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0 pointseigenspace1y ago0 comments

It really is that expensive. Car owners routinely underestimate the amount of money their cars cost to own and operate. They are very unreliable narrators when reporting how much their cars cost them. So many costs are hidden, that it feels cheap.

Once you account for

* the opportunity cost of the up-front money you paid for your car (or the cost of the loan to buy it) compared to investing that money or simply putting it in a high-interest savings account

* the cost of car insurance

* the cost of car maintenance

* the cost of depreciation

* the cost of fuel

it adds up very very quickly to gigantic quantities of money.

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> 30-40€ one way taxi rides get expensive pretty quickly and 40-60€ day rents for car is not that many uses...

Nobody is advocating you rely on taxi rides to get around. 40-60€ day rentals, or 1€/km metered rentals absolute can save you money relative to car ownership so long as you don't use them super often.

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mcntsh1y ago

I have a "car subscription" in Germany, which is kinda like a rental car but for longer periods (mine is 1 year). The subscription covers the cost of registration/taxes/maintenance/insurance and I cover fuel and parking. 580€ a month for a mid-range SUV, or 20€ a day.

ta12431y ago

Only if those are available. €1/km is way more than I pay for car ownership including all those costs, but even if it wasn't it would be economically unsustainable to provide such a service which would always be available

eigenspaceOP1y ago

Owning a car isnt a per kilometer cost. Only some of the costs are per kilometer, a lot of other costs are fixed costs.

For the amount I drive, the per kilometre cost for me would be more like 100€/km because I only drive when I actually need to, like renting a car to move furniture, or make a road trip somewhere that I cant easily access by train.

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