This year, I went car-free for a few months. In this post, I calculated the cost of car ownership and decided that owning a car was too expensive for me and I would stick with using public transportation. Then, I said that if I was offered a “free” car, I would considered having a car.
My “Free” Car
I mentioned briefly in this post that my parents decided to let me use their car, again. My dad has been dropping my mom off at work in the mornings, and my mom just got used to my dad carting her around everywhere. (My mom loathes driving).
My dad got a little tired maintaining two cars while just driving one, and asked if I wanted to take it off his hands, temporarily. And that’s how I got my “free” car.
I don’t really need a car, but it does make life easier – such as going to volleyball games after work, and going home on the weekends to visit my parents. I don’t need it to get to work, though, nor do I need to see BF downtown. On weekends that I’m downtown, I usually leave me car at my apartment and subway it down.
A “Free” Car Still Costs Money
A Side Note: In March, the big coffee company in Canada, Tim Horton’s has the “Roll up the Rim to Win” contest where under the rim of each cup of coffee, there is a chance to win various prizes- including a car.
I realized that if I were to be so lucky to win a Toyota Matrix (or another car) with the 1/2 cup of coffee I drink a week , I would still have to pay for things before I could drive it. The cost for having a car is not just in the car itself, it’s in the licensing, insurance, gas, maintenance, etc.
Insurance is Killer
When I was shopping around for insurance, realized that if I were to get my own insurance, I ‘d be paying around $2,000 a year. Insurance in Ontario sucks. It is so ridiculously expensive.
Right now I am under my parents’ car insurance. Since, we have 3 drivers and 2 cars, it would be less than if I were to get my own insurance.
$2,900/year
That’s the quote that my dad recieved for our family car insurance premium (includes my parents and me). Since I now know the real cost of owning a car, I wanted to help my parents out a bit while I use their car. So I decided to pay for all the insurance for the priviledge of driving their car.
This is definitely a luxury for me and it just makes places a lot easier to get around. As much as I hate to admit it, a car does have its perks.
How much would a “free” car cost you?
Cheers,
Another side note: The above picture of the Jaguar, is not the free car that I have 🙂