1. The author meant transportation generally, not personally. Think trains, buses, car pooling etc vs car. On a CO2 per person per mile basis, cars are inefficient. 2, 3. Financial value wise it's a depreciating asset since unlike land you can always make more cars and they break down over time (until very recently where supplies of new cars was disrupted). We can argue all days about opportunity cost but that's beside the point. Cars work for you, no cars work for others. What's the value of having one if you live in a metro area like NYC?

There's nothing wrong nor hyperbolic about the quote you mentioned. Can't say the same about your comments though.