This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at HWS chapter.
- Cars are expensive, I mean EXPENSIVE. Yes, there is gas but paying for gas is the cheapest part of owning a car. You first have to buy a car, pay for car inspections, pay for registration, pay for car maintenance which is insanely priced and never ends, pay for car insurance, pay for tires (and if you live in the North, summer tires and winter tires, not just all seasons), and yes gas.
- You can’t just get in your car and go, especially in the winter. You have to let it warm up, you have to melt the sheet of ice off of your car, you have to dig it out of the snow, and then you can drive away.
- You can’t just leave your car un-driven for weeks, you have to keep the fluids pumping through it.
- Parking your car can be challenging whether this is due to limited parking spaces and/or having to pay a lot for parking.
- You have to be in tune when you drive so that if something goes wrong with your car you feel it or hear it right as it happens so as to not keep driving and make the problem worse.
- You have to be prepared for the worst. Your car might be in the shop for just an inspection and then the mechanics find something wrong. This might leave your car in the shop for a week or more as they get parts to fix your car. This is not only time consuming but expensive.
- Of course there are car owners who don’t do these things and in my experience it’s because either the car is a junker and it doesn’t mater at this point or the car “owner” isn’t the owner, mom and dad are. So, as you consider buying and actually owning a car, remember there is always far more that goes into it then what you might first expect.
~M