The All-In Cost of Car Dependency 2022: How Driving Wrecks Your Finances (Without You Noticing)

How much does it really cost to own and drive a car as your primary mode of transportation? Are the costs of driving an electric car competitive with driving an internal combustion engine powered vehicle, once you factor in all the different expenses? Regardless of what you drive, the costs go far beyond just what you use in gas or electricity every day.

Gas prices are grabbing the headlines in 2022, but the costs of insurance, maintenance, and licensing and registration are significant too. This video will look at the true cost of driving, and how people misunderstand those costs when they're making the decision to drive on a day-to-day basis, or decisions on housing location or vehicle replacement on a macro time scale.

Other CityNerd Videos referenced:

Resources:
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey

Image Credits:
- Atlanta traffic for title Video by citi-flix from Pixabay
- LA traffic Video by Ronald Brown from Pixabay
- Les Schwab Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)

Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities

[ujai]

I really hope we get part 2 of this video. This one being monetary, the other one being - as you alluded to - externalities.

[hoozthair]

I have kept complete records on my automobile since 1969. Every windshield wiper blade, every bottle of fuel injector cleaner and everything else. So I know that automobiles are very expensive. I did a financial class a few years ago at church and people could not believe that using my actual figures it cost $2 per mile to drive my car. Now my cost per Mile would be decreased because I don't spend my days driving around. On the other hand I bought the car used, did some of the maintenance myself, and live in an area where my insurance is cheap. But generally I have found it ranges from difficult to impossible to convince people how much they're spending on their automobiles. I believe that is their business but I think they would be much better able to manage their finances if they were realistic about what an automobile costs. I pointed out how it's always said that a person's biggest cost is their home. However since that is an appreciating asset and their automobile is depreciating, and they will own a large number of automobiles normally during their lifetime, the car wins by a mile so to speak.

[PC]

I work in personal bankruptcy and after learning about the alternatives to car dependency, it breaks my heart to see people list their vehicle expenses upwards of $1, 000.00/month between registration, maintenance, gas, insurance, parking costs, etc.

[RoseRodent]

The super financially crippling element is when you live semi rural and you have to work urban. You can't drive into the city but you can't get public transit in the rural, so you have to pay for a car, insurance, parking AND a rail season ticket, but you can't afford to move because housing in the city is really expensive and the mortgage lender won't take into account that you'll save thousands by not travelling

[LameFaun]

The fact that I got two car commercials during this video is hilarious.

[augustvonmackensen]

This really illustrates how wrong it is to build car-dependent residential areas by default. It forces everybody, even those with low incomes, to spend huge amounts of money up-front just to function on a basic level.
Great work as always!

[beback_]

They do have a point in that most of the benefits of walkable/bikable design only kicks in when it's good enough that people start opting out of car ownership.

[tomhancock]

Great video! A few years back a coworker was bragging about "driving for free" now that their car was paid off. Even after I pointed out that only one cost of driving had been eliminated they insisted driving was now free since they no longer had to make a monthly payment. The fact at least four costs remained was totally ignored by this college educated person. No wonder our society is held hostage by the automobile.
Keep up the good work!

[MohondasK]

I lived for a number of years in NYC after college. I would get asked by friends back home how I could afford living in such an expensive city working entry-level-type jobs? The answer was pretty much: My High Rent + Metrocard = Your Rent + Your Car(s)

[JackDespero]

As someone who has moved into the US on April, this is so very true.
In 10 years in Germany, my cost of transportation was the ticket for the entire public system in the area (not just the city) and that cost about the same (I was in one of the most expensive cities in Germany) than the gas of a new hybrid car (and I latter got a tax break for living far away from work, so it ended up being almost free, but even without that).
So when I tell people that they are "Oh, so it is no so different!".
I am sorry, what? What do you mean it is not so different? I have spent hours finding a decent second hand car and they all cost at least 15-20k (by decent meaning that the car is less than 10 years old and less than a 100k miles. Most cars I found are either >150k miles and/or >20 years for around $10k).
So, did you get your car for free?? Because for me it would have represented a huge cost on my monthly budget (I ended up buying a motorcycle).
On top of that is the insurance! Which here in the US is crazy expensive! How are insurances so expensive in a place in which everybody needs one?? Where is that famous "free market will create competition"??
And then finally, there is the gas.
But that is not all! You also have repairs! I have never had to pay when the metro broke down, but my coworker had to pay $5k the other day for a shift problem that his insurance didn't cover because it was not due to an accident.

When I was thinking about buying a car, a third of my monthly budget was allocated into "car stuff". But then you talk to Americans and most of them do not even realize how much they are really paying.

