John E

Except for my summer internship at Autonetics in 1968, I have always commuted via various combinations of transit, bicycling, walking/jogging, and carpooling. As a result, my car, a 1996 Audi A4 (a hand-me-down from my younger son, for whom I bought it ), currently gets driven about 3k miles per year, and my wife's 2001 VW Passat wagon just turned 40k miles, at a current pace of 4k miles per year. By minimizing driving and selecting cars with at least moderate fuel economy, I render the price of gasoline essentially irrelevant to my budget and lifestyle. With restricted use and fastidious preventive maintenance, I have normally been able to keep a car for 15 to 20 years, which is a huge financial benefit, since capitalization and depreciation still cost far more than fuel.