Comment by monkaiju
2 days ago
2 years worth according to my math using ride.guru and that's in advance. That also means I don't have a truck and I have to coordinate trips twice a day. And that strictly commuting, not accounting for all the other uses I have for a car...
Of course, my remark was more on if the sole purpose was to drive to and from work. It seems absurd to be ok with spending $20k if that is the primary feature. I'd expect a few more use cases, especially to buy new vs. used. But I've gone years with a used $800 car and my current vehicle was acquired in 2011, was only 5 years old at the time, for around $8k and has been going fine since.
That jives pretty well with the total cost of ownership of a vehicle. There are plenty of reasons why one would want to buy, but unless one of those reasons is specifically “to be a frugal driver with a Civic/Prius/Corolla”, Uber at least seems cost-competitive for in-city use.
I’m a two-car household with my partner, but I’ve assumed that if one car is out of commission, we’d be fine with Uber+one car for at least several months while we take the time to thoroughly research/negotiate/etc. options.