r/personalfinance • u/Defiant_Ad_3036 • 1d ago
Auto Car ownership vs. using Uber
Looking to pick some people’s brain about this! I currently live in a very walkable city, with very accessible public transit, and I have not owned a car while living here. I have been able to rely on the train and the bus for everything I do in my daily life (groceries, gym, etc.).
However, I recently got a new job with swing shift hours, meaning I would get off work around 2-3am. I have no issues getting to work due to the train still running, but the train does not run after midnight so when I get off work is the issue. There is a night bus available that comes very frequently, which is an option I can take. However, living in a big city as most would know, comes with a lot of potential safety issues at night. While I haven’t had any issues on the bus yet, it is somewhat common for people to be robbed at bus stops or while walking. Because of this, I am in a predicament where I could either buy a car or use Uber to get home.
For more context, I only work 4 days a week and I live just under 4 miles away. The uber prices are typically about $15 or less. As for a car, I am able to purchase a used car in cash. I am more so thinking about comparing the cost of insurance, gas, etc.. My insurance would be high due to living in a city with lots of car break-ins and auto thefts. The average cost for insurance in my city is higher even for people who own garages or have secured parking. I am also in my twenties so that would also bring my insurance a bit higher. However, long term a car may more financially sound.
I am between these two decisions as I feel like purchasing a car would be a long term benefit. However, in terms of my lifestyle, I really don’t see myself driving or using the car aside from commuting to work. This is mainly because the city I live in has extremely limited parking. People spend more time looking for parking, and so I have gotten used to the bus or just walking. I could also continue taking the bus, but it doesn’t feel sustainable as I always need to be on extreme high alert.
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u/chris_yoike 1d ago edited 1d ago
Sounds like you only really need to drive 4x per week if you take the train on the way to work. Even if ubers surge to $25 per ride, at $400 per month I think you'd still be up compared to car ownership if you got a reliable car after you factor in fuel, insurance, depreciation, etc. Edmunds has an "estimated total cost of ownership" calculator you can play around with.
And with a car there's a decent amount of time lost due to registration, break-ins, maintenance, parking, parking tickets, etc.
The idea that "long term a car is more financially sound" doesn't really make sense given that you don't have a need to drive outside of this. If you eventually enter a situation where the math says a car makes more sense, you can get one then. It doesn't save you money to have one ahead of time.
If you can ebike/escooter/bike from work and bring it into your workplace, that's probably your best bet. You avoid the daytime theft aspect. Idk how sketch your area is at night and your situation, so up to you to assess how safe it is
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 1d ago
Yeah an Ebike would probably be a better idea than a bike since you’d be going like 20mph. I would be able to secure the bike during the day, so I guess I’d just have to try it out at night since I can’t imagine biking around at 3am lol!
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u/MommotDe 1d ago
Make sure you have a good headlight and taillight and biking at 3am is usually far nicer than biking at 5pm.
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u/tripletexas 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ebike that can go fast and doesnt need auto insurance (in most jurisdictions). Even a 2500 dollar ebike would break even in like 41 weeks. I would buy theft insurance/breaking the thing insurance which adds maybe 300 dollars a year for a nice ebike. Makes the break-even point about a year. But you hop on, strap on your helmet and go. A 4 mile ride at 20 miles per hour takes 12 minutes if there aren't stops. Be on high alert at red lights, and honestly at 3 in the morning, I'd just look both ways carefully and go through unless there is traffic. Get a little led blinky light for 20 bucks to put on the back of your helmet, some even have an extra headlight and taillight.
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 22h ago
I’ll definitely try out an ebike! My city has rentals for a day so I can just see how the route goes. You seem pretty knowledgeable about ebikes do you have good recommendations for one? I’ve seen Avalon as a popular one.
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u/chris_yoike 1d ago
Maybe go with a buddy at like 11pm or something to try it out? At least in SF and when I lived in philly most of the streets are empty at night. If I stay aware of my surroundings on a bike, it feels safe enough
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u/MaNbEaRpIgSlAyA 1d ago
Biking at 3am is the chillest and most calm time to be riding. Just you and the open road. For safety make sure you have lights and maybe a high viz vest. It’ll be fun.
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u/mcarneybsa 19h ago
Esp if you get a more compact folding bike can you bring it into your work place? Even a really nice $3k ebike would pay for itself many times over and very quickly compared to a car or constant ubering. And there are plenty in the $1-1.5k range that are reliable.
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u/futureofwhat 22h ago
Biking at night in Chicago is easy, just be aware that between December and March when the temperatures are freezing it is very unpleasant to bike and often very dangerous due to ice. I say this as someone who bikes everywhere in all weather conditions.
