What kind of wage justifies car purchase?

[DeimosBeros]

I'm looking for opinions here.
People have many reasons why they should and shouldn't own a car. Be it for work, taking your kids to school, grocery runs, casual drives, etc. Sometimes you just need it, or not. Sometimes a bus pass makes more sense.
But sometimes the money earned doesn't justify ownership when you have other important obligations, like housing payments.
In your opinion, how much should people be earning per hour before they can safely say they can afford it?
EDIT: Assuming you're:
Buying New
Single
Paying your own housing and associated costs
Food
Insurance & Gas

Be sure to include what an individual might realistically be buying.
Thanks for suggestions, hope this puts the question in better perspective. ;)

[goofball]

Aren't all the fixed living costs variable per person? I mean, we all have different costs associated with living, so my answer would be different than the next person possibly? Be hard to get a real gauge on what people can afford unless they listed everything that they have to pay for, per month, along with whatever the car payment (and insurance) addes.

[IoannI]

Well you could do it by working at 8-10 an hour.

In the end its different for everyone. Some people have expenses that others don't. So then 8-10 might not cut it.

[ES_Revenge]

Also depends on the car you're purchasing here. I mean a person making $8-10 could probably afford a $6000 used car easily, depending on their other expenses. With financing and lease offers that different manufacturers have now and again, they could probably even afford some new cars. However they probably wouldn't want to go and purchase a brand new $40k BMW, lol.

You should probably line up wages with prices of cars. I.e. x dollars per hour or per year with the price of the car that the average person making that amount would/should buy. Know what I mean?

[romsan04]

I think thats easy. Total income - all your expenses = extra $$

If extra $$ > than car payment(if any) + gas + insurance + $300 a month set aside for extra activities, then you can afford the car.

I would say at least 15-20/hour.

[kleptodathief]

its not practical to based buying a car on that poll, its how much u can afford when u factor in insurance,gas,repairs,etc, im too lazy to fill in the rest


its more of how much the person makes a month and how much 'free' money he/she has leftover to b able to afford a car....


TTC FTL! :cheesygri

[IoannI]

Lets say you work for 8-10 an hour and you don't really have any expenses, maybe a cell phone.

Say you want to spend 5k total on a car thats including safety, e-test, licensing and registration, etc...

You save the 5K and a little extra for insurance. So lets say you save 7K total. Pay off car, and you have 2K in the bank. Your insurance costs 400 a month and 100 for any other expenses. You monthly income is $900, clear $900 is in the bank everymonth. Well 900 - 500 = 300.

[ES_Revenge]

One other rule of thumb to go by that I've found recently is that your car payment should not be more than 1/4th of your gross monthly income. While I'm sure it can be or you could choose to go over that, it seems like a sensible "rule" to me.

If you're spending more than a quarter of your gross monthly income on car payments, you're probably owning a car you "can't afford".

[malecoke]

a person living @ home can easily afford to buy a new car even with $10/hour....

40*10*4 = 1600

Monthly payment = ~400
Insurance = ~200
Gas = ~200 (well if ure stupid enuff to get an SUV thats a different story)

That works out to around $800-900/month, leaving $700 for monthly expenses...for someone whos living at home, thats pretty good...

[ES_Revenge]

a person living @ home can easily afford to buy a new car even with $10/hour....

40*10*4 = 1600

Monthly payment = ~400
Insurance = ~200
Gas = ~200 (well if ure stupid enuff to get an SUV thats a different story)

That works out to around $800-900/month, leaving $700 for monthly expenses...for someone whos living at home, thats pretty good...

Uh what about paying the taxman, your CPP and EI contributions, etc? 40x10x4 = 1600 is gross, net will be a bit less.

If we're talking about a lease, car payment of $400 after tax can be around $350 before tax. Even financing, $400/mnth doesn't buy much without a good downpayment or really long term.

Everyone lives at home, where else would they live, on the street? LOL. If you mean living rent free then sure, that's big advantage if you don't need to pay for rent/mortgage costs.

Whether you get an SUV or a compact car, gas depends on how much you drive. If you drive an SUV but drive it a lot less than someone that has a compact car, you may have similar fuel costs.

Depending on where you live, rent/mortgage may cost $500 a month in one place or $1000 a month in another, leaving you with differing amounts for the rest of your living expenses.

As you can see, it all depends, every situation is different for every different person.

