You can do a little better than $9k/yr, but not by that much. You can't totally ignore capital cost, since cars have a finite lifespan. Even if you buy cheap c

You can do a little better than $9k/yr, but not by that much. You can't totally ignore capital cost, since cars have a finite lifespan. Even if you buy cheap cars, the amortized cost is hard to get under maybe $500-750/yr. So that's $1-1.5k/yr in amortized capital costs for two. The average cost of car insurance for a household is around $2k/yr, though that varies significantly by location, age, and driving history. Probably another $500-1k/yr for regular maintenance for two cars, depending on how easy on the tires/etc. your location is. You can probably trade more maintenance costs for lower amortized capital costs if you buy cheaper used cars, but you'd have to DIY maintenance to come ahead significantly. Then let's assume these are 40 mpg, and there's a couple who each work 250 days a year and both have the average U.S. commute of 32 miles roundtrip. That's $1200 in gas at TX prices, or $1600 at CA prices. So the overall estimate is maybe $5-6k/yr, even being pretty frugal. And I'm also assuming you don't have to pay to park at home or work, or pay tolls on the commute.