I've had a used Matrix for close to 5 years, probably similar costs. However, I live in Michigan, so annual cost of insurance alone is close to $2500. But you

I've had a used Matrix for close to 5 years, probably similar costs. However, I live in Michigan, so annual cost of insurance alone is close to $2500. But you and I are abnormal examples, and should not be used to draw conclusions. But I think we need to draw a distinction between legislation legislation intended to effect a result against the poor, or motivated by that ideology, and ordinary cause-and-effect which has consequences that disproportionately harm the poor. If a safer, cheaper alternative to cars becomes available, legacy cars will eventually be forced off the road. It's easy to envision gas stations becoming few and far between, parts becoming less available, auto mechanic shops becoming less profitable. Owning a legacy car will become as difficult as owning a horse is today. Your ability to drive is predicated on an enormous, organically and accidentally developed economic system comprising an automobile industry and culture that, for example, required someone else to buy that Camry and pay for its development and engineering and quality construction at a high list price, then sell it to you as a used vehicle after steep depreciation. That accident of history that lets you own a car for $2500 a year will not stay the same forever, the industry will continue to change as technology and culture move on. And no amount of politics will protect it when economics are slanted hard against it.