[kleptodathief]

lulz malecoke never heard of TAXES!!! :confused:

[Bullseye]

One other rule of thumb to go by that I've found recently is that your car payment should not be more than 1/4th of your gross monthly income. While I'm sure it can be or you could choose to go over that, it seems like a sensible "rule" to me.

If you're spending more than a quarter of your gross monthly income on car payments, you're probably owning a car you "can't afford".

A quarter of gross for car payments, or total car costs? Even if it's total, that seems really high to me. That means that someone making $50k/year would spend over $1,000/month on a vehicle! I guess if you don't ever plan to be financially independant, you could do that, but I never would.

For comparison, we spend about 10% of our gross incomes on total vehicle costs, and that covers TWO vehicles, a 2008 Outback, and a 2004 Echo, including gas and insurance. Keeping it to 10% allows us to still live well, and put away 15% of our gross to savings for the future. If we spent 25% instead, we'd have no money for savings, but hey, I guess we could then afford payments on a nice new Land Rover!

I think a better rule of thumb would be that if you are buying new, you should be able to pay it off completely within max five years. That would allow you to get the vehicle paid off, and then drive it for another five years, putting the money you used to pay off the vehicle into savings for another new one after ten years.

Getting caught in the car payment trap for life is bad news, you'll always be playing catch up in terms of getting ahead financially.

[mystical2003]

A quarter of gross for car payments, or total car costs? Even if it's total, that seems really high to me. That means that someone making $50k/year would spend over $1,000/month on a vehicle! I guess if you don't ever plan to be financially independant, you could do that, but I never would.

For comparison, we spend about 10% of our gross incomes on total vehicle costs, and that covers TWO vehicles, a 2008 Outback, and a 2004 Echo, plus gas and insurance. Keeping it to 10% allows us to still live well, and put away 15% of our gross to savings for the future. If we spent 25% instead, we'd have no money for savings, but hey, I guess we could then afford payments on a nice new Land Rover!

I think a better rule of thumb would be that if you are buying new, you should be able to pay it off completely within max five years. That would allow you to get the vehicle paid off, and then drive it for another five years, putting the money you used to pay off the vehicle into savings for another new one after ten years.

Getting caught in the car payment trap for life is bad news, you'll always be playing catch up in terms of getting ahead financially.

I have to agree with this, 25% is insane. I drive a crazy 50000KM per year, so my vehicle expenses are higher then most but would never pay 25% of my Gross towards car payments. I couldn't imagine that. A certain portion of my income is a direct car allowance but even with that consideration I couldn't imagine paying 15% of my gross on top of that.

[gherikill]

If you are supporting yourself and live in Toronto. I wouldn't even think about purchasing a new car until you make at least $25/hr (50k/yr). The insruance costs and car payments alone will eat up a lot of your cheque.

[Tekkan]

If you are supporting yourself and live in Toronto. I wouldn't even think about purchasing a new car until you make at least $25/hr (50k/yr). The insruance costs and car payments alone will eat up a lot of your cheque.

Even then it is hard to justify it. Especially with parking costs so high. If you work downtown, expect to be shelling out 150+ a month for parking. Its much cheaper to take the subway.

[urameatball]

wow, what an open ended question.
Your lifestyle is a huge factor. I'm a guy who can live comfortably at around $15/hr with a car and a small apartment... and still be able to save money every month. A friend of mine makes 6-digits and really doesn't live more luxuriously than I do is in debt and borrows money from me. Mainly because he keeps buying new gadgets all the time and isn't very wise with money.

There are no rules based on how much you make. Maybe you should take a look at how much you save and want to have saved, and buy a car based on that.

Goto a dealership and ask the salesmen... I'm sure they'll have a story of a guy making a quarter million a year but can't even qualify for financing.

[Tekkan]

A quarter of gross for car payments, or total car costs? Even if it's total, that seems really high to me. That means that someone making $50k/year would spend over $1,000/month on a vehicle! I guess if you don't ever plan to be financially independant, you could do that, but I never would.


Yea, I think 25% of net might be the maximum I'm willing to spend.

[ml_luv]

I think thats easy. Total income - all your expenses = extra $$

If extra $$ > than car payment(if any) + gas + insurance + $300 a month set aside for extra activities, then you can afford the car.

I would say at least 15-20/hour.

