How many hours would you work per month to own a car?

Hello, just curious how many hours you would work per month just to own a car. When I was working, I realized that I worked about 30 hours a month just to own a car, which sickened me. It was evident to me that, yes, cars are a convenience, but was it greater than the inconvenience of working 30 hours a month for no other reason? So I said it was time to get rid of it and, no, a car wasn't necessary for my work (transportation to, from and during). So in thought of that, I asked myself, how many hours a month would I be willing to work to own a car? And it's about 5.

How many hours would you be willing or think it's worth to work per month to own a car?

Note, car dis-ownership doesn't prevent one from renting or borrowing a vehicle when one needs it.

For most of my eight years living in the heart of Seattle I had no car and it didn't bother me a bit. Shortly before leaving the city I rejoined the ranks of the cagers, and when living out in the country I have to admit it was nice. Though being out in the wild west I didn't do the whole insurance thing so it was quite affordable and I didn't drive terribly much. Then I moved out here to Boston and after draging my camaro on a trailer nearly 4000 miles in the middle of winter I quickly realized that having a car was just a liability that I couldn't afford unless I started slingin chiba again. No east coast connects so bye bye camaro. I ride my bike year round occasionally taking the train when I'm feeling lazy. My stretch is going to be the closest thing to an automobile I want to have for a long time.

I buy my cars cash. I've never had a car payment.

Insurance sucks, but it's under $2,000/year right now, which is as low as it's been in a long time.

Fuel is under $100/month. Normally driving a Honda Insight and living 2 miles from work helps with that.

My Insight has needed nothing but an oil change a year, which costs about $25 in synthetic oil, and I do myself in 10minutes.
My racecars take many $10's of thousands of dollars in upgraded and custom parts, regular engine and tranny replacement etc. But this isn't any fault of the cars, this is because I'm using them as a hobby/recreational tool, in which the biggest part of the hobby is the designing-building-breaking-re-designing-re-building aspect.

If you just count my Insight expenses, all fuel expenses, all insurance expenses, and leave out custom racecar parts/tuning costs, I work right about 6hours a month for the fantastic privilege of being able to point anywhere on the map on a whim,in any weather, carrying whatever goods/equipment I want to bring, and know that I will make it safe and warm and dry. That's pretty incredible convince that I hope I never lose.

liveforphysics said:

Insurance sucks, but it's under $2,000/year right now, which is as low as it's been in a long time.

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That's one of the biggest expenses of car ownership. It's also not largely proportional to how much you use the car and thus not proportional to your total risk, at least in the USA, and this "minimum cost" of ownership is mandated by law. The insurance coup surrounding this part of the industry disgusts me. If there existed an insurance that was proportional to how much I would use a car (Maybe once every week or two), I wouldn't have much objection to car ownership as the costs would then *actually* be fairly proportional to use/risk/and overall societal cost.

liveforphysics said:

point anywhere on the map on a whim,in any weather, carrying whatever goods/equipment I want to bring, and know that I will make it safe and warm and dry. That's pretty incredible convince that I hope I never lose.

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Indeed, that's a comforting thought. But, I've never actually had to go to some random point on a map on a whim, so I don't really assign much value to that. When I was in Seattle, though, there was ZipCar. I liked that service because the cost of car use was actually proportional to how much you used a car (Which was never, but still, it was there like a safety blanket). My main gripe about ZipCar is that they obviously maintained a fleet of new "upscale" models to attract the "young, hip" crowd which undoubtedly justified a higher than arguably needed price.

TO be honest, I have never owned an internal combustion vehicle. I do not wont one and would not want to put any of my hard earned money towards something that I know is slowly destroying the only place I have to live. I am not going to get up on a soap box about others. There are allot of legitimate reasons people drive internal combustion vehicles. I have made a choice for me and I encourage others to do so but I do not force this on others or berate, tease, chide others into doing the same thing. I hope some day that the alternatives are so abundant and cost effective that it is an easer choice for others as it is for me.

I know car is typically synonymous for "internal combustion engine" and given the current offerings, rightfully so, but that's not what I meant. Assume you could have any type of "realistic" car imaginable (Including a pure electric, or whatever tickles your fancy), how much would you be willing to work for it per month?

By realistic, I mean just the ordinary ones - not ones with flying or teleportation powers. (Now, teleportation - I'd probably work 200 hours a month for that. Cops try to pull you over for lack of registration or insurance, *teleportation powers, go!*, it doesn't matter.)

liveforphysics said:

I've never had a car payment.

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Me neither. There are so many good reliable cars on the used market for peanuts I don't think I'll ever want a car bad enough to deal with a payment. I think the affordability of very reliable used cars is a fairly recent thing, maybe only going back 15 years or so. May as well enjoy. And if anything does happen to break, you get it fixed or worst case, scrap it and get another.

Interesting question. Apparently the average household is willing to work almost 35 hours a month (give or take a few). Triple A says in 2008 the average four door sedan driven 15000 miles cost about $8200 when all factors are included. Since average household income is just over 50K (2007 figure), take 10K off for taxes, and over 20% of net income is spent on a single vehicle. Definitely not by me, but the figures are amazing.

5-10. I pay cash and have very low premiums on insurance anyway. I like having a car to travel a few thousand miles in a drop, or going to the farm and mucking around in 4wd. Around town, hardly even use it. I am buying a 2002 sedan this week to prevent my loss of vehicle , as my jeep is nearing 180k miles and it isn't the best for those long trips. Good for hauling some cargo, sucky for gas milage.

If I could have an electric car that would be fast enough and have the same distance then as an average car today then I would have one. I wouldn't be able to drive one but I would love the idea of having one. I am visually impaired and are not permitted to hold a drivers licence. Even though I'm a damed site better driver then 90% of the so called sited people who supposedly have a licence.

Doug said:

over 20% of net income is spent on a single vehicle. Definitely not by me, but the figures are amazing.

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That is insane.

Looking around at the other cars on my commute I often wonder how the hell so many people have such expensive cars. I guess the 20%+ per car figure makes some sense thinking about that.

And even if you don't want to buy used like many of us who posted do, there are a bunch of great new cars around 15k. Is a 30 or 45k car really 2x or 3x better.. I guess they are to the majority of buyers out there.