It is not accurate to use $40,000 as the amount of money needed to get a car. A good new car can be purchased for half that, not to mention the used car market.
Old cars cost less upfront but often more on maintenance.
For most people housing > car > food (relative cost)
I think that 8 billion cars on this planet would not be reasonable.
This is a political issue about urbanisation and transportation, the next generations will have to make choices.
Total cost of ownership of a car is really high
Granted this is not the average cost of car ownership but a car chosen for low total ownership cost.
>a car chosen for low total ownership cost.
I own and drive a car that I bought with the intention of owning and maintaining cheaply, too. I am fairly anal about maintenance, so the costs associated with that are actually inflated from what they could be.
I live in Southern California, apparently a very expensive place to be.
I own a reliable used car that I bought for fairly cheap (sub 5000usd).
I pay about 82 dollars a year for registration, and 85 dollars a month (with a good DMV history) for insurance.
I spend around 1200 dollars on maintenance a year generally, but it has been as low as 500 a year.
So, 2400-2900 a year after the initial purchase. It's more expensive than some places -- but not ourageous.
Licensing is a lot cheaper than Japan, at least.
Tax is high here. $330/yr (after 2yr) and $210/2yr (after 5yr).
Here's a reasonable one year old used car in Los Angeles. It only approaches the 40k number after five years of ownership.
https://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/sonic/2020/cost-to-own/?st...
Insurance costs €150/year. I drive around 10,000km per year, which at today's prices (€1.50 per litre) fuel costs €900/year.
I paid €10,000 to buy the car and today the same aged cars will sell for around €6,000. That gives a total cost of ownership (excluding fuel) of €1,100/year or €2,000/year including fuel.
For my family's usage that works out cheaper than public transport + renting a car for longer trips.
I'm comparing new cars to new e-bikes and, sure, in both cases you can get something "pretty good" for ≈half the average new {e-bike,car} price. Some people will get something "very good" for 2x the average!
From what I can tell the research supporting the $40k average (or, alternatively, $800/mo) seems reasonable:
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/average-new-car-price-202... https://www.motor1.com/news/370609/average-american-monthly-...
Definitely something I want to hash out and cite more though.