I'd have to agree with this :arrowu:

I started my lease when I was 18 for a 2006 Saturn Ion 3 which isn't anywhere high on the list but was a great car for me at the time.

-payments at the time were about $287
-my insurance was about $290
-approx. $200 for Gas
-my cell phone bill about $50
-rest of the money was for shopping & entertainment

At the time i was making 12$/hour plus extra money on commision, but living at home so no other expenses & i was fine.

Now i'm making more on salary but hourly i'd be in the 15-20 range.
Same things as above car payment and insurance gone down a couple dollars but my extras are now:
-Mortgage payment
-Bills (Cable, Internet, Hydro, etc.)
-Groceries
-my 2 dogs which might i add can get very expensive(dog food, vet bills, grooming)
-and money for entertainment.
-Almost forgot my $300/month school payment

All of the bills are split in half with my boyfriend, combined we bring in about 80-85k, he drives a G35 & I drive a Saturn his salary is higher than mine which allows him to drive a nicer car but we both live comfortably along with making our payments.

So like Romsan said you take you Total Income subtract all your expenses, subtract some money for entertainment/shopping and that leaves you with what you use for car payment, insurance, gas & maintenance. Thats what we did and was very simple!

[Bullseye]

Now i'm making more on salary but hourly i'd be in the 15-20 range.
Same things as above car payment and insurance gone down a couple dollars but my extras are now:
-Mortgage payment
-Bills (Cable, Internet, Hydro, etc.)
-Groceries
-my 2 dogs which might i add can get very expensive(dog food, vet bills, grooming)
-and money for entertainment.

All of the bills are split in half with my boyfriend, combined we bring in about 80-85k, he drives a G35 & I drive a Saturn his salary is higher than mine which allows him to drive a nicer car but we both live comfortably along with making our payments.

So like Romsan said you take you Total Income subtract all your expenses, subtract some money for entertainment/shopping and that leaves you with what you use for car payment, insurance, gas & maintenance. Thats what we did and was very simple!

Can I ask what percentage of your income goes to savings?

[AzN_RiverdaleCI]

$20 + for sure.

[ml_luv]

Sure,

Right now because we're just starting out in the house we aren't putting anything in savings but once weve completely settled in, probably in the next month or 2 we'll be putting in about 5-10% into savings. I'm also going to be starting my own business from home and on the road doing my Esthetics and Make up and he'll be splitting all costs with me (on equipment and so on). Once we've subtracted money for any of those costs from what is made the rest will be put into a seperate account for savings.

[gherikill]

A car will ruin you financially.


That being said, the increase in quality of life from having a car is worth a lot.

[Bullseye]

Sure,

Right now because we're just starting out in the house we aren't putting anything in savings but once weve completely settled in, probably in the next month or 2 we'll be putting in about 5-10% into savings. I'm also going to be starting my own business from home and on the road doing my Esthetics and Make up and he'll be splitting all costs with me (on equipment and so on). Once we've subtracted money for any of those costs from what is made the rest will be put into a seperate account for savings.

So in that case, you could edit your forumla posted above;

'you take you Total Income subtract all your expenses, subtract some money for entertainment/shopping and that leaves you with what you use for car payment, insurance, gas & maintenance.'

to include savings as well. Or maybe you just meant savings were included in the 'expenses' section.

If so, then I could agree with that rule of thumb forumula. If one can cover all their expenses, plus save a reasonable sum (10%+ in my books), then sure, go blow whatever is left on whatever vehicle you want.

[urban1]

What is the purpose of buying the vehicle? Is its main use going to be to drive to work? Is the purpose for weekend leisure trips? Anything else?

If youre on the lower end of the wage scale in your poll and the vehicle is for getting to work, then it might be better for you to find a job closer to home that pays less but that you can walk/bike or take the bus to. Youd have to do the math but if youre making $12/hr and need to drive to work then you might be better off making $10/hr at a job thats close to home.

If you want the car for weekends trip or running errands, consider renting a car. If you need it for errands, rent a car from friday afternoon to saturday afternoon. For weekend trips, you can find weekend specials that run from friday to monday.

If you do all the math and you have little wiggle room after considering the costs of owning a car, then Id say find another alternative. As exciting as a new car might sound, it wont be too much fun if you dont have money to enjoy anything else since the car is eating up all your cash. Even though you can finance a new vehicle and end up with small monthly lease payments, the total cost is high and can be deceiving. If youre looking for an older "beater", thats not much fun either if your always fixing it, pumping money into repairs, and never sure if youll make it to your destination.

