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gglover

I'm a 25 year old with a beater car 5 miles from downtown Seattle. Here are my real numbers:

Parking: For me the bus is around 10 minutes slower each way. I just take that most days.

Home parking: Free on-street parking

Gas: $40/month * 12 = $480

Registration: $200 (May be a bit higher now with ST3)

Insurance: $700

Maintenance: $1000 sounds about right

For around $2380 / year. Well worth it for the freedom it gives me imo.

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Cause we're all giving numbers here. Let me give you my numbers for my bike. I rent my bike and got a train subscription. I pay about 50 EUR a year for my bike and 100 EUR a year for my train subscription.

I have a car, but I'm not the one paying insurance on it anymore (passed on to other family member). The car was 5000 EUR used (Volkswagen Polo) which was bought 7-8 years ago and it was a 5 year old car back then. Right now it's really getting old, but only needed a fix last year or so and new tires this year (not my concern anymore though). But it's safe to say those cost about 800 EUR in total. The car insurance is what I'd guess 400 EUR.

I'm glad that I live in a city where biking is the #1 priority, I wouldn't feel safe biking in the US. It's also a lot cheaper!

>100 EUR a year for my train subscription.

You don't just live in a city where biking is a priority, you live in a country where you can actually get to places by train - which the US, for all intents and purposes, is not.

This is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

100 EUR per year for a train pass? Wow. I pay $100 USD per month for a CTA pass in Chicago...and that's about the best transit situation you'll find in the US.

Just for context this is the all you can eat monthly plan for the CTA and the suburban bus system. It represents something like 50 per ride, no transfer train trips per month.

Also mind that in many places in Europe, public transit is more heavily subsidized by taxes. If you consider how low taxes are in most states of the US, you probably have some extra money at hand to use for trains (or whatever else), partially making up for the higher cost.

Where do you pay 100€ a year for train tickets? In my city (Germany) it's about 1000€ a year.

Their posts indicate Ghent, still I'm struggling to believe those numbers

You pay $700/year for insurance as a 25 year old?

Depends on your car, they said it's a beater. Of course an insurance company will give you significant price reduction if you have, say, a late 90s Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic with a 80 hp engine, as compared to something more modern and fun with twice the power.

I know that the sportiness and novelty of a car drives up the insurance price but it doesn't seem to as much as I thought, my friend recently got a new WRX and pays very very little in insurance for it considering he's a 22 year old male.

But yeah it being a beater makes sense, I just got quotes for a 1981 Honda Civic in Seattle and some are even less than $700/year.

Seems like location is very important. I went down from ~$350 to ~$115 a month moving from NY to NJ. For reference: 22, male, just started driving in late 2017.

pays very very little in insurance for it considering he's a 22 year old male

As an aside, in the UK it is illegal for an insurance company to consider gender when calculating the premium.

Well that just seems cruel and arbitrary.

Cruel to the insurance company?

Something modern with collision detection/auto braking, ABS/ESP and multiple airbags and shock absorbers that WORK is also way safer than older clunk.

You need liability insurance. I don't think $700 would cover it.

The trick to reducing insurance on a beater car is to not insure the car for damage. Just get insurance for passengers, yourself, damage you do to other people, cars and property.

Never insure for a risk you can cover yourself. If you have a car that is worth < $10k, you probably should pay for damage to it out of pocket.

In the UK this is known as 'third party' cover, and, when you hit the price comparison websites, it's not always the case that the cheapest third party option is cheaper than the cheapest comprehensive option.

GP might be paying only third-party insurance. I'm not sure about America, but at least in Australia, AU$500 (US$400) per year will get you third-party insurance if you're under 25, and if you're driving a beater car you don't need any other insurance.

I looked at getting comprehensive insurance on my old car, but in the end the excess was greater than the value of the car. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same for GP.

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