• doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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    16 days ago

    Yeah I wasn’t arguing with you, I’ve lived in Germany and the Netherlands and in quite a bit of the US so I’ve seen lots of realities. No I haven’t seen that vehicle in person but I have owned a very fuel efficient motorcycle, fuel was cheap but keeping it running was not. The conversation is broader than one vehicle though.

    Honestly I wish it was easier/more cost effective to rent larger vehicles. I use my Subaru beyond it’s capacity way too often but I really could use a larger vehicle and don’t have an extra $100k. The cost of living here has become impossible over the last decade. My daughter’s English boyfriend was shocked how expensive things are here when he visited recently. Cars and food are the worst but in most of the US you have to pay market prices for both and even double the minimum wage is still not a living wage here.

    Oh and then there’s rent. If you’re living somewhere with actual public transportation, you’re making a car payments worth of extra rent or property taxes anyway. The only affordable places to live are the highest crime rate areas. Most of the US has very low violent crime outside a few dozen terrible neighborhoods. But it’s affordable there if you don’t mind maybe dying.