If you have questions about how these numbers came to be, check out my sources and calculations: 1drv.ms/x/s!AnEbV6tNc655iOxRCEGuJwAYd6SCEw?e=rQilM0 If you are looking for an e-bike, check out the Cowboy (affiliate link): www.tkqlhce.com/click-100602223-15255602 Corrections: - The 4144 EUR rail ticket apparently includes free city-wide transit as well. I didn't know this, but that would make the calculation at 6:18 even cheaper. Clarifications: - The Berlin public transport figures only include BVG, not S-Bahn & Regio (both cost and revenue side). This is done simply because BVG figures are more easily broken out, while the rail figures are harder to separate from the German Rail figures who runs them. Note that this means that there are actually more people taking public transportation because of this than I said, but for the sake of a cost calculation, the BVG figures should be accurate. - Note that I'm comparing total cost of car ownership (including non-financialized externalities, such as pollution) vs. public transport/bikes costs, which don't fully include externalized costs. This is because such numbers have not been accurately been made for a comparison as far as I know. This means this is not a perfect comparison. That said, keep in mind that public transport companies, unlike private car owners, do have to directly pay for the vast majority of their own infrastructure except bus lanes (rail infrastructure, parking, repair, accidents, etc.), and cause much less pollution (a tram here in Berlin does 1/7th per passenger vs. cars for example) and meanwhile bikes take up about 1/10th as much space for both parking and riding as cars + their roads don't need to be re-paved nearly as often. So keep in mind that these costs are not included, but they would hardly tip the scales.

Great summary! I'm constantly amazed at how much regular drivers underestimate the cost of driving. They usually don't think past gas and maybe insurance. At the municipal level, the non-profit organization Strong Towns has done extensive calculations across dozens of cities to show that sprawling car-centric infrastructure is always a net-negative for cities, and it has many knock-on costs to other infrastructure (especially water and sewer costs) that are literally bankrupting cities. But because cars are expensive - horrendously expensive - people who pay for them think they've paid their way, and there's an entitlement from many drivers. Meanwhile, in the majority of cities, local roads are paid for by property tax or local sales taxes, which means that everyone in the city pays for local roads, regardless of whether they drive or not. If you want cyclists to "pay their way", then you should start calculating their refund cheques. On a personal note, my next video (coming out on Monday) talks about how our family has saved tens of thousands of dollars since we went car free. That has been so financially liberating for us, but it's only possible because the cities we live in were designed properly. Many people (and especially Americans) don't have that luxury, which is a major problem.

I am from Delhi, India. The Delhi Metro has completely revolutionised the travelling habits of the people. Its high speed, clean and air conditioned transportation that charges you a fraction of what you would spend on fuel. It has evidently reduced the number of cars on the roads. Then came Uber and Ola, the ride share apps which has completely subsided the need for owning a car. My father is surprised how I have been earning since 5-6 years and refuse to buy a car. (I just take his if I need. 😂)

I think you made a massive oversight in this video. No sane person with a low income buys a new car every 4-6 years. Most people in that income class don't buy new cars ever. They buy used cars, which drastically reduces cost of ownership. Also, I'd argue that a VW Golf isn't exactly a bottom-shelf car, it's actually rather expensive. Something like a used Renault Clio or Renault Twingo would be a more likely candidate (New VW Golf starts at 30k€, new Renault Clio starts at 17k€, for reference). I'm not saying all your arguments are false, they are actually quite valid, I'm just saying the cost of car ownership might be quite overblown compared to the real world.

My extended family of 4 living in the suburbs of Florida, USA has 5 vehicles: two SUV's- one of them a junker for carrying groceries/furniture/construction the other SUV for moving family/friends and roadtrips, one expensive BMW Sedan purely for one person to drive to work (merely as a status symbol haha), and another sedan and hatchback for two young adults in college. Even though they are constantly repairing them, and literally have no room in the driveway to park them (so much that one has to be reparked on the street when mailman is not there), there is 0 chance they would get rid of them. Their convenience and other perks just outweigh any other benefit in the United States, it is a starkly different world than here in Europe.

I agree with everything, except one financial detail, people always take the new car cost in calculation, but most private people don't buy a brand new car, but a car that is a few years old. So I think it would be more fair to take a 4 year old Golf and let somebody use that for 10 years, and then they buy another 4 year old Golf etc... Richer people of course can buy new cars, but I think they are not the majority.

Techaltar is going full orange pill and I’m here for it!

I read an article saying something like this before I bought my first car, so I decided to systematically write down every single expense I have with it into an Excel spreadsheet. So including all insurance, servicing, gasoline, tires, road taxes, depreciation, etc. And I came up with just under 20.000€ over 7 years and 90.000 km. So as I have suspected, owning a car is not terribly expensive at all if you buy a reasonable car.