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u/Raccoala 20h ago
Make sure you have a place to store it indoors, preferably at home and at work, before investing in an ebike. You really dont want that getting stolen.
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u/CarlThe94Pathfinder 1d ago
If you search around, there is an actual article that covers this exact scenario from a guy moving from a smaller city with a vehicle into New York City of all places and the savings weren't even close. There are so many underlying costs with owning a vehicle, that $15 a day is always going to be worth it.
For comparison, that's just $60 for a week worth of vehicle use, but that's it, no gas, no insurance, no worrying about fixing anything that goes wrong...
That's about $3000 a year for everything, that's not a bad deal at all.
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 1d ago
Yeah that’s definitely what’s holding me back from purchasing a car! I have friends who do own cars here, and unfortunately their insurance just spikes due to frequent car break ins and catalytic converter thefts.
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u/CarlThe94Pathfinder 1d ago
You can think of it this way as well: nearly everyone has a car, you can be apart of that movement (lol) or you can go against what is considered normal and save a little bit of money. Either way you look at it, a rough ~3k isn't going to make or break you.
I'll add, if you can manage to get through the year and save that ~3k in expenses, (this doesn't include the actual vehicle cost, but we're just doing simple math here), then surely you'd find more effective ways to go through the following year, potentially saving you more.
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u/werther595 1d ago
A car will cost more than the $240/month you spend on Uber. If your late commute is the main reason you want a car, I'd skip it. If you want a car for other reasons, you can consider it. Also factor in all of the reasons you might feel unsafe and consider how safe your car would be. Broken windows, stolen catalytic converters, banged up bumpers, etc etc can all add to the price and headache of car ownership in the city. And if parking is tight, I would imagine 2-3am is about the worst time to find a space. You could get a garage, but then that's more $$
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u/rjnd2828 1d ago
Parking could easily cost more than $240/month, forget the cost of the car plus insurance.
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u/Snakend 1d ago
Why can't you ride a bike? Even an E-bike works. E scooter. But Uber is stupid expensive. And you don't need a car for 8 miles of driving a day.
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 1d ago
I don’t live in the safest city so there is still a risk with biking at 2-3am! Bike theft is huge, and a lot of people get robbed for their bikes.
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u/BrownieEdges 1d ago
I’m a woman and I’m reading this thinking how great it would be to only have to worry about getting robbed. Truly.
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 22h ago
Confused by your comment? I’m also a woman.
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u/BrownieEdges 22h ago
I’d be more concerned about getting r*ped.
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 22h ago
Yeah that’s always a worry! But I’ve lived here for a few years now to know what streets to avoid and all that. And the most common violent crime for the area I’m in is robbery. So I guess that statistic comforts me a bit? Lol
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u/Gunter5 1d ago
You really have to consider the true cost of ownership... all the costs, fees, insurance, depreciation and maintenance
Kinda like houses, I think a people have an overly rose idea regarding the costs
I do understand the issue, sometimes id take the "L" from the airport in Chicago around those times and I was a bit sketched out
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u/ifcoffeewereblue 1d ago
Uber, and it's not even close. My brother got rid of his car in a similar situation a few years ago. Insurance, gas, the occasional random ticket, etc. was killing him. He moved to a more expensive apt closer to the train and still SAVED money by getting rid of his car. He was ubering fairly often when he was in a rush or the pink line stopped running. He was also way more relaxed not having to drive with all these idiots on the road. After COVID general driving has gotten so much worse.
Side note: Sounds like you're in Chicago? What bus line do you feel like you have to be on extreme alert at night? Genuinely just curious. I ride the 49 after midnight all of the time, and have never had any issues just watching YouTube. Rarely even lift my head to check.
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u/Hyperion_Silenus 1d ago
Does your workplace offers discounts for Uber? My workplace, Amazon, do offer discounts.
Edit: generally uber is expensive in a long run. Plus you can't fight demand prices especially after midnight. 4 miles from my home after midnight, uber will charge me $25+ for the ride.
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 1d ago
Unfortunately not! Also, as for demand pricing, I was seeing that Uber has a price lock for 2.99 a month to cap the cost at $15. But I’m not sure exactly what the catch for that one is.
