Hello all,
I've had no car since my last one died in December. Since then I've cleared out my debts (except HECS) and saved up almost $10K in cash, which is all decent progress. Thing is, as it's been a bit chilly here lately, I've had thoughts about buying one again.
Currently, by my calculations, I'm saving around 54% of my after-tax (and after HECS) income. Not bad, but with a bit of work I reckon I can get that to near 60% over the next few months.
Now, I've done calculations on the TCO of a car, and found that for a fairly sensible car (~2000 era Japanese hatchback doing 14,000km a year), I'd be up for about $350 a month. Part of that is depreciation/opportunity cost of the car itself, of which I'd be spending around $3000 on buying the car.
I live in the suburbs of Melbourne (not the inner suburbs either), and friends are scattered all around the city, mostly at least 20km from me. Most live near train stations, but on a different line to me. My parents (and most of my family) live out in the country (about two hours drive from my place), and I visit them every few weeks. I can get to within a half hour drive of their place via the train, but usually get picked up at the station for the last bit. When I'm there I'm pretty much stranded (distances to places I'd want to go to down there are too high to bike, and the bus barely runs on weekends).
I commute to work via public transport, and this will continue regardless of whether I buy a car or not. I'm reasonably well catered for with public transport where I live, but many of the places I go to require changing trains/buses, which impacts upon the travel time. I've got a bike, and do ride it for short trips around home, especially trips to the shops. Unfortunately work's too far away for me to ride my bike regularly (although I've decided to give it a go on the ride to work day in October, it'll take an hour and 40 minutes each way). I could move, but I'm getting such a good deal with rent where I am it's well worth staying.
I guess the main uses of a car for me would be the trips to my parents' place (and driving around whilst there), visiting friends, and going to more distant places I don't bother going to now due to how long it'd take. I do kind of want one again as well. Maybe it's because of all the years I owned one.
I've considered the local ZipCar equivalents, but they're not ideal for all trips (especially the trips to my parents' place), and the nearest one of those cars is a 20 minute train ride away. They tend to only be in the inner suburbs here, I'm not in the inner suburbs. I'm just glad I have decent public transport nearby. I rented a car one long weekend for a trip to my parents' place and it was around $300 all up.
Another thing, I've recently started a new job, and am under probation until October. Whilst everything's going well, I'm not really prepared to make any major ongoing financial commitments until I'm in a more secure situation there.
An additional thing is I'm considering getting back into playing cricket regularly, and would need a car to get to training/games (especially if the grounds aren't near stations and are out of biking distance).
Am I crazy for considering spending so much on buying/operating a car just to do the above? Am I just wearing pants made of 100% pure complainium?
Thanks for your input :)