[Driftwood]

Even then it is hard to justify it. Especially with parking costs so high. If you work downtown, expect to be shelling out 150+ a month for parking. Its much cheaper to take the subway.

Agreed. If you live and work within the city, taking the TTC is the better option and faster too sometimes (if you live/work close to a subway line). I miss driving and can afford a fairly nice car now, but given where I live and work, owning a car doesn't make much $ sense.

I think alot of people go overboard when it comes to cars. It doesn't have to define your identity, just get one that meets your needs and make sure you can afford it and you'll be fine. That being said I think I read somewhere that on average, people spend 40% of their annual salary on a car purchase.

[thephenom]

You only live once, LET IT RIDE? HELL YEAH!!! Oh wait, that's only for gambling at the casino.

Giving the new list of criteria:
Buying New
Single
Paying your own housing and associated costs
Food
Insurance & Gas

Unless you're buying that $10000 Hyundai, it wouldn't make sense to do it unless you're making really good bucks. Either that, or you never plan to buy a house/condo on your own and spend your whole life paying for rent.

[UrbanPoet]

do you want to work for your car?
Some people spend 1/2 their earnings on their car.... The car ends up "trapping" them with payments, gas, insurance etc...

I wouldnt spend more than 35% of my pay on auto expenses.
I also think its kind of silly to buy a new car if your tight with expenses, enought to be questioning it on a forum. buying 2-3 years used will save you so much money and still get you a reliable car still on warranty.

[careener]

I voted 15-20$ per hour but that assumes buying a very inexpensive used car.

[hightech]

There is 2 schools of thought here. Those who buy a basic point A to B vehicle based on the costs/considerations you mentioned. The other are those who want to be "one up with the Jones" to show off.

I know a (stupid) friend of mine, who makes about $30K to $35K a year, and drives around in a $60K Lexus with debt up the wazoo. The reason I called him stupid, was he ended up wrapping the car around a pole and the car was the write off. His insurance is now about $4K a year, and he still owe's $$ on the car and other debt.

Here is what I suggest to people who ask me about financial decisions:

- Make an excel sheet of what you make per month (net of taxes)
- track your expenditures (i.e. food, entertainment, mortgage, parking, gas, etc.)
- factor in how much you would like to contribute into investment funds (i.e. RRSP, GIC, etc.) every year and divide that value by 12 for a monthly cost
- establish how much you would like to establish in your "emergency" fund. This fund is for things like medical/dental, other factors that may arise and require access to immediate funds.

Any amount that you have left after all these considerations could be used for vehicle purchases.

Buying a vehicle also has its share of costs:

- Initial cost of car
- Insurance
- Fuel
- Maintenence
- Reserve fund for repairs (this amount may be reduced for new cars, but the $$ would now be in the cost of the new car)

[weedb0y]

Grab a used car. Get it painted for $1000, BOOM..INSTANT NEW LOOK :D

[DaVibe]

You can do it on $8-10 but really, you'd want to make more ...
You can purchase a car but at any point and time, it could give out and have a ton of repairs ... you have to be prepared for that.

Not to mention insurance and of course, the gasoline for it is going to cost you, especially right now (and going up) ...

It can be done but you have to ask yourself, why do you need it? For work or for luxury?

[DeimosBeros]

I'm really glad to see serious responses in this topic. And alot of you seem to be fiscally responsible, kudos to all!
Posting this topic/poll was to give me a general idea of how most people would manage given that everything is circumstantial, I wanted to see opinions.
I've seen and applied to jobs that offer really, really piss poor compensation, we're talking sub $15/hr and require that you had a car for whatever reason, major one being that the job was somewhat inaccessible by public transportation in the wee hours of the morning or late night.
When I did the math for most of these jobs, factoring in car expenses, a person was better off working for 10/hr or less and would come out ahead in the end. Unreasonable all around if you ask me.
Even though I still live at home, I do help with expenses, but I'd still rather play the numbers game as though I was single living alone because deep down inside I really want to move out and have my own wheels. Timing isn't right let's just say.
Given my short time at RFD, many of you have helped reaffirm what I've been thinking and it's this, "Get some real skills and be productive."

