I will give you the truth that paying for a new car is a waste of money. However, there are some people, myself included, with absolutely shoddy credit, no emergency fund, and who don’t qualify or have enough capital to get any type of car at all and are limited to what the car dealerships are willing to sell.

That being said, I would love to give up the ability to need to drive. I have also been without a car, and it’s horrific. I’ve added thousands of miles over the 18 months I was without one. There are very few jobs that don’t require a commute to, and if you live in a food desert, the lack of transportation hits super heavy. What we did is we bought the cheapest we could afford and are paying every penny extra we can to bring the loan costs down. As it is I believe we’ve dropped the overall loan amount down by several hundred just in interest payments.