Watty wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 10:22 am
firebirdparts wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 6:00 am
Cars are very very cheap to operate, really.
I would disagree with that statement. When you consider the cost of gas, insurance, tires, routine maintenance, non-routine maintenance, parking, etc those costs could be more than the annual depreciation of some cars.
This will also vary a lot depending on the car that you have which is why you want to consider the total annual cost of ownership over the long run when you are determining which car to buy.
The amount of money you spend on car includes everything related to the car, agreed. But by same basic principle I'd apply here (spend the total $'s you can afford to spend, no useful rule in my IMO what % of that total if any should be related to cars). And if it's a pretty cheap car you keep a long time and drive a lot, maybe need to rent a parking space*, capital cost could be a minority of lifetime cost. Not so likely with cars bought new pretty expensive, not kept a long time nor driven a lot (all our cars are bought new pretty expensive and driven less than average miles, some have been kept a long time others not, according to the precise metric 'what we feel like doing').
Anyway I think this like some other topics often proceeds from the assumption of irrational 'other people', who do exist in large numbers. The kind of Dave Ramsey candidates who find themselves sinking into debt, have never bothered counting up what they spend in any detail, and then once asked say 'but yeah I need to lease that BMW**'. But let's assume we here are rational. The rational direction of decision making is how much you make and reasonably expect to, how much assets, how old leading to a decision how much you can afford to spend in total. That's quasi-objective though depends on individual situation. How much of the total you 'should' spend on cars has absolutely no objective answer IMO, and the idea you would entirely misjudge the likely costs of upkeep is again assuming irrationality.
*one might also consider the extra capital cost to have a home with space to park a car 'for free' vs. not having it, in some areas that's a choice.
**the most common whipping boy among brands for this. As mentioned, similar priced Tesla's have magical immunity from being cited in these examples.