If only we had invented and built some sort of alternative mode of collective transportation. Maybe it could be in tunnels and ride on metallic rails. It would serve many people and make periodic stops to the same locations instead of the highway clusterf- we have today. Sad that we don’t, but a man can dream though. A man can dream.
I used to think like you, but then my time became worth money. It’s no longer such a clear cut case.
If I spent even 100 hours a year working on my car, that’s now several thousand euros. More than a year’s worth of lease payments on a brand new budget vehicle or (and this is my preference) a 3 year old executive car. And at the end of the lease I have the option to buy it for what’s likely significantly under market value and then either keep driving it, or sell it immediately to recoup some of the depreciation.
Then consider that with the new vehicle you can get full coverage insurance which isn’t even available on a 20 year old vehicle (and full coverage gives you peace of mind that if YOU fuck up or an animal fucks your car up, you get the residual value back). This occurred to me when my friend’s old, around 1000 euros worth car slipped into a ditch in the winter. Its value just dropped by half and there’s nothing to do about it. If it’d been their significantly newer car, it would’ve been a 350 euro copay to get it repaired or totalled and paid out. My car at the time was worth around 3k and if I’d totaled it by either driving into a ditch in the winter or hit a moose, I would’ve been out of a car and out of money. My next car after that was a lease and if something would’ve happened to it, insurance would’ve made me whole. In fact I got a brand new OEM Mercedes windscreen fitted for free, no copay since it’s usually 0% for windows. That alone was worth over a year of insurance payments.
Currently I’m back to driving a shitbox. Nice car attracted gold digger, gold digger ruined finances, now I’m living as cheaply as possible. But the shitbox life is not great either - I’m going to have to either change the transmission on mine to keep it going another few years, or sell it for a loss compared to what I paid for it just 5 months ago. This is after I’ve already done brakes, belts and some electrical work. Sunk cost fallacy becomes way too real way too quickly on cheap used cars.