The value of not owning a car is tremendous. Recent reports show that DC has traffic congestion second to only LA. They say that the average DC person spends an extra week in the car every year. I imagine that the reality might be even worse, given that so many folks in DC don’t have cars.
The study, by the Federal Highway Administration, estimated that drivers wasted 2.9 billion gallons of fuel while sitting in traffic. Together with the lost time, traffic delays cost the nation $78.2 billion, the study estimated.
That makes me feel all the richer, not only with the costs saved by not having a car, but the headache as well.
My twin sister and her husband are facing car meltdowns at the moment. It looks like they’ll need to look at a replacement in the very near future. The 1993 Subaru has $2k in repairs needed and is only worth $2k.
If you must have a car, I would suggest a couple of things to make sure you’ve got the money when you need it.
- If at all possible, save up the money and buy your car in cash. This will save you a boat load in the end. Pay interest on your mortgage or student loans rather than your auto dealer, at least it is tax free.
- If you do make payments, keep making them to yourself after you’ve paid off the car. This makes it so you would remain used to taking out those funds and you would also have a chunk of change for a down payment when needed.
- Scale down, if you can’t live without a car, perhaps you could live without multiple cars. This also saves a tremendous amount of money in the long run.
- Avoid leasing at all possible. I’m certain it seems that there are plenty of people out there who buy into leasing cars, but I’m just not one of them. I remember being told by someone in LA that they leased a car every two years just because that is what everyone does. Like my mom would say, “If everyone were jumping off a bridge, would you too?”
Best wishes to those of you who do have to endure owning a car.
Miel
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