3 ms·

I live in Beijing. You would have to pay me to own a car here. The traffic absolutely terrifies me. I'm aso pretty certain renting (i.e. using a taxi here all

• electromagnetic 17y ago
  Actually me and my wife worked it out for suburban Canada for one person. It turned out its significantly cheaper monthly to use taxi's for all work travel than owning even a cheap vehicle (not including tax, fuel, maintenance etc, we did solely the 0% finance price for the duration of the warrenty). Assuming the number of trips double after work, I think it just broke the 0% finance price for monthly travel, again not including anything at all. However, bus prices are at least 1/3 as that for a taxi; her work is approximately $10 a trip, bus is $2.75 per trip. It works out to $20 a day for taxi ($25 on a bad day), $5.50 a day for bus. I'd say almost everywhere, people buy cars for status and not convenience. I'd say it's a different matter when rural, but in the city it's certainly a status symbol. I frequently see people driving a $50,000 SUV on their own, yet I've been quoted $75 a day for a 7 seat SUV, which is pricey monthly, but dirt cheap in the long run if your vehicle is regularly a 1 person car.