4 ms·

How much money you really saving traveling 10 extra miles to save $5 on groceries in your $30,000 car that costs $2000 a year to insure and $60 a week to fill u

How much money you really saving traveling 10 extra miles to save $5 on groceries in your $30,000 car that costs $2000 a year to insure and $60 a week to fill up?

andrewmcwatters 4y ago
In my experience, your numbers are dramatically off. You haven’t factored in time at all, either.
- goosedragons 4y ago
  What's dramatically off? Average new car price in the US is $45,000+, average insurance is $1500 a year and will vary by state,location,car,gender,age, etc. Average US commute is 41 miles a day, so I GUESS $60 of gas at $3/gallon is more like 2 two weeks in a modern popular vehicle like a Ford F-150. But yeah, dramatically off. Totally. Its not more of a time savings to drive in a car dependent city. It's certainly not a time savings to check out the competition that's spread out 5 miles apart. I live in a walkable area. Have 3 grocery stores in a 10 minute walk, several bookstores, clothing stores etc. Plenty of competition and I don't have to spend most of the transit time traversing giant parking lots.
  - andrewmcwatters 4y ago
    I didn’t pay anywhere close to that for any of my vehicles. Do you rent? Anyway, doesn’t change that it’s dramatically different than my experience.
    - goosedragons 4y ago
      Do you live in your car? Or do you pay (or did) for somewhere to live on top of that? Or is that also dramatically different from your experience too?
      - andrewmcwatters 4y ago
        I'll take that as a "yes." No, I own a home in a major metro. Believe it or not, I can bike to get groceries, but that's uncommon. Most people generally choose not to. They still have a choice here. In a 10-minute walk you have 3 grocery stores. In a 10-minute drive, I have 30 to choose from with specialty stores I haven't even gotten around to exploring yet. There's no comparison whatsoever. You generally don't own a home in a "car-free" city.
        deleted 4y ago
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        goosedragons 4y ago
        Why do you think "car-free" cities are homeless? My neighborhood has apartment buildings obviously, but it also has some single family homes and condos which can be bought and owned. Obviously a single family home there is more expensive than one a 40 minute drive out but it's actually still less expensive than a suburb of Toronto or Vancouver. Car-free doesn't just mean just skyscrapers. It just means not-shit design centered around metal boxes instead of people.
        matchbok 4y ago
        A 10 minute drive is not comparable to a 10 minute walk in any way. Not sure where you are getting at with the specialty store thing - the nicest stores are always in cities, either a walk/bus/metro ride away. People in cities do more than ... walk to places. :) What it really comes down to is this: a preference to live/work/etc in and around big-box parking lots and highways (where 70% of the land is parking), or to do the same in walkable neighborhoods with minimal parking (space replaced with more cool stuff).
  - quantumwannabe 4y ago
    Your numbers are an order of magnitude off. No suburban (not rural) American has to drive more than a mile or two to a grocery store, and if they commute by car, there are likely several on their route. They also can drive to far more stores in ten minutes than you can walk to, including time spent parking (which is negligible). Most people buy used cars, and spending more on luxuries isn’t related to the necessary cost of transportation. You’re doing the equivalent of using the price of first-class train tickets to argue that rail is expensive. Your insurance numbers are also very high, and a safe driver driving an average car would be paying half as much. The median commute is ~20 minutes, which is way less than 20 miles due to speed limits and traffic. An F-150 is also not a common commuter vehicle, and pickups are a minority even in truck heavy areas like Texas. Your original comment about price savings being minimal is also wrong; the savings on a single item at Costco is often more than $5 compared to a downtown store.
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alar44 4y ago
I paid $2500 for my car. In the 26 years I've been driving I've spent a total of $12k on 5 vehicles. I pick up $150 in groceries, pay $1000/yr for insurance and spend $60 every other week to fill up. Your numbers are complete garbage, try again.
- goosedragons 4y ago
  Do you think that's remotely near the norm? Average used car price is currently more than double your lifetime spend [0]. Even pre-pandemic it's pretty close. And is that 12k including maintenance? I'm guessing not! [0] https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a40690607/average-used-car-price-is-now-33000-dollars/ https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a40690607/averag...
  - alar44 4y ago
    Maintenance is negligible. A set of used tires can be had for $200. If it's not part of the drivetrain, most fixes can be done in a couple hours for a couple hundred bucks. I've maybe spent $2000 on brakes, tierods, alternators, and starters. I buy cars that are easy to maintain yourself. If I can't fix it, I sell it for parts or junk it. Avg price doesn't matter. You can find plenty of cars in the $3-5k range that are mechanically sound but have aesthetic issues. Imo, buying a brand new car is the biggest waste of money ever.

