Comments on: I Can Walk Everywhere, But Still Love My Car

By: eemusings@twitter

eemusings@twitter — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 04:21:36 +0000

@ThatWench Car ownership among my friend group is kind of low, so there’s a lot of carpooling. Unless we’re actually going out of town, we usually don’t chip in. That said, most everyone has fairly small, very economical vehicles.

By: ThatWench

ThatWench — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:29:12 +0000

I think the very end of your post brings up an important point about urban car-sharing: the organic, social kind. I’ve never had a driver’s license, and having friends with cars is definitely part of what has made that doable.

I assume your friends – both local and visiting – offer to “chip in for gas”? Have you considered either formally tracking how that influences costs, or considered formalizing that relationship with your friends further? By all accounts, you aren’t necessarily the type of person who would be comfortable letting others drive your car, but I could see an arrangement like, “$20 for my car keys for the day so you can go to ikea” or “I’m totally free to drive you to ikea that day; can you pay for the $20 tank of gas/parking bill?”

By: ThatWench

ThatWench — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:20:24 +0000

@mathison Don’t know how much points 1 & 2 apply to her lifestyle (they would apply to mine/ours, except for my works-in-the-suburbs partner), but definitely agree on point 3! When she was talking about driving her friends all over the place, I kept thinking “rental, not zip! rental, not zip!”

By: mathison

mathison — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 02:12:14 +0000

k sorry, but I have to call bs on this one. I just don’t think your car-less comparison costs are reasonable.
1) It doesn’t seem likely that you’d need a car once a week, given your description of where you live.
2) When you did need a car for errands or other short-term use, you probably wouldn’t be paying Zipcar’s daily rate (which *is* super expensive). You’d just reserve the Zipcar for the few hours you needed to run your errands.
3) For long trips (weekend or more), a regular rental car is usually considerably cheaper than Zipcar. A quick search on Kayak shows rental cars for $40 / day this weekend in SF.

I’m not hardcore anti-car over here (have one, in LA; lived without in New York, NJ, and Berkeley). Even in cities with great public transit, cars give you some extra freedom and convenience for sure. And your car sounds awesome! But if you’re going to look at straight-up cost comparison, I think you have to assume you’d be a smart no-car consumer.

By: eemusings@twitter

eemusings@twitter — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 04:33:42 +0000

Ya know, I’m just working on a post right now about the true cost of owning a car! Even as a one car household (http://eemusings.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/the-art-of-the-one-car-household/) car ownership is a squeeze.

By: shoot

shoot — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:27:50 +0000

@samsei Noice! Yeah, I hope to keep Stan for another five years minimum, but we haven’t even hit 200k miles, so maybe we can cruise for another decade or more at this rate. I’m not currently running biodiesel, but now that I live in the Bay Area, it seems sort of silly not to convert it. (Was planning to let some guy in Boston named Pony do it, but that never really panned out. Also, a guy named Pony.) My mechanic is Ed at Ed’s Autohaus if you ever need a guy in the city. Reasonable (but high in general b/c it’s SF) rates and so incredibly nice. Has great memory, great staff, and great pitbull, which seems like the requisite list for a solid mechanic.

Also, Carmine at European Car Doctors in Boston if anyone here is looking for a Beantown rec. He got Stan ready to drive cross-country in two days flat, and that was after Stan had been in storage for three years. I can’t say enough good things about my mechanics. Team Stan is bicoastal.

By: samsei

samsei — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:40:55 +0000

@shoot I have an ’84 300 TD, dark blue and rust, over here in Oakland that I plan on driving for at least the next ten years. I have to spend a few hundred bucks a year getting something fixed at my awesome Mercedes repair place (James Auto Repair of Emeryville) and my USAA insurance is $131 a year. Are you running yours on biodiesel?

By: camanda

camanda — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 20:31:50 +0000

I live in an area where I need a car (rural-suburban southern New England), so there’s no agonizing about whether or not I should have one, but I don’t at the moment and it’s killing me and your attachment to Stan may have made me slightly moist-eyed thinking about my late lamented ’94 Saab 900S. I loved that car and it’s been gone two months now and it huuuuurts. And it didn’t even have air conditioning or cupholders! I just loved it.

Also, I’m sharing with my parents at the moment so I can get to work, so I hear you on being able to have your own music, collection of supplies, etc. I’m on the hunt for another car (this is a topic I probably should’ve written The Billfold about already) and I can’t wait to stop sharing cars. Worst thing ever.

By: Bill Fostex

Bill Fostex — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:46:58 +0000

@Maven, check out this amazing thing and all of its Italian Catholic accoutrements: http://germancarsforsaleblog.com/1964-mercedes-220se-leichenwagen-hearse-in-italy/. That’s what you really need.

By: Maven

Maven — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:39:25 +0000

!!!!!
I too have been dreaming of an old diesel Mercedes beast and lurking around on craigslist thinking about buying one. I have a car–you pretty much need one in Minneapolis unless you live very centrally and have a predictable schedule/routes–but I want to run an 80s Mercedes on biodiesel. Sighhhh, someday.