from Hacker News

Worth buying a car anymore?

by juanmirocks on 4/24/18, 2:14 PM with 5 comments

Are you avoiding buying a car for you think that car ownership will be soonish irrelevant?

I'm asking whether the already working Carsharing services (e.g. Zipcar, DriveNow, or car2go) plus the upcoming fleets of driverless cars is already stopping some of you in purchasing a new car ?

In my particular case, I live in Munich (where BMW DriveNow began), and besides just loving moving around with my bicycle, whenever I need a car I just look up my phone and find one for rental nearby. Therefore, I'm not seeing myself buying a car soon at all... The only reason why I would buy one is whether I could rent it myself to others (perhaps in a driverless scenario).

What are your thoughts on car ownership in the year 2018 ?

  • by lsiunsuex on 4/24/18, 2:27 PM

    1 - nothing compares to a brand new car. The smell, the cleanliness. No one other then to move it from the factory to the dealer has driven it.

    2 - cars that have a strong aftermarket (currently driving a Ford Mustang) - I like to modify them / work on them. Anything to fancy or complex to modify (my Acura RDX) I lease and just leave it be.

    3 - Volvo's new lease program interests me - a new car every 2 years just like a phone. I've never really liked the style of Volvo but I can overlook that if the terms look good (and they do to me)

    So while I'll take an Uber or Lyft if we're going out for the night and might drink to much, I'll probably always buy or lease a car. I'm a car guy and enjoy taking care of my cars (cleaning / detailing) so buying / leasing is still worth it to me.

    This is in Western NY where we have some metro rail / bus system but not as strong as say NYC.

  • by josefresco on 4/24/18, 2:26 PM

    As an American business owner with two kids, not only is "a" car needed, we actually need two. I don't see this changing for other Americans, unless you live in the city.