How much money you really saving traveling 10 extra miles to save $5 on groceries in your $30,000 car that costs $2000 a year to insure and $60 a week to fill up?

andrewmcwatters 4y ago

In my experience, your numbers are dramatically off. You haven’t factored in time at all, either.

goosedragons 4y ago
What's dramatically off? Average new car price in the US is $45,000+, average insurance is $1500 a year and will vary by state,location,car,gender,age, etc. Average US commute is 41 miles a day, so I GUESS $60 of gas at $3/gallon is more like 2 two weeks in a modern popular vehicle like a Ford F-150. But yeah, dramatically off. Totally. Its not more of a time savings to drive in a car dependent city. It's certainly not a time savings to check out the competition that's spread out 5 miles apart. I live in a walkable area. Have 3 grocery stores in a 10 minute walk, several bookstores, clothing stores etc. Plenty of competition and I don't have to spend most of the transit time traversing giant parking lots.
- andrewmcwatters 4y ago
  I didn’t pay anywhere close to that for any of my vehicles. Do you rent? Anyway, doesn’t change that it’s dramatically different than my experience.
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    Do you live in your car? Or do you pay (or did) for somewhere to live on top of that? Or is that also dramatically different from your experience too?
    - andrewmcwatters 4y ago
      I'll take that as a "yes." No, I own a home in a major metro. Believe it or not, I can bike to get groceries, but that's uncommon. Most people generally choose not to. They still have a choice here. In a 10-minute walk you have 3 grocery stores. In a 10-minute drive, I have 30 to choose from with specialty stores I haven't even gotten around to exploring yet. There's no comparison whatsoever. You generally don't own a home in a "car-free" city.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - goosedragons 4y ago
        Why do you think "car-free" cities are homeless? My neighborhood has apartment buildings obviously, but it also has some single family homes and condos which can be bought and owned. Obviously a single family home there is more expensive than one a 40 minute drive out but it's actually still less expensive than a suburb of Toronto or Vancouver. Car-free doesn't just mean just skyscrapers. It just means not-shit design centered around metal boxes instead of people.
      - matchbok 4y ago
        A 10 minute drive is not comparable to a 10 minute walk in any way. Not sure where you are getting at with the specialty store thing - the nicest stores are always in cities, either a walk/bus/metro ride away. People in cities do more than ... walk to places. :) What it really comes down to is this: a preference to live/work/etc in and around big-box parking lots and highways (where 70% of the land is parking), or to do the same in walkable neighborhoods with minimal parking (space replaced with more cool stuff).
- quantumwannabe 4y ago
  Your numbers are an order of magnitude off. No suburban (not rural) American has to drive more than a mile or two to a grocery store, and if they commute by car, there are likely several on their route. They also can drive to far more stores in ten minutes than you can walk to, including time spent parking (which is negligible). Most people buy used cars, and spending more on luxuries isn’t related to the necessary cost of transportation. You’re doing the equivalent of using the price of first-class train tickets to argue that rail is expensive. Your insurance numbers are also very high, and a safe driver driving an average car would be paying half as much. The median commute is ~20 minutes, which is way less than 20 miles due to speed limits and traffic. An F-150 is also not a common commuter vehicle, and pickups are a minority even in truck heavy areas like Texas. Your original comment about price savings being minimal is also wrong; the savings on a single item at Costco is often more than $5 compared to a downtown store.
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    [deleted]
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    [deleted]

alar44 4y ago

I paid $2500 for my car. In the 26 years I've been driving I've spent a total of $12k on 5 vehicles. I pick up $150 in groceries, pay $1000/yr for insurance and spend $60 every other week to fill up. Your numbers are complete garbage, try again.

goosedragons 4y ago
Do you think that's remotely near the norm? Average used car price is currently more than double your lifetime spend [0]. Even pre-pandemic it's pretty close. And is that 12k including maintenance? I'm guessing not! [0] https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a40690607/average-used-car-price-is-now-33000-dollars/ https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a40690607/averag...
- alar44 4y ago
  Maintenance is negligible. A set of used tires can be had for $200. If it's not part of the drivetrain, most fixes can be done in a couple hours for a couple hundred bucks. I've maybe spent $2000 on brakes, tierods, alternators, and starters. I buy cars that are easy to maintain yourself. If I can't fix it, I sell it for parts or junk it. Avg price doesn't matter. You can find plenty of cars in the $3-5k range that are mechanically sound but have aesthetic issues. Imo, buying a brand new car is the biggest waste of money ever.