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thought provoking (if not totally accurate?) . . .
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Re: Commutor Breakdown
This isn't even close to accurate for me. The cost of the car itself does not scale linearly with the miles driven. A car loses most of its value for simply aging rather than for mileage. Assuming I keep my 2010 Altima for 10 years, it will cost me 2400 a year regardless of how much I drive it. If I drive it a lot, the maintenance cost will go up a little and the used sale value will be a little lower at the end, but not that much.
My work commute is only 10 miles round, so 2,500 miles a year. Somehow I drive another 5,000 a year (I averaged 9,000 a year living 6 or 7 miles from work but that included a rare 2,000 mile road trip that I volunteered my vehicle for specifically because I don't drive enough). If I doubled or tripled the distance I live from work from 5 to 10 or 15, the 10 year cost would range from about 50,000 to 60,000 in today's dollars or 5,000 to 6,000 a year total with each mile from work only costing me 66 dollars a year.
Of course, the costs aren't linear. If you drive very, very little, you can get really cheap insurance and the car will sell for significantly more in the end. Even so if we widen the variability to 40,000 to 70,000, we're still only talking about an average of 200 per year per mile from work for me. That means $6,000 per mile closer on a 30 year mortgage for me, 1/3 as cheap as their economy car for a comfy mid-sized sedan.
However, those houses ultra close to my work (a university) cost a fortune. I'm talking going from 150k - 200k houses to 300k+ houses (of similar quality).
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