Small correction for 6:24: You most likely would not even need the 978€ ticket for Berlin as the BahnCard 100 that lets you travel by train in Germany actually includes CityTickets for local public transportation in 130 cities including Berlin (Zones A+B)

The Bahncard 100 actually includes local transportation! It is valid on the entire BVG and S-Bahn network too, you don't need to add the numbers. That is how it makes sense for a lot of people to own. If you are regularly in two cities, it quickly makes sense. I also know people who live a digital nomad lifestyle using it, where they will spend a lot of nights on the train.

One thing I think people misjudged: expensive cars doesn't get more subsidy from the public than cheaper cars, heavier cars/trucks/busses do. If we only ran light cars and motorcycles our roads would last several years more than our practical use with heavy vehicles to transport our stuffs and people, the impact on road materials increases a lot with the high weight vehicles.

Wait so you counted both car payment & depreciation in your calculations? That's a pretty big mistake that inflates your numbers A LOT. Especially since depreciation is not a fixed cost.

Great video. Great arguments. Very informative yet very easy to get a grip on such a massive topic. Thanks a lot!

As a South African I can’t imagine how a functional public transport system would even look like for me to consider not owning a car.

I've owned the same car for 15 years, so not overly concerned about depreciation. Insurance, tax and maintenance on the other hand are massive expenses

Awesome stuff. This was well documented and well researched, I really enjoyed it and found it informative

"3000€ of depreciation every year" wow I didn't know that my car lost 300% of its value during the three years of me owning it, plus now there are a lot of solutions that avoid this "cost".

The "All of Germany" annual train pass costs about the same as an annual season ticket from London to Chelmsford in Essex (a 31 mile journey). You can't use this ticket for ANY other journeys and if you need to travel onwards in London to anywhere else you'll need another £500-£1200 for a tube pass. You don't even get a guaranteed seat for that money either. Cars are a pain but UK trains are horrendously expensive.

Man, I love cars, I’m a car guy, but I absolutely agree with your points. Cities are for people, not for cars. Also car prices are ridiculous for average human or even a city (I mean road maintenance and parking spaces losses for city budget). If you don't absolutely need a car or just want car as a hobby don’t buy one.

I don't know how it's possible but my yearly cost of owning a 2017 Skoda Octavia (bought second hand for 12k euros) is nowhere near the estimated 7600 euros mentioned in the video. I summed up all my costs and I am well below 3000 euros per year (including depreciation).

This channel produces amazing material 👏👏👏 Thanks for all your hard work.

as a bike only person since 6 years, the social costs really drive me crazy. (tho I would say I am a pretty big car enthusiast) Especially in Berlin, bike paths are in super bad condition and it is so frustrating to drive a bike through the city. Funny that you picked Linienstraße for the A-Roll in the beginning - the only street I enjoy driving at! Great video, please bring more of these less tech related videos. Update: As an EV-owner you even get yearly money (something up to 300€) for your carbon credits... Who is paying me to drive a bike?

Most people (I know) do take cost of ownership into account. It's just that currently the alternatives aren't good enough. Biggest reasons to resist this is something you don't talk about: "Time to travel", "public transport availability (or lack thereof)", and safety on/during the trip (if you're working irregular hours or work in shifts). And that's something I sadly enough notice in your video. Your pov is a work-from-home single person with no kids. That's not the home/work life of the average person. A lot of people have kids (which can require you to travel a lot an can require you to take more luggage with you than bikes would allow), and most people still need to go back-and-forth to their workplace. And these workplaces often lie in areas that are not easily reached by public transport. Or if they have a good public transport available, they only run (well) during 7-19h, which then handicaps people who work in shifts (which is the case with a majority of blue collar workers). People who start at 4-5 AM and/or work until 9-10 PM (not even mentioning night shifts) often can't access this type of public transport, or have to travel in less safe circumstances. For me personally it's time-to-travel & road safety that is holding me back. But luckily that's changing. The Belgian government is slowly rolling out bike highways (fietssnelweg) pathways, and one is scheduled to come on my road to work in the future, which would provide me with a safe road to work that's a lot shorter than the current alternatives.

Great video, thank you! I usually use my bike in Berlin, or, if I make a longer trip, I calibrate myself on the ring-bahn and bike from there. Combining the two is the most efficient in some cases. What surprised me is that it works in Denver (CO) as well. They only have a few lines, but they cover most parts of the city, you can transport your bike on them, wagons are almost always empty, trains come every 5-15 minutes, ALWAYS on time and it is relatively cheap -- although it is more of a donation as they don't really check tickets. In some areas there are gigantic bike lanes that no one uses. It'd assume it is a result of some overly-optimistic city development program. I was a bit afraid of their huge cars until I realized that, because people are so not used to seeing bikes on the road, they are parodically careful with you. What I'm trying to say is that even tho the city fits the general American metropolis stereotype when looking at how people actually commute, if you bring a European mindset with you, the infrastructure is more or less already there. Maybe it's more of a cultural and not so much of an infrastructural issue in the US. This is just Denver tho, could be different elsewhere.

