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I lived without a car in a city will amenities nearby and told myself I'll rent a car when I need one. I did that about 10-15 times before I realized if I want

I lived without a car in a city will amenities nearby and told myself I'll rent a car when I need one. I did that about 10-15 times before I realized if I want to travel or get out of the city it's going to get expensive pretty quickly. I ended up buying one soon after. Having access to a car all of a sudden entirely changed how I spent my weekends. I wasn't dependent on friends. What the OP describes is also very true. When I have to plan ahead and rent a car and deal with taking and dropping it off I avoided it as much as I can. This was with a zipcar membership and a whole bunch of rental cars two blocks from where I lived.

ethbr0 6y ago
Agree 100%. From a financial perspective, it seemed like the "downtime tax" (e.g. paying for a rental while you're not actively using it, but are away from home, and will need it to return home) dominated any savings, if you take more than a token amount of weekend trips (e.g. to see family). Furthermore, the "uncertainty cost" is real. I have to rent a car. Will one be available? Will it be well maintained? Will the check out and check in process go smoothly? Can I get to the car? Etc. Etc. Each one and opportunity for things to go awry and end up in a bad day.
csomar 6y ago
It really depends on the city and your lifestyle/choices. Most people, say, in HongKong don't have a car. The city makes it difficult and expensive to have one but on the other hand they can move easily around. If you live in the US, it's hard to go without a car since everything is planned around people having cars.
- culturestate 6y ago
  Hong Kong is an odd example of a big, dense city with excellent public transit where access to a car can still be a major quality of life improvement, just because of climate and topography. The government’s resistance to ridesharing is incredibly annoying.
  - kelnos 6y ago
    As someone who absolutely loves the ability to use (the misleadingly-named) ridesharing, I absolutely hate what the legions of fare-seeking Ubers and Lyfts have done to traffic in SF (well, pre-pandemic). My completely-without-evidence theory is that there is some amount by which we can cut the allowed number of rideshare cars on the road at any time, and while wait times to get a vehicle might increase, the overall time will be the same or less because transit time will be reduced with less congestion.
    - culturestate 6y ago
      Hong Kong's problem isn't infrastructure, though, it's a combination of unimaginative bureaucracy and taxi companies with influential backers. It's the same reason HK taxis are still effectively cash-only, consistently refuse "inconvenient" fares with no real consequences, and are just generally irritating to deal with.
    - CalRobert 6y ago
      You might enjoy The Pushcart War, about this very idea! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219557.The_Pushcart_War https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219557.The_Pushcart_War
  - alasdair_ 6y ago
    > The government’s resistance to ridesharing is incredibly annoying. To be fair, the government’s resistance to the rule of law, international promises or basic human rights is incredibly annoying too, so at least they are being consistent.
ghaff 6y ago
Particularly once you get past a certain age being dependent on the friend in your group with a car to go away for weekends starts to get old and hard.
- adrianN 6y ago
  I just take the train when I want to go away on weekends.
megaframe 6y ago
I've been doing the no car thing for 4 years now after my last car was totaled in the middle of the night while parked. The thing that worked for me was to compute out the total cost I was spending per month on the car and set that as the cap on my car rentals and zipcar. I never even come close to that limit, and knowing that limit lets me feel free to spend. When I did the math the insurance was close to 50% of my cost. Rest was depreciation, then gas, and maintenance.

ethbr0 6y ago

Agree 100%. From a financial perspective, it seemed like the "downtime tax" (e.g. paying for a rental while you're not actively using it, but are away from home, and will need it to return home) dominated any savings, if you take more than a token amount of weekend trips (e.g. to see family). Furthermore, the "uncertainty cost" is real. I have to rent a car. Will one be available? Will it be well maintained? Will the check out and check in process go smoothly? Can I get to the car? Etc. Etc. Each one and opportunity for things to go awry and end up in a bad day.

csomar 6y ago

It really depends on the city and your lifestyle/choices. Most people, say, in HongKong don't have a car. The city makes it difficult and expensive to have one but on the other hand they can move easily around. If you live in the US, it's hard to go without a car since everything is planned around people having cars.

culturestate 6y ago
Hong Kong is an odd example of a big, dense city with excellent public transit where access to a car can still be a major quality of life improvement, just because of climate and topography. The government’s resistance to ridesharing is incredibly annoying.
- kelnos 6y ago
  As someone who absolutely loves the ability to use (the misleadingly-named) ridesharing, I absolutely hate what the legions of fare-seeking Ubers and Lyfts have done to traffic in SF (well, pre-pandemic). My completely-without-evidence theory is that there is some amount by which we can cut the allowed number of rideshare cars on the road at any time, and while wait times to get a vehicle might increase, the overall time will be the same or less because transit time will be reduced with less congestion.
  - culturestate 6y ago
    Hong Kong's problem isn't infrastructure, though, it's a combination of unimaginative bureaucracy and taxi companies with influential backers. It's the same reason HK taxis are still effectively cash-only, consistently refuse "inconvenient" fares with no real consequences, and are just generally irritating to deal with.
  - CalRobert 6y ago
    You might enjoy The Pushcart War, about this very idea! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219557.The_Pushcart_War https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219557.The_Pushcart_War
- alasdair_ 6y ago
  > The government’s resistance to ridesharing is incredibly annoying. To be fair, the government’s resistance to the rule of law, international promises or basic human rights is incredibly annoying too, so at least they are being consistent.

ghaff 6y ago

Particularly once you get past a certain age being dependent on the friend in your group with a car to go away for weekends starts to get old and hard.

adrianN 6y ago
I just take the train when I want to go away on weekends.

megaframe 6y ago

I've been doing the no car thing for 4 years now after my last car was totaled in the middle of the night while parked. The thing that worked for me was to compute out the total cost I was spending per month on the car and set that as the cap on my car rentals and zipcar. I never even come close to that limit, and knowing that limit lets me feel free to spend. When I did the math the insurance was close to 50% of my cost. Rest was depreciation, then gas, and maintenance.