Reflection on the automobile

[RH]

*15 years ago, I would drive 2 blocks to park off campus at college and then walk 15 minutes to class
*10 years ago I would drive a block to the grocery store and pay $85/month for a carport at my apartment to park my car
*9 years ago, a huge traffic jam clogged the city and I jokingly thought "it would be faster to bike to work right now". A week later I started biking.
*8 years ago, I sold my car, moved to Portland, and lived near all the daily amenities I need (grocery, transit, park, pubs). I started noticing how much I was saving without a car.

Today, I have not owned a car since. I bike, take transit, and use Car2Go/Zipcar. I have no idea how much a gallon of gas costs since I haven't had to fill up a tank in so long. What I do know is that by not owning a car the past 8 years, it has saved me probably $75,000. This is money that I have used for a downpayment on a house, 401K contributions, and other long term investments.

I only wish I started this auto-free lifestyle at 16! 

[NeuroPlastic]

This reminds me of my high-school years (in the 1980's).  I lived about 5 miles from the school, but the Rube-Goldberg-designed bus route had me board the schoolbus an hour before school started. I realized that I could have an extra half-hour of my own time if I rode my bike, and I wouldn't have to ride that dang bus.
Well, the bike rack at the school hadn't seen use in years, and for the first month or so I got a lot of crap for being the dork on the bike.  But I stuck with it, and other kids started to sincerely ask me why.  Within six months the school had to install several additional racks to handle all the bikes.

[aspiringnomad]

I love both of these stories. Cheers to car-free living. My hands almost froze off biking home yesterday. Just means I need better gloves, not a two ton hunk of metal that costs tens of thousands of dollars.

[Returnoftheyeti]

The "have a car" mentality is hard to break.  We have to pick up a package at the Post Office (about a mile away, uphill) and my first thought was "we can get a zipcar".  Because; We always take a car to the Post  Office / Grocery Store. 

Girlfriend is all like, why don't we walk.  I am like, DUHH...

[Gmullz]

The above Google StreetView image was taken outside the garage door of the parking garage in my old apartment building. Do you see the parking lot off in the distance? That is the grocery store parking lot.

....I used to drive there. Pretty much every time. "I can't carry a jug of milk up that hill!" Pitiful.

I also used to drive to the gym, which was less than a kilometre from home. And many times I wouldn't be able find a spot to park so I'd end up walking halfway there anyway. Ridiculous!

So, after many realizations, I sold my car, after 6 years of car ownership. I bike now, and occasionally rent / use car share. But really, my life does not require car usage at all anymore. I'll probably have one again some day when/if I have kids, but it's not a guarantee.

[GetItRight]

What I do know is that by not owning a car the past 8 years, it has saved me probably $75,000.

If you were spending $9400/yr on a car you were doing it very wrong. A quick glance at my mileage tracker and Mint I'll estimate I'm way under half that, inclusive of vehicle purchase, maintenance, fuel, insurance... and I'll admit spending more than I have to. The city living carless lifestyle is fine for some, but I hate cities. Only way I'd live or even work in a city would be to reach FI significantly sooner, being miserable would just be part of the temporary suffering to buy my freedom. Different strokes for different folks. Regardless, for cheap and practical in the city a scooter or motorcycle is the way to go. Annual cost could be less than you were paying monthly for a car and it's much easier to get around and park.

[Sid Hoffman]

I find these kinds of posts very encouraging.  It's all a math formula, however.  For example if I were to live in a truly walkable neighborhood, I'd have to spend at least $200-300/month more on housing, which is more than my mustachian car is costing me.  I'm making the most of it though, by taking advantage of the much lower housing costs while still walking and biking for as many trips as I can.  People aren't stupid though; they pay a premium for housing that is walkable to jobs and services.  No such thing as a free lunch, eh?

[RH]

"What I do know is that by not owning a car the past 8 years, it has saved me probably $75,000."