Same with healthcare, by the way. Yes, I pay directly $50 for the insurance, but the company is paying $450, that means that my health insurance costs $500, which is around five times as much as what my contribution to healthcare costed in Finland, for example. But somehow, Americans do not see those $500 as a tax, because in their head a tax and an insurance are two different things, but that is only true when the insurance is for something that you can realistically give up (like I can give up my insurance for mountain expeditions, or however it is called in English, that would cover my rescue in the mountains, because going to the mountains is not a matter of life or death to me, so I can skip that for a few months if I am strapped for money).

If I were to include transportation in the calculation of taxes (since in Germany and Finland I most ly pay them via taxes), I pay way more "taxes" in the US than I paid back in Europe.

Also very important: You pay for the road that you are driving, and the fact that so many people drive mean that either the government spends a lot of taxes on it, or they are shit. And at least in my city in the US, it seems that we have a combination of both. That cost is also a tax that raises up of people driving everywhere and for everything in massive pick up trucks.

[orglancs]

I happened upon this by accident. I'm a Brit and have visited the US three times. I was absolutely staggered by the hypermobility of your culture. Everyone seemed to be in motion and the sight of a freeway is just beyond belief. How do you all earn a a living, work, look after your kids, and things if you are all busy driving from A to B as fast as you can and then back from B to A as fast as you can? The first thing I saw as my plane came in to land was an eight-lane highway, right in the middle of a city, Philadelphia! People are pretty car-fixated in the UK, too, but we have nothing on you Americans. One thing is certain - it won't be for much longer.

[Heyhaylix]

these videos and my planning classes in uni have fully blackpilled me against cars, tbh. I dont drive anyways (Im blind) but seeing how bad they really are and seeing how the sausage is TRULY made for car centric enviroments have turned me more passionate about transit advocacy than I ever thought possible.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

I think people need to understand that the costs for driving depend on where you live and how much you use. This whole "You need a car to go anywhere" mindset that has become so common in an American and even Canadian society only increases our reliance on fossil fuels (which of course, doesn't make the environmental situation any better) and shuts down public transit ideas. People who prefer to drive rather than take transit say they do it because transit in their area sucks. Unbeknownst to them, them adding to the idea that only a car-centric society is possible is part of the problem. The car companies profit, freight companies profit by having control of the rails, and public transit and the environment suffers.

People tend to forget that trains united the country first BEFORE highways did. And the size of this country is no excuse for wanting better unifying transit, cause look at China

[andrewlindstrom]

I really appreciate your takes on car free/car light living. You don't have to live in New York City to avoid owning a car, but you absolutely do have to be creative/willing to suffer for the bit of not owning a car in almost every city in the US.

I'd love a video highlighting tips/tricks of living without a car, or a top ten of "unexpectedly" car-free ready cities in the US. Everyone knows you can live without a car in NYC, Chicago and San Francisco - I'd love to see some love for smaller scale cities that still make living without a car easy

[RXP]

I’ve never driven and am 39. If you calculate the cash I’ve saved it seems pretty crazy. It’s also forced me to love taking on average 17, 000 steps a day and loving being active. Car free is amazing

[jadeykg]

As an accounting student/math nerd that doesn't want to drive, this video feels like it was made for me lol I love this kind of research

[Ahmed-N]

These hidden costs of driving are true of car-centric societies everywhere. Driving a car here in Dubai costs the equivalent of thousands of Dollars, albeit slightly less in fuel costs since fuel is cheaper than a lot of other places. When I lived in Barcelona, all it took was a €100 bicycle and nearly €100 in public transport tickets to get around. I was there for 4 whole months. Other times, I would just walk around because of how insanely compact the entire city was.

There's something very freeing with being able to get around with whatever means of transport you choose. That feeling has never escaped me and I hope many other cities learn to give everyone equal access to all forms of transport.

[vwwhiteknight]

I would definitely be interested in a calculation of cost for subsidies that the US gives to oil companies to keep the price of fuel artificially low. Furthermore, how much those costs factor into the overall value of driving shown against those who don't drive at all. Oil subsidies and maintenance of auto infrastructure costs could be an additional convincing point on how much could be put towards alternative transportation methods. Also, it could be fun to calculate what the cost of driving would be if car owners had to pay for the actual cost of fuel and road maintenance fully, without non-driving taxpayer assistance.

[davei.]

I am a CPA in 3 US states. Thank you for describing the true costs of vehicle ownership, especially through the lens of income inequality

[thekevmeister]

Having an accounting background really is a game changer in many aspects in life. I'm super grateful to have a little bit of experience and I'm glad you're sharing the good word of line by line expenses and estimates 👍