SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 6.21.2025
It’s about time. I can say with no small amount of braggadocio that we realized early on that a car is an expensive and wasteful encumbrance.
Even the Wall Street Journal, which gains a substantial part of its advertising income from the behemoth auto industry and its ancillary gatekeepers; i.e. the gas industry felt it time to write about the insidious cost of owning a car. And its impact on the average car owners budget.
It ain’t cheap.
There are a few of us who realized early on how wasteful and expensive is a climate destroying waste of resources. The automobile.
We have never owned a car and successfully fought off the blandishments of the auto industry advertising for nearly six decades. We purchased property. We raised a family, went to work, did our shopping and traveled.
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 6.20.2025
You love them, you want them, you can’t live without them…and they’re costing you a fortune in repairs, insurance and shockingly expensive replacement parts. Dan Neil on why our national obsession with the automobile has turned dangerously codependent.
Most of the yelling is about money. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total cost to own and operate an automobile averaged a frightening $12,296 in 2024, roughly 30% higher than a decade ago. Driving the numbers are new-vehicle prices, now averaging $48,883, according to Cox Automotive’s latest data. With middle-income buyers priced out of new cars, demand for used cars has strengthened, now averaging around $25,500.
Go ahead, throw a dish. It’ll make you feel better.
Among the major stressors: car insurance. Lexis-Nexis Risk Solutions’ annual report found average insurance costs rose 10% in 2024, after soaring 15% in 2023. Full-coverage policies now average $2,680 annually, up 12% from June 2024, says Bankrate.
And whatever you do, don’t mention depreciation. In 2024, the AAA calculated the average new vehicle loses an eye-watering $4,680 in value every year, over the first five years. Edmunds reported that in the last quarter 2024, one in four consumers were underwater on a car loan—meaning that they owed more than the vehicle’s market value.
It’s surprising how many of the current discontents are the consequences of good intentions. Take, for example, collision repair.
The cost of fixing damaged cars has skyrocketed 28% since 2021, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The collision-repair industry blames the rising cost of replacement parts; a shortage of trained technicians; and the increasing complexity of new cars, with special scorn directed at Advanced Driver-Assist Systems, or ADAS.
Lee's Perspective 