Winter is no problem for me without car, and we have snow most of the winter. A car is a choice you make, not somethings you have to have.
I should say, I have a car, but we use it for leaving town, not <1 mile trips within it.
I said nothing about whether a car is a choice or a necessity. That would depend on where you live also, but for different reasons.
I only said that it is not wasteful to house a car under the following circumstances: in the winter, where there is a lot of snow, and where the local municipality dumps salt on the roads throughout the winter (which gathers on surface of the car, including exposed components beneath).