4 ms·

Cars are falling out of love with them. How is one expected to pay for a $1500/mo apartment and a $40k car on a $60k salary?

bell-cot 4y ago
Plus car insurance - which tends to be very costly for younger drivers.
revscat 4y ago
The average American spends $3000 a year on gas. Imagine if you didn’t have to do that.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  I do ~23000mi/yr (way above average) commuting at 23mpg (somewhat below average) and gas here is about $3/gal (average) so I pay about $3k/yr. I am nowhere near typical. There is no way the average American pays that much for just gas unless the source is doing some slight of hand. Obviously I pay more than $3k/yr after you include other expenses but still, few are buying that much fuel. I used to take the train when I worked downtown and @$350/mo or $4200/yr for a pass (which also covers the subway and buses) it's basically a break even vs driving. Medium distance rail and bus needs to get a hell of a lot better for it to actually be cheaper for the average person in practice.
  - fundad 4y ago
    $3/gal is practically free
  - HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
    > @$350/mo or $4200/yr for a pass (which also covers the subway and buses) it's basically a break even vs driving. Cost-wise, yes but there are other benefits. I live in rural MN and used to commute to downtown Minneapolis about 40 miles away. It was far more convenient, not to mention much faster, to drive to an express bus stop and take the bus into the city than to drive. The 6 block walk to the office sucked sometimes when it was raining or -20F but not having to deal with traffic, plus the reduction of wear and tear on my car was well worth the minor inconvenience. Now, I realize that's an ideal situation: having a bus 15 minutes away and a relatively short distance between the bus stop and my destination, but it's possible. Cities can do this: Minneapolis has streets that are bus-only at rush hour to speed up transit -- cars will get ticketed if the cops see them. The Metro area has a large number of bus routes between suburbs and even to the edge of the ex-urban areas. There was a big push around 20 years ago to improve transit and it's definitely paying off, but it takes commitment and patience that I guess a lot of other areas in the country don't have.
BizarreByte 4y ago
You don’t have to spend 40k on a car. My Toyota was 22k overall and the monthly payments are very manageable. You can still get new cars for under 20k and good used cars for much less.
- Spooky23 4y ago
  When I graduated from college in 2000 I bought a 1993 Pontiac Bonneville with low miles for $6000 or $10000 2022 dollars. Today, you’re looking at 10-15 year old cars at that price range. Reality is a decent used car from a condition perspective is about $15k.
throwayyy479087 4y ago
This is a better comment than other replies are seeing. Many, many "car people" are into older cars - the GMT800 is an object of lust these days. You can buy them for ~4000 in OK shape. Hot rodders were using literal scrap hunks from 30 years in the past. Chicano lowrider culture (one of America's greatest creations) uses very, very cheap old work trucks. Cost is generally not the barrier to entry for any of these, interest is. Maybe the Zoomer/Millenial focus on luxury goods has lead to a world where people aren't interested in vehicles outside of the high end?

bell-cot 4y ago

Plus car insurance - which tends to be very costly for younger drivers.

revscat 4y ago

The average American spends $3000 a year on gas. Imagine if you didn’t have to do that.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago
I do ~23000mi/yr (way above average) commuting at 23mpg (somewhat below average) and gas here is about $3/gal (average) so I pay about $3k/yr. I am nowhere near typical. There is no way the average American pays that much for just gas unless the source is doing some slight of hand. Obviously I pay more than $3k/yr after you include other expenses but still, few are buying that much fuel. I used to take the train when I worked downtown and @$350/mo or $4200/yr for a pass (which also covers the subway and buses) it's basically a break even vs driving. Medium distance rail and bus needs to get a hell of a lot better for it to actually be cheaper for the average person in practice.
- fundad 4y ago
  $3/gal is practically free
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
  > @$350/mo or $4200/yr for a pass (which also covers the subway and buses) it's basically a break even vs driving. Cost-wise, yes but there are other benefits. I live in rural MN and used to commute to downtown Minneapolis about 40 miles away. It was far more convenient, not to mention much faster, to drive to an express bus stop and take the bus into the city than to drive. The 6 block walk to the office sucked sometimes when it was raining or -20F but not having to deal with traffic, plus the reduction of wear and tear on my car was well worth the minor inconvenience. Now, I realize that's an ideal situation: having a bus 15 minutes away and a relatively short distance between the bus stop and my destination, but it's possible. Cities can do this: Minneapolis has streets that are bus-only at rush hour to speed up transit -- cars will get ticketed if the cops see them. The Metro area has a large number of bus routes between suburbs and even to the edge of the ex-urban areas. There was a big push around 20 years ago to improve transit and it's definitely paying off, but it takes commitment and patience that I guess a lot of other areas in the country don't have.

BizarreByte 4y ago

You don’t have to spend 40k on a car. My Toyota was 22k overall and the monthly payments are very manageable. You can still get new cars for under 20k and good used cars for much less.

Spooky23 4y ago
When I graduated from college in 2000 I bought a 1993 Pontiac Bonneville with low miles for $6000 or $10000 2022 dollars. Today, you’re looking at 10-15 year old cars at that price range. Reality is a decent used car from a condition perspective is about $15k.

throwayyy479087 4y ago

This is a better comment than other replies are seeing. Many, many "car people" are into older cars - the GMT800 is an object of lust these days. You can buy them for ~4000 in OK shape. Hot rodders were using literal scrap hunks from 30 years in the past. Chicano lowrider culture (one of America's greatest creations) uses very, very cheap old work trucks. Cost is generally not the barrier to entry for any of these, interest is. Maybe the Zoomer/Millenial focus on luxury goods has lead to a world where people aren't interested in vehicles outside of the high end?