That really sounds incredible. It would mean that I am after say 30 years of not owning a car (and few transit costs and the bike I maintain myself) I would be easily a half-millionaire. Which I am not. Still car numbers are always mind-boggling.

Brilliant stuff! Really enjoyed how you avoided the typical surface level argumentation and instead took us on a deep dive into the actual numbers of car dependency costs. Love it 👌

Fantastic video with the cost breakdowns. It is absolutely insane how much we spend and justify on car infrastructure when there are obviously more efficient ways to spend our time and money on transit.

Great video! This has motivated me to more closely pay attention and record how much I am actually spending. My goal is to keep using my current paid off car until I improve my circumstances to the point that I can get rid of it and go car-free

Good video, however, I would say it applies for countries where most of cars are bought brand new, i.e. Germany. Where I live (Bulgaria) probably upwards of 90% of cars are bought second hand. It comes as no surprise then that the average age of a car here is somewhere around 17 years. Even in larger cities, most "newer" cars are still around the 6-8 year mark. Most people I know do not change their cars in the 3-7 years span, irregardless if they are well off. Even if you see some high-end car brands like Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and such (talking about newer models or specifications), probably still 90% or more are not bought here brand new, but are imported after they have been driven abroad for around 5 years and their respective lease in that country has ended. As for what the costs are to actually own and run that car - this is actually one of the prime concerns here when buying a car. People really stress on whether the spare parts/repairs are cheap / fuel economy / reliability / actual cost to buy the vehicle. Probably that is the reason there are so many cars from the VAG Group here - virtually similar cars with a high degree of interchangeable parts. And bear in mind that Volkswagen isn't exactly a low-end car. At least here this segment is occupied by the likes of Dacia, Great Wall, Renault, Fiat. Volkswagen and the brands that comprise the group are actually middle to high end segment. Also - I wouldn't call a Golf tiny. It is actually a good representation of the average European's car - hatchback so that you can more easily find a parking space in a densely congested city, enough room for a family of 4 plus luggage, good fuel economy. Think the C-segment actually comprises about 1/5 of sales in Europe, could be wrong though. As for the Corsa - probably could call it tiny, but most people would call it a small city car. Cars like Smart, VW Up and such can be called tiny.

My only problem with this is calling the VW Golf a "small car" :D Idk maybe my standards are different but a small car is a Fiat Panda or even better a Smart. I would consider a VW Golf to be a normal sized car and the Mercedes you showed at the beginning to be a huge car. Sadly there is a trend to bigger cars even here in Germany and thats probably why you said a VW Golf is a small car. Cars are already incredibly inefficient and we keep making them even more inefficient. As a German myself, I hope all of Germany will finally wake up and realize how incredibly unsustainable cars are. Thank you for contributing to that and making this really well made video!

1:40 I feel this is a bit manipulative, since apart from private cars, roads are also used by healthcare, fire deps, police, supply, public transit and maybe more. So I wouldn't say that society is paying for the drivers, since roads are useful also for people without a car

Your videos are great man keep them coming 💪🏼

With a working public transportation system in a urban area I think especially single households can live just fine without a car. I lived in Berlin for a few months and soon decided to drive to work rather than take the train, this was due to the train taking 1h and 20min to my work place from home were as the car in rush hour was 30 - 40min. Those are savings of 40 - 50min each way so over 1:30h a day of my time saved. Also trains where often late when the weather was bad a many coworkers would come in late and have to work longer in the evenings even though they got up earlier than me. Compare this to Tokyo, (lived there for 5 years), where you really dont need a car. Trains where almost always faster and on time and the only time we used the car was for big shopping once a week for things like water etc. If public transport in Berlin and other urban parts of Germany where as good as it is in the Neatherlands, Denmark or Japan, I think we would see a lot more people stop using their cars.

