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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Cars - For Car Enthusiasts
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We cannot afford car loans not because car loans are expensive, but because we cannot afford anything.
Why not both?
The average American spends $1k a month per car on auto loans, insurance, gas, and other car-related expenses, and the average family has 2.5 cars per household.
Maybe cutting those down or out completely would make people more financially resilient. Of course, businesses should pay people better, too, but decades of studies have shown us that planning our cities in a way that increases car dependency is more expensive and unsustainable for everyone.
Not having a car in a city is feasible. It's much less feasible if you live in a rural or even sub urban location.
Inb4 "just move to the city then!?" Living in a city is typically significantly more expensive than rural or suburban areas. If they're already struggling financially, moving to the city probably isn't the answer.
I'm not saying everyone should move to the city, nor am I saying that we should get rid of all the cars. I'm saying the way we build our cities needs to change. We can't afford not to.
I live in a rural area; we could still have better public transit and less sprawl to help those who shouldn't own a car for financial reasons.
You may want to reread the preceeding and following paragraphs because they're not saying what you think they are.
They're saying using a car you already have will produce less emissions than manufacturing a brand new replacement car. This does not account for the emissions required to manufacture the car you already own nor any of the emissions from driving it up to the point of the comparison (13 years).
This article doesn't say "building a car causes more emissions than driving a car" it says "swapping out your slightly used car for a new one causes more emissions than just keeping your old car"
I think you replied to the wrong person. Nowhere did I ever mention emissions or swapping out cars.
That said, I agree with you
Those numbers seem fishy or out of context, at the least. We have something like 300 million vehicles on the road in the US so there's no way the average car owner is spending $1k a month on loans. I'm assuming that statistic is only for new car buyers which make up a tiny fraction of drivers.
I didn't say it was just on loans, that's closer to $500-700.
When you then include insurance, gas, oil changes/tires/other maintenance, registration, and driver's licensing, this over $1k.