I was assuming a monthly car cost of about $585/mo when I was a non-mustachian. $300 for the car payment, $100 for insurance, $100 for gas, $85 for parking, etc..

$585/mo invested @ 8%/yr for 8 years is about $75K.

A shocking amount of money and I see a lot of my friends and co-workers leasing new cars every 3 years - yet they are up to their eyeballs in debt.

Cost of living in downtown Portland was cheaper compared to the burbs in the other state (CA) I was living. 

[Thegoblinchief]

We just went to one car after barely using our second car most of the year. Our neighborhood is walkable if you have oodles of free time, but with biking it's quite practical and doesn't take a whole lot longer than the car. Plus, the kids and I get exercise, and just plain do less - which has taught us a lot about what is enough.

[darkadams00]

We went to one car when we:

1) Got tired of watching too much money go into the 2-car-savings account year after year (I hate buying stuff that I care nothing about)
2) Got tired of spending time cleaning two cars and doing maintenance on two cars (I hate spending time and money on stuff that I care nothing about)
3) Got tired of having to deal with one car's issues one month and the other car's problems the next (Almost felt like I was dealing with crying twins sometimes. I did always buy cheap--see (1)--so this one was probably on me. Cheap cars often have repair costs.)
4) Got tired of buying pleated pants for Lumpy and Dumpy (Gut and Butt for some folks).

Dropping a car and turning my second garage bay into a de facto bike corral and maintenance area has saved me quite a bit of money, lots of pounds, a few inches, and I've learned to enjoy summer Saturday mornings tinkering on the bikes before a morning ride with the family. Simplicity rocks. One transmission repair three years ago would have covered about 2/3 of all of my bike purchases. A set of tires and a year's maintenance would have covered the remainder of the costs, and I didn't buy bargain-basement stuff. I'm usually not willing to fork over an extra $1000 on a car purchase because it often wouldn't mean a difference in a car's quality. But the difference between a $200 bike and a $500 bike is usually quite significant and almost negligible in comparison to car costs.

Got car? Sure. Got cars? No more.

[innerscorecard]

What a car is and the job to be done for cars is changing drastically.

Many of the jobs to be done that a car can do can be accomplished through substitutes (bicycle with trailer) or through services (Uber) instead.

[alsoknownasDean]

I bought a car (a $3000, rather Mustachian hatchback) a few weeks ago after a year without. It's been useful (I'll go places I didn't previously), but unfortunately I've noticed some of my old habits starting to creep back in.

Might need a facepunch or two and a reminder to get back on the bike (and service it too).

[th0rbahn]

The above Google StreetView image was taken outside the garage door of the parking garage in my old apartment building. Do you see the parking lot off in the distance? That is the grocery store parking lot.

....I used to drive there. Pretty much every time. "I can't carry a jug of milk up that hill!" Pitiful.

I also used to drive to the gym, which was less than a kilometre from home. And many times I wouldn't be able find a spot to park so I'd end up walking halfway there anyway. Ridiculous!

So, after many realizations, I sold my car, after 6 years of car ownership. I bike now, and occasionally rent / use car share. But really, my life does not require car usage at all anymore. I'll probably have one again some day when/if I have kids, but it's not a guarantee.

Ahh... good old Barrington st. superstore. I miss living at South/Barrington and walking there!

[gimp]

I lived in Portland for six months...

As I've written elsewhere, I absolutely love driving, love my car. Not, you know, going to/from work or running errands, but for pleasure.

In Portland, I often didn't touch my car for 2-3 weeks, and would only drive it to move to a different spot on the street (technically, but not enforced, Portland has a 72-hour curb limit) and to recharge the battery and so on. It took me an hour to get to work instead of 25 minutes (walk -> wait -> train -> wait -> company shuttle, or walk instead of the last two steps) but it was very stress-free: no traffic, relax the whole time. Grocery store was right down the big-ass hill from me, and another on the way home from work if I drove.

God, living in Portland was cheap. Great city, great area, cheap to live. I plowed the savings into camera gear and have no regrets.