You messed up the Excel formulae in the 60 year total and the figure made it into the video. You've summed B98:B137 and C98:C137 but these include the 50 year subtotals (and miss out the first 21 years of usage) which massively distorts the figure. If you're going to use subtotals like this I'd recommend you use the subtotal formula. The correct 60 year figures (based on the numbers you've decided to use) are 223,298 for the bike and 1,041,288 for the car. This sets the tone for the rest of my comment because if you were viewing any of this with a critical eye you might have noticed that the 60 year figure is more than double the 50 year figure. Suffice to say I think the approach you've taken is biased and overly simplistic. I'd also take issue with the approach to some of the figures you've used from studies (in particular the Gössling one) - the 'blame' for arising social problems caused by cars is being placed on car users ('selfish, stupid, ignorant drivers') with no critical analysis of the social factors affecting why people might *have to* use cars, and this whole video comes off as a sales pitch to get people to stop using cars which oversimplifies the complexities of the issues surrounding car use. I don't have the time to separate out which factors that have been added to the 'cost of car ownership' are fair to apportion to drivers themselves (I can think of several other interest groups that could bear responsibility for cars being necessary in the first place); that was supposed to be your job: to view the study with a critical eye rather than using it as a tool to sell bikes. This line from the Gössling study is interesting: "For example, many businesses provide vehicle parking facilities to employees and customers that are unpriced or priced below their full production costs (including land, construction and operating expenses), while providing no comparable benefit to those who travel by other modes." (And you make many similar arguments in the video.) I wouldn't consider taking less time to commute to be an employee benefit just because I live closer to work, that's time I'm saving because of where I live which isn't really either my choice (entirely) or my employer's; if an employee *needed* a car to get to work, it is surely appropriate that the employer provides a parking space, otherwise presumably the cost of parking would fall on the employee - why do both you and the study believe workers should be further penalised for driving to work if there is no other practical mode of transport? There are different ways of approaching this issue and this video gives no critical analysis. I'm disappointed to see the figures presented in the way they have been in this video. For example, you've given no explanation of why it would be appropriate to compare the cost of a car *including social costs* with the cost of public transport *without social costs* (did you think it was fair to assume that there were no social costs to public transport?), and then comparing just BVG subsidies with the full social cost of a car - what useful information is this actually giving us? I think the problem you have in tackling an issue like this is that making a simplistic comparison like this is never going to work - it's not providing information that can accurately assess the unique factors that motivate each driver to own and drive cars and whether or not it's possible or reasonable to ask them to ditch the car. I agree we need to reduce car usage but this video takes the wrong approach imo. What are the factors holding people back from shifting away from cars? I don't think you've adequately covered them in this video.

I think depreciation is highly overestimated in these calculations. If you use the new car more than 7 years or so, or count with second-hand car market figures you get a much lower number than €3100. My example is a 10 years old Suzuki Swift that depreciated £1700 in three years!

I loved the video. So did my own calculation for our car (family of three). I couldn't paste the excel sheet here (formatting reasons). But roughly, we spend about 410 euro per month for our car (or 4880 euro per year). We have bought a used Ford Fiesta Ecodrive from 2013 which had run around 30K prior. and have been using it for two years now. We roughly drive 12 to 13K Kms per year. I have assumed that we would use the car only for another 6 years (which is very conservative and I hope we use it for longer). At the end of those 6 years I have assumed I will get to zero euro from the car (so purchase price divided by 6 for each year.

Very informative. I’m curious if the social cost of roads factored in the need for road fort transport of supplies and goods?

yeah i'm a car enthusiast. and yeah, i like this video. we exist XD seriously tho, make cars a pleasure vehicle again. they should be a hobby, not a burden. i don't want to need a car. i want to love my car. i don't want to use it everyday, i prefer public transport.

A couple of issues in this video: 1. All calculations include 1-person households. A single car can be used by all people in a family, and that increases the alternative cost of public transport/bikes - the latter needs to be multiplied by the number of family members. Keep in mind that most discounts (e.g. for school kids) are subsidized by the government. 2. Car infrastructure in the cities - we need the infrastructure anyway for delivery and logistics. All businesses need to deal with transportation, and removing all public parking spaces (or charging the real-market value) would significantly increase the cost of all goods. 3. Lifetime cost of owning a car assumes that a household buys a brand new car. Value degradation/insurance/maintenance cost is not linear, the majority of the costs can be avoided when buying a used car (cheaper insurance, cheaper parts, smaller value degradation). 4. Alternatives presented are not viable at scale. For example, car sharing is amazing, except when everyone needs a shared car (bank holidays, vacation season). Rental car shortages is a real thing. 5. Alternatives presented are not viable for all people. For example, certain people with disabilities have significant problems with using bike / public transportation. Excluding them from owning a car could further result in isolation. 6. 60-year totals in the spreadsheet include costs of 50-year totals 😅 That being said, I still agree with the conclusion that majority of the people living in the cities does not need to own their car. But it won't be so easy to change - first we need to solve the problem of the end-point logistics being mostly based on cars.

This was verry thorough and informative. Thank you

I like your new focus in mobility and sustainability. Good video and lot of work behind

These numbers feel incredibly inflated, a standard 2018 golf in my country costs an average of 13k euros, maintenance 3-400e, fuel driving an average 20k a year @ 6l/100km @1.8euros/liter is 2.1k, insurance - 100e. The most it can depreciate is sub 1k a year as it starts off as not an expensive car. The absolute maximum being around 3.5k and even that is really pushing it. How do you even come up with 7.5k is beyond me.

