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Cost of a Second Car vs Lyft/Uber

Very few of us ponders this question. Since we got rid of our second car some 18 months ago we have basically been using Lyft/Uber as our second car http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=1565&do=blog&quickforward=1&id=1127277 . The question raised by the title of this article naturally becomes interesting particularly we did not feel our life style become constrained due to the owning of only one car.

The basic fixed costs of an old second car are insurance, depreciation, repair, and tax with insurance being the predominant cost. Gasoline cost can be relevant if you use the second car a lot. In any case, I estimated that the fixed cost of a second car being about $2,000.00. Using an average cost of a Lyft/Uber ride being $25.00. Then the breakeven point is 80 rides/year – something definitely way above the number of times we have used such service. Since rides are almost always available within 5 minutes in our experience, not owning a second car was definitely a good decision for us older persons besides saving money.