Family Car vs No Car Cost

What this means

No waffle. Just the number and how it was worked out.

Formula used

Totals annual car ownership costs (finance/depreciation, insurance, fuel, parking, servicing, and other running costs) and compares against annualised no-car costs (public transport, car club, and taxis). Returns the annual and monthly difference.

Worked example

Car finance $6,000, insurance $1,800, fuel $2,400, parking $1,200, servicing $800: total $12,200/yr. PT $150/month, car club $100/month, taxis $200/month: $5,400/yr car-free. Car costs $6,800/yr more — for some city families, a real surprise.

Common questions

Should I include depreciation or finance payments?
If you own the car outright, use annual depreciation (roughly 15–20% of value in year one, falling over time). If you're financing, use your annual loan payments. If leasing, use annual lease payments. The goal is to capture the true annual cost of having the car, not just running costs.

What counts as a car club?
Car clubs (or car-sharing services like Zipcar, Turo, or Enterprise CarShare) let you book cars by the hour or day. They're ideal for the journeys that public transport can't cover. If you'd use one ten times a month, estimate your monthly spend including booking fees.

Does this work for families with children?
Yes — the car-free figure should include any extra taxi or rideshare spend for school runs, activities, and shopping that would be hard to do by public transport. In some cities this makes the no-car option clearly impractical; in others (dense urban areas with good transit) families genuinely do it.

Why does this surprise people?
Most people think about fuel and insurance but forget parking, depreciation, and the compounding of small running costs. And they underestimate what they'd actually spend on transport without the car. The tool forces both sides of the comparison.