As I realized a few months ago: "Nobody" wins with bikes. No insurance -> less "jobs" + taxmoney. It is a well established fact, that insurance companies are an essential part of society and always act in good faith. Less roadwear, better road utilisation -> less jobs at infrastructure companies. Can you imagine a germany without constant road construction/repair? This is a threat to our culture and way of life. Less fatal accidents (oh no, I fell from my bike at 10km/h) -> Poor pharma industry. What shall we do with all the surgeons? The liquor industry will collapse. Do you know how fun it is to stitch a 5 year old back together after a motorbike crashed into his family's car at 160km/h? The humanity. They will loose all will to work. Less money flow -> less taxes. A new bike costs at least 1/10 of a car. If we were to apply mass production price drops and car-equivalent gov subsidies, a great bike could be had for 200€. At that point you could make bikes free and wouldn't even need a lock, since everyone would have one anyway. Less political motivation -> What good and upstanding politician would accept bribes or "promises" from a bike company? No oil imports required -> No seat on the directors board as "retirement" for chancelors. No standout factor -> Great... You spent 10.000€ on a reaaally fancy bike (compare that to a fancy car, lol) and since there are no "SUV" bikes, nobody looks at you in envy, since nobody will even see you in at rush hour. Less air pollution -> How would you even keep the motivation of the plebs down, if they'd get constant exercise in high quality air? A fat + depressed + poor worker is a good worker. All jokes aside, we could literally build a f*cking canopy over ALL major bike lanes, invalidating the weather argument. And with all the money left, we could cyberpunk the sh*t out of our infrastructure with digital assistance and such. With all the money left over everybody could by an AR enabled safety helmet with live weather and traffic updates and entertainment.

This is awesome! Very well thought and documented.

sold my car few weeks ago and i am so happy! the car was just standing weeks long in the middle of berlin (s bahn nordbahnhof 10115) and was just sucking money for parking, taxes, insurance, future tüv ... now im back to carsharing when necessary or just bicycle!

I have concerns about the reliability of the lifetime income data on the table for lifetime car costs as a percentage of net income/wealth. I realize you didn't put that table together so I went looking for the source. The study in question says they used data from the German Federal Statistical Office and that their full calculations are in the supplement, but the lifetime income calculations are missing in the supplement. My concern is that they may not have inflation-adjusted the income data. The correlation between increases in inflation and income is complex, but that data needs to be adjusted somehow to account for the fact that ownership costs have been inflation adjusted, otherwise those figures are not comparable. Since the paper doesn't provide their calculations, I don't see a way to verify the reliability of their lifetime income data (short of recalculating their figures from the same income data they used and I don't have the energy to do that) It's a minor point since the video and that study are mostly about car ownership costs and those seem rock solid, it just bothers me. Otherwise great video!

I have a 1993 MX5. It doesnt depreciate anymore, its appreciating since 2020. Service is done by myself, parts and maintanence is very cheap. Its cheaper to run than public transport and saves me a lot of commuting time. Only an electric bike would be cheaper. Never buy a car on bank loan, buy used, pay in full.

This is one of the best and most important videos regarding cars on youtube period!

Thorough video from perspective of single preson living in huge crowded city. I live in Switzerlan where the cities are not as big but they are rather diversified, where public transportation works perfectly, where bike infrastructure is given a fair chance with cars, and I still own a car. Reason being I live in a smaller city near bigger one (for Swiss standards), have a family of four, and I use car mostly on the weekends for family trips, grocery shopping (yes, once a week full trunk 😁). I go to work by bike/public transport, which means I pay a tank of fuel per month. The full insurance is not that cheap, but tax is. I park in a garage place that comes with the apartment (so no taxpayers money there). Car also has free service included for 10 years... But the main reason is convenience! I have access to car sharing, but you have to plan it in advance, you have to get the child seats in some how... I value my time and flexibilty and this is hard to evaluate in spreadsheet. Knowing your car (the space you have in it, equipment, etc...) gives you a bit of piece of mind especially with kids... So yes, looking at the numbers, it makes sense what you say, especially in crowded cities, but there are other factors that are hard to put the price on. And I just did calculation for my case and it is nowhere near the numbers you suggest, for the car bigger and more expensive than Golf...

Here’s what’s interesting for me. I live in the U.S, for the last couple years I’ve been thinkin that a well designed and built public system would be more beneficial to citizens than having a car, and I’m the type of person that legit loves to drive. And I’ll admit, I live in a city that has, what I’d consider, a poor public transportation system. So having a car is pretty much necessary. But if my city and other cities across the country would agree to develop one mass or several mass transit infrastructures. The benefits I feel would out way the expenses us citizens would have to pay and we’d be saving money in the long run.

Small question about the calculations for 50 years cost of ownership, did you keep the depreciation in the calculations? Because the depreciation has a curve and cars usually depreciate up to a point then stagnate for a while. Was that taken into consideration?