[ES_Revenge]

A quarter of gross for car payments, or total car costs? Even if it's total, that seems really high to me.

I have to agree with this, 25% is insane. I drive a crazy 50000KM per year, so my vehicle expenses are higher then most but would never pay 25% of my Gross towards car payments. I couldn't imagine that. A certain portion of my income is a direct car allowance but even with that consideration I couldn't imagine paying 15% of my gross on top of that.

You're both right, 25% of gross is high for car payments but I was just saying that's what I've read should be the maximum. I'm just saying that if you're going over 25%, then you're putting yourself in a bad position in most cases. It does vary from person to person, as we've all said of course. Again this is just what I've read and all it meant was do not go over that amount on car payments. I think that's a good rule, personally. If you think over 10 or 15 % is too much then by all means don't spend that much either.

For comparison, we spend about 10% of our gross incomes on total vehicle costs, and that covers TWO vehicles, a 2008 Outback, and a 2004 Echo, including gas and insurance. Keeping it to 10% allows us to still live well, and put away 15% of our gross to savings for the future.
Yeah but consider by "we" you are probably talking about your and your spouse/gf/bf/fiance or something, right? So 2 x 10% income is 20% of one person's income. Not everyone is married or living together with someone else or whatever ;)

If we spent 25% instead, we'd have no money for savings, but hey, I guess we could then afford payments on a nice new Land Rover!
As for your "future" and savings, I'm not actually disagreeing with you but just playing devil's advocate here--you could die tomorrow and therefore have no future. Though someone might not pay 50% of their income on a car, they might at least pay more than the 10-15% you're saying simply because who wants to die driving an Echo? LOL. Again just playing the advocate here, but you get what I mean--everyone looks at life differently.

I think a better rule of thumb would be that if you are buying new, you should be able to pay it off completely within max five years. That would allow you to get the vehicle paid off, and then drive it for another five years, putting the money you used to pay off the vehicle into savings for another new one after ten years.
There I completely agree. If financing, you should be able to do at least 60 months or less for the term. If it's more than that it's pointless IMO. Who wants to pay for a car for more than 5 years? Before you've finished paying off the loan, in a lot of cases, the car will be worth less than what you have left to pay. Cars depreciate badly (even ones with good resale still depreciate a lot) and interest is interest and you're paying more to own the car than is necessary going over 5 years.

Getting caught in the car payment trap for life is bad news, you'll always be playing catch up in terms of getting ahead financially.
Very true.

[VorteC]

wage doesn't really matter. if anything, wage should decide what type of car to buy.

if you need it buy it, if you dont need it, dont buy it.

if i earned 10$ an hour but needed a car for commuting, i would buy one.

if i earned 50$ an hour but worked downtown and parking was a *****, wouldn't buy one (omit groceries :P)

[Bullseye]

Yeah but consider by "we" you are probably talking about your and your spouse/gf/bf/fiance or something, right? So 2 x 10% income is 20% of one person's income. Not everyone is married or living together with someone else or whatever ;)

No, I actually meant 10% of our combined gross income.

[Bullseye]

if i earned 10$ an hour but needed a car for commuting, i would buy one.


I can't see how a job paying $10/hour is worth commuting for, let alone taking on the huge expense of a vehicle for.

[ES_Revenge]

No, I actually meant 10% of our combined gross income.

Yes and 10% of two people's combined income is equivalent to 20% of a single person's income no? Of course considering all "three" people here are making around the same money.

Let's say (for arguments sake) two people make a combined income of $100,000. 10% of that is certainly the same as what 20% of a single person's $50,000 income would be, right?

[romsan04]

I'm really glad to see serious responses in this topic. And alot of you seem to be fiscally responsible, kudos to all!
Posting this topic/poll was to give me a general idea of how most people would manage given that everything is circumstantial, I wanted to see opinions.
I've seen and applied to jobs that offer really, really piss poor compensation, we're talking sub $15/hr and require that you had a car for whatever reason, major one being that the job was somewhat inaccessible by public transportation in the wee hours of the morning or late night.
When I did the math for most of these jobs, factoring in car expenses, a person was better off working for 10/hr or less and would come out ahead in the end. Unreasonable all around if you ask me.
Even though I still live at home, I do help with expenses, but I'd still rather play the numbers game as though I was single living alone because deep down inside I really want to move out and have my own wheels. Timing isn't right let's just say.
Given my short time at RFD, many of you have helped reaffirm what I've been thinking and it's this, "Get some real skills and be productive."