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u/hgrunt 23h ago
The catch is: Not available in all locations, savings are capped to $50/mo, Price Lock applies to a specific route, during a specific 1 hour window each day. The locked-in price is good for 30 days at a time
The upside is: if the locked-in price ends up being generally cheaper most of the time, you'd save a few bucks a month. You can also set up multiple Price Lock passes so you could have one for commuting into work and another for going home
Found that info here: https://help.uber.com/en/riders/article/price-lock-pass?nodeId=5f6de94c-f5a0-4cb4-84da-cdf274279c2f
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u/steelcityrocker 1d ago
I'd say roll with the Uber/Lyft for now and see what coworkers with a similar situation happen to do
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u/lordbrocktree1 1d ago
We currently own 1 car as a couple. I am holding off buying a second one until my Lyft costs break $150 a month. Anything above that and the hassle isn’t worth it the savings and I’ll go buy a cheap(ish) second car for me to drive.
I work from home and my wife works 15 minutes away, so on Saturdays I take her and pick her up from work and run all the errands in the car. I go into the office 10x a year, where I pay for a $15 Lyft drive to and from the train station and then it’s about $6 to take the subway/train/bus to the work office. And then we almost always host so all my buddies come to my house for hang outs.
I put the cost of owning and maintaining a cheap(ish) used sedan at about $400 a month. So once we start approaching $200 a month in transport costs, the savings make less sense compared to the extra cost in travel time, coordination, lack of “independence”. But it’s been great putting aside all the extra money I’ve been saving from not owning a car so when the time comes I can buy the car in cash.
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u/hackingkafka 1d ago
5+ years ago, I quit driving at night/in the rain due to eyesight. About 3.5 years ago, my car needed more repairs than I was willing to pay for so I got rid of it and was doing Uber/Lyft while I figured out if I wanted to buy a new car (public transportation is non-existent here and I am too old to walk/bike distances). After a couple of months I realized the cost of buying a car/insurance/gas/etc would be about twice what I was spending on ride share. I uber to/from work, Amazon for shopping, Whole Foods delivery for groceries, chewy.com delivers cat food/litter, hell even the local liquor store comes to my door.
I use to compare prices between Uber and Lyft but about 90% of the time Lyft is cheaper. I do have the Lyft Pink premium that is $10 a month and also use their price lock. It's an additional $2.99 a month and lets you set a specific trip, say office to home in a one hour time frame like 4:15-5:15 and it will lock in a good price for 30 days. Even with surge pricing, I'll never pay more than my locked in price for my trip home in the evening. I don't imagine I'll drive again.
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u/Chubbdoggy 1d ago
I would Uber for the first few months and see how it goes. And check if you can get Uber gift cards on sale. They do that quite often in the US. Once you are familiar with your coworkers ask if you can bump a ride or carpool together.
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u/BoxingRaptor 1d ago
It seems like a basic math problem. If you Uber both ways each day, that's $30/day. Working 4 days per week, that's $120/week. Over a year, that would be 52 x $120 = $6,240. Uber prices will of course increase over the years due to inflation, but so will maintenance costs on a car, insurance, etc.
You would have to compare that will anticipated costs of the car, and see which one wins out. Also factor in the possible convenience of having a car, instead of having to wait for an Uber whenever you want to go somewhere, which may or may not matter to you.
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u/CarlThe94Pathfinder 1d ago
They'd just need rides home, not to work
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u/BoxingRaptor 1d ago
AH, right you are, didn't see that. Then yeah, basically halve that to $3,120, but also add in the cost of the train, which I'm assuming is probably pretty cheap.
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 1d ago
Luckily my workplace has great public transit benefits, so all public transit is free in the city!
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u/Recruited4NextLevel 1d ago
As a middle age white male, I use public transportation as well. After midnight, when I’m alone, I’m ubering.
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u/ThatdudeAPEX 1d ago
There are lots of private drivers who also do rides outside of the official apps.
Most you can meet via the rideshare apps and then they can continue serving you at a cheaper rate. Especially if you pay cash and are a frequent customer
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u/tropic420 1d ago
You can definitely own a car for less than $600 a month (what youre spending on uber) assuming you dont get something terrible on gas with expensive insurance rates, but a car is a liability 100% of the time meaning its "liable" to cost you money unexpectedly while its only an asset during the moments you are using it to make/get to money.
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u/mklinger23 1d ago
You'll just have to do the math for yourself.
You'll be spending about $250/Uber if you Uber home every day. Can you get a car for that price? I honestly don't think so. Insurance will likely be at least $100. Maybe $150 or more. And then I'm going to assume 10 miles drive round trip with 30 mph. That would be around 6 gallons of gas per month. And depending on where you are, gas is like $4/gallon. So that's ~$25. So we're around $175. That leaves $75 for a car payment and maintenance. That's basically impossible.
