Originally Posted by adgrant
Unless you own a monster SUV or truck, fuel costs are still a relatively minor part of the costs of owning a car. Deprecation is the big one. Then there is insurance and repairs. The big advantage of being car lite is not paying those costs. Having a car and not using it just doesn't save you that much money.
Well, if you rarely use a car, you might be satisfied w/ one of very low value. You still pay for maintenance, insurance, registration, taxes and a low depreciation. For me, this works out to perhaps $800-1000 per year (not sure how much depreciation is). If I were driving more, I'd want a nicer car. Depreciation, maintenance, and taxes would be much higher. So, by limiting driving, you save much more than the cost of gas.
By these calculations, going 'junker' saves 80% of the cost of normal car ownership and gives you a safety net in case injury or overuse prevents riding to work, you want to take a trip, pick up some large object, etc. It does require some purchasing savy if you don't already own said junker.