I knew that you are a young kid who wants to move out from parents and be independent :cheesygri . Don’t spend your time and life on some ****** job which just pays your bills. Go to college or university get an education, find a job, and then you can have a nice condo/house and drive an expensive car and not worry about when is your next paycheck.

[Bullseye]

Yes and 10% of two people's combined income is equivalent to 20% of a single person's income no? Of course considering all "three" people here are making around the same money.

Let's say (for arguments sake) two people make a combined income of $100,000. 10% of that is certainly the same as what 20% of a single person's $50,000 income would be, right?

We have two cars, though. So to be fair, you could say that we each spend 10% of our gross pay for our respective car. Same end result as what I said above, though.

[DeimosBeros]

I knew that you are a young kid who wants to move out from parents and be independent :cheesygri . Don’t spend your time and life on some ****** job which just pays your bills. Go to college or university get an education, find a job, and then you can have a nice condo/house and drive an expensive car and not worry about when is your next paycheck.

LOL. I suppose being my early 20's does constitute being a young kid these days, at least that's what all the retirees at my current job say ;)
Believe me when I say I'm working on getting some form of education, it's the waiting game that's killing me.

[blueraiin]

as much as i'd like a car, i think its best to wait it out - save, and take the bus as much as possible until you can really afford one

i'm in co-op, so technically i could buy a used car, but financially it makes more sense to save it for after graduation and have some money for rent/living expenses etc...also possible MBA after? :S (effing high tuitions)

atleast thats my situation...

[stevethewheel]

I think you have the right idea when you say you can't afford to buy a car for a job paying less than $15 an hour.

Once you have a car you will have a lot less "spare change" in your pocket. There is so much to do, go places anytime you want etc which will cost not only gas but also more $$$ on the adventure.

So basically you'll end up not saving any money or getting ahead at all, your priority will be the car. Sounds like that's not your priority, so make it $15+.

[DeimosBeros]

Once you have a car you will have a lot less "spare change" in your pocket. There is so much to do, go places anytime you want etc which will cost not only gas but also more $$$ on the adventure.



It's funny you should say. I've worked at coffee shops in the past and seen a group of guys pull up in really nice cars; bmw's,audi, the odd corvette. You know how many coffees they ordered? 2.....for about 5 of them. I bet you they got their priorities straightened out :rolleyes:

[Nyte]

If you have no other living expenses (ie. your parents provide everything for you), you can easily afford a new car (including gas/insurance/etc) making $8-10/hr. Given that was your criteria, that's what I voted for.

However, more realistically, most people aren't going to be living with their parents for all that long, and if you're going to school, you have tuition to deal with. Once that's over with (if it happens), then you're looking at more normal living expenses. If that was the case, I would say at the very least $20/hr.I would probably want about $30/hr to so it comfortable if I was living in the GTA.

To view this another way, the car I plan to get once I'm out of school (and probably worked for a few months at least to save a bit/clear off some debt) is around 55% of my annual salary and monthly payments (if fully financing) I estimate would be about 10% of monthly gross income. Working on getting my g/f a car right now, and the one we have picked out right now is about 25% annual and 5% monthly.

[Shazam]

very interesting poll!

For me, I mostly look at how much cash I already have, which is not much :lol:

If you lease or finance, you can get one with a lower salary.

So if I had more cash, I would say $8-10, but right now it would be $20+ (especially because gas is so expensive).

[jetz]

With the tax deduction for transit, you are paying 15% less per year than the face value of a transit pass. If you can find a way to deduct some of your car expenses (maybe a small business, etc.) it might change the balance. But definitely as others suggested on here that you should take the total cost into account.

$1 gas is not the end of it. I attended an energy security conference recently where one of the presenters was easily predicting 1.10-1.20 per litre. If your car is fuel efficient that's 8.8 cents a km just on gas. If you include depreciation, maintenance and insurance costs, your actually cost of car ownership could be $0.25 - $0.30 per km. That's 5000-6000 per year in total costs.

I would suggest, that living in a major city, making $20 an hour, a car would still stretch the budget quite a bit. You may well be better off, spending that money living closer to your workplace or downtown, joining a car sharing service (zip car, etc) or occasionally renting a car...a nice luxurious one for hot dates!