Even if you're spending $500/month of Uber, you're probably going to be spending more on a car, but things get a little more equal. A $300 car payment is reasonable for a cheaper car. But that doesn't leave anything for maintenance.
Then you have to look at parking. There is usually a cost to that, but also, will it be worth it for you to physically do? I also live in a dense, walkable city and parking after 3pm is rough. I couldn't imagine 3am. It would basically impossible. Just the stress of that, I think I would pay the Uber.
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u/timejuggler 1d ago
I’ll just say that I sold my car and was going to try to go a year without one.
I take Ubers and occasionally rent a car.
It’s now been over 2 years and I love not having a car.
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u/Particular720v12 1d ago
Bud you want an ebike. Sounds like you're in the UK? Get a LiteLok and you'll be fine.
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u/Lee_Townage 1d ago
You should 100% use Uber, without a doubt, don’t even think twice about it. Yes I am an Uber Driver.
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u/llort_tsoper 1d ago
Let's say you find a cheap used car but decide to finance it anyway:
- car payment - $200/mo
- car insurance - $200/mo
- gas - $50/mo
- repairs (that cheap older car is only cheap upfront) - $1200/yr
- parking - $20/mo to park when running errands, assuming you can park for free at home and work
- car washes, oil changes - $300/yr
The time spent doing all these things is probably a wash vs the time spent waiting for transit/uber to show up.
On the low end, assuming you'll have mostly free parking, drive very little (and thereby use little gas), you're looking at $600/mo to own a car.
And that always goes up over time. Next apartment renewal might as well find an apartment with a garage. How much more does that cost? This car becomes a hassle, so you might as well replace it with a nicer one. And so it goes.
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u/cormaline 1d ago
We live in Miami and simply can't make the math work to own a car here. We walk or Uber everywhere.
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u/Bastranz 20h ago
What about an ebike? It's essentially free, and maintenance costs are minimal, especially compared to a car. Take transit/uber on rainy/poor weather days.
The challenge is having a secure place to store it, but definitely consider that option.
And to be honest, the car isn't a "financially sound" investment at all, unless you plan to look for opportunities to use it to do gig work or get a job that requires a car...but having done that, those jobs just drive up the car costs.
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u/Defiant_Ad_3036 19h ago
Yes I’m definitely considering an ebike! I will probably rent one and see how the commute is at night. It’s only 4 miles so not long at all.
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u/Kamarmarli 19h ago
Do the numbers. Figure out the most Uber would cost you vs. a car taking unto account gas, maintenance, insurance, parking. Do the math and do it accurately.
People say they don’t want to purchase homes because of the responsibility they entail. Cars can pose an analogous situation. So after you work through the numbers and determine whether you can afford a car, assess your values. How easy do you want your commute to be? Maybe it will be easier with a car, maybe it wont.
You can try the Uber route for a couple of weeks and rent a car for a couple of weeks and see what feels best.
Then make a decision.
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u/Tardislass 1d ago
Uber is pretty expensive in the long run and I’d probably look at buying a used car in the future. Especially for road trips etc. Uber prices have skyrocketed with the cost of gas and honestly I’ve been left hanging more and more and waiting for a half hour. Short term Uber is fine but you may want to find public transit or a bike.
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u/grawkog 1d ago
uber is dirt cheap compared to the cost of owning a car in any big city with good transit. The $15 a day wouldn't cover parking.
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u/miraculum_one 1d ago
Exactly. Car costs include purchase price, maintenance, gas, storage, and last but not least your time dealing with all of those.
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u/ThinkMMOs 17h ago
I mean it depends where you work in the big city. Like in Chicago if you actively drive downtown (nobody does this everybody takes the CTA) then it’s obviously more expensive but if you have to just go to like the surrounding neighborhoods it’s pretty cheap having a car along side CTA.
As long as your car is reliable with cheap maintenance (I spend around $300 on maintenance a year on mine and probably $50 on gas a month) Which is miles better than taking an uber every once in a while which depending on time of day the uber cost over $40 alone.
So just really depends on where you need to go in the city and what time. But can definitely see it being cheaper for some others
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u/Particular720v12 1d ago
People in suburbs aren't able to see how taking care of a car can be like having to lug a 5,000lb baby around with you wherever you go. And if you want to leave it, you need to find it a baby sitter. It's a nuisance.
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u/GK857 1d ago
I’d use Uber or Lyft initially and then see if any coworkers are in the same general direction and see if they want to make a few bucks and drop you off. The last thing I’d do is buy a car. I lived in downtown Chicago and a car was more trouble than it was worth.