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For me car ownership as a millennial is about "working smarter" and saving HUGE amounts of time and hassle. I own two cars. They're not essential (indeed one
by mattlondon 10y ago
For me car ownership as a millennial is about "working smarter" and saving HUGE amounts of time and hassle.
I own two cars. They're not essential (indeed one is a "fun car"...) - I live in a city and use public transport to get to and from work and get most of my groceries delivered so I could live without if I wanted, but why would I want to make my life harder and more boring?!
The time-savings of car ownership alone are through the roof, not to mention the huge convenience factor. There are several trips I do often that take under 5-10 minutes in a car, but take 30-40 on public transport/buses. I can get to the shops and buy 10 bags of groceries and be back home again and unpacked in 30 mins, but on a bus it would take 30 mins to even get there! (and then I'd realistically only be able to carry say 4 bags home with me on the bus and not have anything frozen). I estimate that car ownership saves me 45-60 minutes on this sort of trip that I do frequently - you cant put a price on that sort of convenience & time-savings.
How much more code or other fun stuff could you do with an extra 3 or 4 hours a week?
Of course there are instances where public transport is faster too (like getting into Central London) so for me it works to have the best of both worlds - use whichever makes sense. It does not need to be a polar decision.
Other millennials I work with or talk to often seem amazed that I have one let alone two cars - I dont think they realise how cheap it is to own and run a second-hand car. Get a 3 or 4 year old Honda or a Toyota that has been looked after and you'll only need to insure it, service it and put petrol/diesel in it. Up front cost will be £3-5K (and it will last many years and still be worth something when you sell it), annual running costs about £500 - fuel obviously varies, I probably spend about £300-400 a year on petrol.
So for me all in about £900 a year to run a car, or based on my average Uber fare of about £13, about 1.3 Uber trips a week if you ignore initial upfront cost.