. The lack of space and time to do my own repairs. The car washes. The parts vendors. Brick-and-mortar vs. online. OEM. Aftermarket. Tires. The breakdowns. The scratches. The leaks...
First of all...nice account of your feelings! Yeah, I get it.
Have you considered, or is it available to you, all of the delivery options available in cities these days? There are TV commercials right now in my relatively small city announcing 2-hour delivery from several grocery stores. Get your heavy stuff delivered! (You may need to join something like Amazon Prime to qualify.)
Also, we have spring water delivered in 5-gallon containers that fit on a dispenser in the house. They deliver a few bottles every two weeks. Costs about $1/gallon including delivery.
As much as I hated mail order for 30 years (i managed a retail store, and worked in others that were plagued by mail order catalogs and finally destroyed by the Internet) now I have changed my mind. I just became an Amazon Prime member (costs $115/year) and I just have them BRING TO ME laundry detergent, non perishable groceries, clothing, electronics, and a host of other stuff. Generally the stuff show up FREE SHIPPING in two-three days. This frees up SO MUCH TIME for me, and helps greatly in the car-free department. With the establishment of Uber et.al., local establishments are getting competitive with near instant FREE delivery services. Tips are even forbidden some of the time.
Unless you just LOVE shopping and spending time PRAYING that the store you visit has the stuff you want, that $115 may seem like a stretch but let me tell you it has changed my life. I have yet to try local services but that is on my list as I certainly want my money to stay local where possible.
Another idea for you. Renting cars by the week, instead of a day or two, is often super cheap. Save up your heavy lifting errands when you can, rent a car for a week, pick up all of the heavy stuff then take a vacation! Or if you have enough errands saved up spend that week doing it. Buy twice as much of water, detergent, etc each time to save trips.
I still have a wife who owns a dependable car. Sometimes I can run all of her errands for her and combine that with a few of mine. WIN-WIN. In exchange I rent a car for our out of town excursions to keep miles off of her car.
And thanks so much for reminding me why I don't own a car since 1989. I do get tempted to purchase a "dependable junker" for some 50-mile trips to better biking/skating areas. Your list of negatives reminded me once again how bad it SUCKED to own one of those miserable money/time-pits.
Good luck Man! I hope it all works out for you.