Cars & motorcycles

Because of my disabilities I can only drive a modified car, and can't afford to buy one or get lessons at the moment, so neither for me.

I *am* saving up to modify my wheelchair though. An engine on that thing would rock!

 

I've owned a 1999 Mitsu Eclipse for almost 9 years. Good car.

 

2000 Honda Civic. Great car.

 

Splunge: Do you actually have 20 cars, or are you joking?

I know cars are really cheap in the US, but owning 20 cars, including among them a Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW, etc?

You have to be either really rich or the owner of a car dealership

 

Public transport is the way to go.

Especially as a poor student when parking in most of the city is almost impossible to find.

 

Well I work for Toyota, so, I have a Toyota. A small Aygo, since petrol prices are almost off the scale in Holland. 1.54 euro for one litre. It has an 1.0 litre engine!

 

I've got a 1.2L 16v opel corsa.

It's a tiny car.

 

Car - '89 Toyota Corolla. Wish I lived closer to public transport and didn't need it though. It's a very useful thing to have, sure, but the cost is pretty steep and only getting steeper.

 

Well, although it's totally contrary to my persona on the Boards, yes - I'm joking.

Actually, I own a 2003 Camry, and my wife has a 2006 Corolla.

 

The wife and I own a 2003 VW Jetta.

Where I live, it's too cold and snowy during late autumn, winter, and early spring to drive a motorcycle. And since the only one I would ever want is more than $10,000...I don't think I'll be getting a bike anytime soon.

Besides...we're moving 1.5 miles closer to work and slightly closer to friends and family, so commuting isn't bad.

My older brother actually got hit while riding his bike in LA. Some lady went the wrong way through a round-a-bout (or traffic circle if you prefer). He has the traffic cam pictures of the crash too. We laugh about it now, but when he got hit, he flew pretty far. He doesn't ride a bullet bike anymore, but he still has a Harley.

 

No vehicle, no licence. Public transportations are fine for where I need to travel anyway. Maybe one day in the future I'll own one but meh.

 

Are cars really cheap in the US? I have heard the arguement that cars are cheaper to operate in the US due to lower gas prices (although at $3 per gallon, the gap isn't as wide as it used to be). I have never heard that the actual cost of the vehicle though was significantly less in the US than anywhere else. In fact, given the number of large cars/trucks/SUVs/minivans that you see in the states, and with the correspondingly larger engines, I would think that the exact opposite is true - that if anything, you'll spend more for the average car in the US than elsewhere.

I haven't done the research on this, but for just a run of the mill mid-sized car with basic features - like a Toyota Camry, which is the most sold vehicle in the US for the past several years - costs around $20,000. If you have a large family and need something like a mini-van/large car/SUV to transport them, you'll be lucky to find a used vehicle for less than $20,000. The average household income in the US last year was about $45,000. So almost half of what a family earns in a year doesn't sound like "really cheap" to me.

 

I don't know about gas prices in Europe, but here in Brazil gas is still much more expensive than in the US. The price of a gallon here, is pretty close to $5. It's true that the difference isn't as wide as it used to be, but it's still pretty large. Car prices I don't think are much different, but I believe we tax it a lot though.

I used to own a Ford Focus '04, but sold it a couple of months ago, bought me a Fiat Palio '01.

 

Well, in Canada, where $1 Cdn basically equals $1 US, yes - the US is a lot cheaper. That $20K Camry in the US starts at $26K in Canada. The price discrepancy was understandable a couple of years ago when the Canadian dollar was only worth $0.70 US, but now that the Canadian dollar has risen in value relative to the US dollar, and the prices in Canada haven't really changed, there really isn’t any justification for such a significant difference in cost. And the problem doesn’t just apply to cars – most items in Canada are more expensive than in the US.

 

Aldeth: Yes, it's still cheaper to buy a car in the US, and the cost of petrol in the US is still lower.

According to www.toyota.com.au, the basic Camry model starts at $28,490 AUS. According to Google, 1 US dollar is $1.1285 Australian dollars, so it's still cheaper in the US.

A gallon of petrol is about 3.78 litres, at $3 US a gallon, that's about $3.40 AUS for close to 4 litres of petrol - current petrol prices in Perth, Western Australia now hover around the $1.30 AUS mark per litre, and have soared to above the $1.40 AUS mark.

Is your average income per household per annum figure gross, or net after tax? If you earned that amount per year in Australia, your income tax would be around 30%, therefore the cost of a new car would be more than half your annual net income.

 

I drive a 1998 GMC Sierra (truck), it's nice, although I would like something with a bit better mpg (fill ups cost me... well, my parents, 80+ dollars).