Cost of car ownership is looked at through the microeconomics lens by us, or “how much do I pay for it”. This varies a lot, so it’s not very important. The much more important problem is related to cost of car ownership in cities. People owning motor vehicle in the countryside should not be a concern, the problem is the subsidies given to car commuting that encourages people to drive. The cost here seems high because it is calculated using city related figures. Bigger, more populous cities have gigantic car subsidies just by accommodating them and not charging drivers adequately. It might seem like a classist, dystopian nightmare to burden personal motor vehicle owners so much in city that only the needy and the rich can afford personal vehicle in cities, but that’s reality. We skewed the market by subsidising cars so much that we incur other cost to our health and time. Only by pricing it appropriately and combining with investment in dense mass transit and alternative transport can cities transportation be priced appropriately. It’s unfortunate but city transportation space and time are luxury and if you use it you should pay for it. In the countryside, this shouldn’t be an issue as large roads are subsidised by goods transportation. It works because there are not enough vehicles to be subsidised by goods volume. However, the moment there are enough cars using the same transport roads to cause traffic jam, the subsidy is used up and we enter deficit territory. That’s why only in and near cities are personal transport a big problem.

One of your best videos. Very thorough and thoughtful. Now that I am retired, I am giving serious consideration to getting rid of my car. I do love my new e-bike; it's just a pity the painted bicycle lanes don't really connect or go anywhere!

Have to call this out, your figures include depreciation. While this is relevant for new and newer cars, a person has the option of buying a pre-owned car that may have less value in total than your annual depreciation cost. If you look at this from the perspective of someone who buys a 10 year old car (e.g. a reliable Toyota) the figures become dramatically smaller.

I did a calculation for me here in Sweden, and my total cost/year for a large Jeep plugin hybrid, is about to €8000. I'm also including (several types of) road taxes & parking in that, estimated rather safely. Our public transportation is essentially garbage. It's also all different systems everywhere, so getting one of those "travel wherever you'd like", just doesn't exist. Hell, just going to the _next town over_ means a new company to buy a ticket from. UGH. Also, you should make a collab with Economics Explained on this ;)

Honestly, one of your best videos!

I really hope the Philippine government watches this video. This is exactly the reason why we need mass transportation and not just roads.

The one thing I feel like pointing out is that depreciation on used cars is way less than in new cars, which is what I understood you used for your calculations. My car depreciates less than €1000 euros per year, and maintenance is about the same. This are generous estimates. Insurance is about €500 per year. After this, only petrol remains of the direct costs.

Man without a car, in a city with good transport alternatives, complains about cars for 20m Cars are the result of poor transport options. My trip to work literally takes twice the time, and costs more on public transport in Sydney. Transport stops late at night, and makes visiting friends difficult. And even if that was all fixed, my bad back makes public transport impractical for most trips, as it hurts to sit on most transport seats, and makes it impossible to carry heavy/bulky items (which I’m often carrying).

Glad to see more people realizing that cars are not a necessity and there should be options for those who don't want to drive or own a car. People that want to drive are already catered to everywhere, let's help out the folks that want to move differently

I just used your arguments and figures in a discussion yesterday. Gonna send this video now to them.

Unless you live and work in a city center where you can bike to work and everywhere else you need to go, the time saved using a car instead of public transport easily makes up for any financial loss if your time is at all valuable. Add to that the convenience factor and the fact that most people don’t have effective public transport where they live and you’ll see why cars are worth it to people who own them.

A very timely and important Video after a prominent neoliberal politican of the government in Germany just claimed that subsidising public transport further would be "unfair to car drivers who don't use the offerings". Which is not only wrong since society is funding car infrastructure with enormous sums - but also glosses over the fact that owning and driving cars is absolutely wealth killer number one! Owning cars and the culture around it is singlehandedly responsible for a significant part of the population (especially on the lower-ish income spectrum) to never build any long term wealth and never save any money - thus keeping them from climbing the social ladder. It is a serious serious problem that really needs to be talked about way more. And this is a discussion that doesn't even bring the environmental aspect into this yet.

This video was excellent, thanks!

Hi, I really like your videos, great content, Just one question, how cost of parking per city was estimated? What I find a bit surprising, is the price tag on this space, if it wasn't for car storing, what utility that space would have...?

I think the Bahncard100(which I assume you meant by "all inclusive ticket") also allows you to take local transport. If so, at 6:16 you shouldn't add the 978€ on top.

This is my favorite video of yours by far. I really hope that urbanist ideas keep spreading quickly like they seem they have over the past couple years.

Instant like ! Great video, great subject

Really good Video and Spreadsheet! Thanks! I've noticed some typos that I just wanted to list if you want to fix them: A26: "service/yt" instead of "service/yr" L29: this should say "vehicles" since bikes are included K28: this should say "private vehicle ownership" since bikes are included

So..how does that work out if you buy a 20 year old car (corsa) park it on your own property, do the maintenance yourself and sell/wreck it at 25 years old? Only pensioners and companies can afford new cars around here, unless it's an "up".

