I feel so old and SO naive

[CoventryCat86]

I would have to assume that 7633 is a number that includes an individual or family that has a car payment PLUS the operating expenses. About 10yrs ago, I had a $375/mo car payment. Not everybody has the time or patience or know-how to fix their own stuff. In that case, 650/month doesn't seem absurd, especially if you drive say 100 miles to work a day.

I don't know, but to me it seems like we stopped arguing about the "numbers" a while ago and now we're arguing just to argue.

Will

Well Will, if you go way back, JiveTurkey initially made the distinction between outright owning the car or having payments (he said "even if the car is paid off") which was never an issue with me from the beginning with Jive. If you don't have a job and own the car outright then $650.00 a month is beyond absurd, it's completely unrealistic. And as I'm sure you know, it's very possible to own a 15 to 20 year old car and have nothing go wrong with it for two years meaning that you have no repair expenses.

My step daughter owns a 1989 Buick Park Avenue, she doesn't work because right now, she's fighting cancer and cannot work. She still has to go to the store for food and clothes and activities associated with her 8 year old son. She puts about 4,500 miles a year on her car. She's had the car for three years now and has not incurred one, single repair expense during that time other than oil changes which can be done at a local quik-stop oil change place for less than $20.00. If you use a good filter, you don't need to change your oil for 7,500 miles so she's only changed the oil twice in three years.

So yeah, $650.00 a month is absurd...... The car gets 23 mpg so she spends a little over $50.00 a month on gasoline and around $40.00 per month on auto insurance. Property taxes on a car in Connecticut that is more than 20 years old are only ten bucks a year, registration is $45.00 per year and cars over 20 years old are not required to be emission tested so there are no yearly inspection fees. She even beat the $1,300.00 per year that most of you think is way too low but at least I'm giving a real life example here instead of some made up $hit like hefty found on Al Gore's internet.

And there is no bus service or bus passes in East Haddam, CT.