Cars that cost a lot of money
I’m not much of a car person, but given that I’ve been spending about 2 hours every weekday on the road, I’ve had a lot of time to look at nothing but cars. And I saw one this afternoon that looked like a million bucks. Literally. I’m not sure it’s my style, but damn, the lines on that thing. And it turned out to be a Mercedes Benz. A CLS 550 to be exact.
Starting price? $67,675.
I’ve noticed both BMW and Mercedes upping the ante for sexier and more luxurious designs, what with the Kia’s of the world able to churn out knock-offs for less than 30k.
Exhibit B, the BMW 650i.
Starting price? $71,800. Yep, sounds like the right ballpark.
Not that I’m even thinking about replacing my almost paid-off, gets 36-40 highway miles to the gallon (and it’s not a hybrid!), shiny black Honda Civic.
On the contrary. I’ll soon be confronting a less than car friendly urban environment—which I’m very happy about—but which may require shelling out $200 bucks a month for parking. Makes me wish there was a way to own a car without “owning a car.”
You’re moving to San Francisco, right? There seems to be several car sharing options there:
http://www.zipcar.com/
http://www.flexcar.com/
http://www.citycarshare.org/
My aunt was using one of them (flexcar, I think) in Seattle and was pretty happy with it. I think she’d use it once a week or less and take the bus to work and whatnot.
$200/month still sounds like a slightly subsidized cost for a parking space, just not as heavily as in Sonoma County.
Owning a car without “owning a car”? Your new environs actually offer some car sharing services: Zipcar and City CarShare.
Check out the new book that will help end America’s addiction to oil.
The book title is: “HOW TO LIVE WELL WITHOUT OWNING A CAR” by Chris Balish.