Since half of car owners don't understand the costs of car ownership (including myself), can you explain the costs more fully at 2:48? What is included in "other?" You may also want to include a time factor for comparing different modes of transport. There is a cost for the amount of time it takes to get from door to door. Let's say walking is the cheapest form of transportation but it takes 1 hour to walk versus driving 15 minutes with a 5 minute walk from the parking to final destination. Taking the train might take 35 minutes plus a 10 minute walk, etc. There is a cost associated with these various times.

I am in NL and already very bicycle / public transport / walking minded, and this video still is an eye opener! I am amazed by the external costs of driving. How will we ever revert this driving situation? Thank you!

You are so right... When I got divorced, I calculated what a new car had cost me in 6 years... It was 80% of the purchase price of the car. I didn't really want to know....

Additional argument: not everything is about cost. Consider time. Time is money. Let's consider travels. With car i can go anywhere directly. With public transportation your trip time can take twice as much time. Public transport is often late in Poland. If you have to wait for 3 hours because it is just late is really terrible. Another thing: consider travelling with kids. It is much more time efficient since you can pick multiple relatives in the city in multiple places.

The thing is, I don't choose to go by car to save money, I use it to save time. There are some places in my city that by using public transport It takes twice as much time. Moreover at nightime where there are less buses

I think the cost of a car is greatly overestimated is this video. The depreciation of more than 3000€ a year is in the case of a brand new car but for a used cheaper car it's actually a lot less. I'm not even considering the fact that 75% of the people in France (that's probably the case in Europe too) don't own their cars but rent it. So you can probably divide the budget by a third or more. The insurance cost is above the roof. Nearly 1200€ for tax and insurance a year is probably the most expensive you can get in my country (France). As an exemple, i pay 300€/year for a car bigger than a Golf. What is other ? 1320€ is a lot so it might be interesting to precise what it is. To counter my own arguments, it seems that all the cost in this video are wildly overestimated (public transport, train, bike maintenance) or maybe Germany is ten time more expensive than France but i doubt it. To conclude, yes, owning a car is probably a lot cheaper than what you argue but so is the case for public transportation and bike. Overall your video makes total sense and the work behind it is impressive !

I love the pivot to urbanism content. Are you planning to make more videos like this?

Bought my car second hand 7000€. Car Insurance 300€ per year Road tax 150€ per year Maintenance 200€ per year Road side assistance Insurance 60€ per year Fuel 150€ per month (my work pays back 120€) Unforseen fees/costs average 50€ per month Total cost of ownership excluding depreciation => 1670€ per year. Very cheap! When you buy a car second hand it will depreciate much slower then when it was brand new. So the first owner lost the most money when he sold me the car.

Really loved the video. What we are seeing right now, is the result of Car Companies Lobbying for years and years all over the world. Here in the US, on a Residential Area of Sacramento, CA, I have to walk 2 Km for a crosswalk... Basically, if you don't have a car, you can't go anywhere, since the public transportation is no existent (I have never seen a Bus around my neighborhood for example).

Thank you, this was an eye opener

Very good insight, thanks!

Here in Switzerland we have a public transportation card for about 3800$ a year. With this card you can take almost all trains, busses, trams and even some boats for one year. And the infrastructure is very good. Compared to a car it's actually very cheap

I sold my car last year, my mom said I wasn’t going to save any money. She only was thinking about my insurance and gas cost which was less than half the vehicle costs.

Interestingly, the 2012 Prius I purchased 5-years ago appears to be worth about the same as I paid for it, $11,000. Gas is well under $100 a month at today's prices for 1000 miles (average) and full insurance runs $220. Over that time, new Michelin tires cost me $600 (Costco), a water pump $95 (Amazon), 2 gallons of Toyota antifreeze $55 (dealership), brake pads and rotors on all 4 $150 (eBay), 2.5 oil changes a year $125 (Groupon and dealer coupons), catalytic converter $0 (manufacturer's warranty), non-OEM air filter once a year $10 (Amazon), and OEM spark plugs every 50,000 miles $35 (dealership). Taking those numbers, my cost of ownership of a Toyota Prius III is approximately $4200 a year. Granted I do all my own maintenance other than oil changes (too messy) whenever possible and luckily my car held its value.

Hey. I have been living in Germany for 3 years. I have been driving a Mercedes e220d since 2018, I mention that the car was not bought by the new one (it depreciates too quickly in the first 2 years) The total cost last year was 3135€ for the diesel and 2530€ For full casco insurance for service etc. (Only insurance was 1600). This year I don't know how much the total will be, but if you get a normal cheap insurance, you pay somewhere around €300,400. The point is that I can't go to work by public transport, either it's not or I don't have transportation on time, but the good part is that my employer pays me 30 cents pro km. But what citizen working in Germany at the end of the year can recover from the state 30 cents per km but only the way to work and back I mention that the car was bought with half the purchase price of a new car, because it was 2 years old but I pay a monthly installment of 400 €, so at the end of the year, yes you pay for luxury Now the question is it's worth it or not, it depends on each one, I do not have children family, I have long wanted to have my car. I want to satisfy my pleasure of driving a good car while I'm young not when I'm old. Yes it's expensive but I am aware of situation

My gas costs a year are about 1000€ a year in Germany, insurance is below 1000€. Didn't have to repair anything in last five years. Golf 5. Did I forget some calculations? TÜV and Tax isn't more than 500€ I would prefer to not use a car, like in Amsterdam. But getting to work and around is at the moment 3x faster than by rail for me.

I'm loving the Not Just Bikes revolution, where suddenly, even tech UKpostsrs are starting to get involved with communicating the costs and problems of cars. Thank you for doing your part!

Using the cost of maintenance of roads and other infrastructure and tallying it as the cost of cars to the government makes no sense, any country literally needs roads for its logistics and therefore for the country as a whole to function

Love this content!

I'm not proud of it, but I recently bought a car - last time I had one was 18 years ago. I just got sick of trains being late all the time or often being canceled without any replacement. At peak hours a train car can be filled to the brim with people. Since Germans don't believe in air conditioning, the heat can get insane in the summer - a friend literally got heat stroke last weekend because of this. And then there's the anti-maskers. I just couldn't bear it anymore. I'd definitely ride bikes more often though if I was living in a city that did that well. And I agree with all the points in the video.

Another very interesting video by Marton, I really enjoy his insights and videos. However, although I generally agree with him that owning cars is much more expensive that the users may perceive. However, I believe that this video, or the presented calculations at the very least, are simply wrong and untrue: 1. A product can depreciate a 100% of its value, after which it's considered to be fully depreciated. Therefore, it's incorrect to count absolute currency values of yearly depreciation, and even more incorrect to accumulate them over a reasonable expected product lifetime. Even if we were to consider the currency amounts of the face value, the cumulative depreciation should never go beyond the cumulative price paid for the car, adjusted for the inflation of course. 2. If you look into the expense of buying a car (or paying a monthly car installment to the bank, or whatever) as an investment - and not every expense, by any means, should be looked at as an investment - than you should also consider every other expense mentioned in the video (buying a bike or purchasing a train pass) also as an investment, and see how much of it's value has depreciated over time, just by the inflation if nothing else. The math would then have showed a different outlook, but that doesn't change the main flaw with this argument - that not every expense should be treated as an investment, since the mass majority of people would not even begin to know how to invest successfully - in terms of adding value with their cash over time. Again, I generally agree with his bottom-line opinion that the true cost of owning a car is usually hidden, but the estimates given in this video, as well as numerous other sources on the Web are essentially flawed and plain incorrect. Nonetheless, I will continue to the TechAltar as it's one of the most insightful and entertaining channels out there.

Cool. I like that you expand into new areas.

Always thought, Car price is one thing, and making the Car usable is another thing. Makes better sense now. Thanks for the informative video!

If you look at the calculations for cars, the biggest single expense in that calculation is depreciation. If you buy a new car and keep it for 10-15 years, it shouldn't really matter very much, as it's been a useful asset in that time period. If you buy a 10 year old car and sell it when it's 15, it wouldn't have lost much value, as cars loose most value in the first 4 years. If you buy a new car and sell it after 4 years, then you are an idiot. I bought my car when it was 9 years old. Now it's 13 years old, and I could sell it for almost as much as I bought it for, because used car prices have increased.

This was so good! I live in the United States and I can definitely relate to the high car expenses. I would honestly use public transportation but I live in a smaller town of around 30,000 and public transport isn't that good. I would love to see more videos like this!

You, sir, are a champion. Congratulations on an amazing work.

Ich habe deinen Kanal ursprünglich für Technikvideos abonniert. Super, dass du jetzt auch solche Videos machst. Sehr interessant und wichtig!

I also noticed that people vastly underestimate their TCO, since they often only look at gas prices. But you can significantly reduce your yearly costs by buying used and smart. My Ford Focus '15 Diesel has cost per km of around 0,19-0,22ct/km and in 5,5 years of ownership it cost me around 15.000€ (not including the purchase price but the depreciation). Another point I want to mention is the city argument @ 16:22. By definition I live in a small city in Germany, but that doesn't make the ÖPNV at all comparable to big cities like Berlin. We don't nearly enough have the same amount of train/bus connections and even that what we have really dies down at evening/night. A recent example would be from visiting a friend in Stuttgart. On my way back home I actually took 3 hours to get back home (normal is 1.5 hours). Due to full and late trains I took substantially more time. This is not acceptable when in contrast Google Maps shows me under 40min for the same route via car.

I think we need parking spaces in cities which are only allowed for reasonable commercial reasons: Store delivery drivers, craftmen etc.

Very well said. It is time we all rethink about transportation. The cost is completely over budget. No wonder people are going broke.