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Cost of owning a car

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  1. #21

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    We got our car 3 weeks ago. Its been a godsend. Now I can get to Shatin where I go to a lot in 10 mins where as before I had to take a bus and 3 changes on the MTR. I cycle a lot and again I need to drive to somewhere decent and safe to be able to have a bike ride.
    As for traffic being horrendous......where is this? I have not seen anything remotely like a traffic apart from a 15 min wait to get into the central tunnel.
    Taking a car away from me would be like taking a gun off an American.
    Also the fact I only need to go to the supermarket once a week instead of every day as your limited to the amount you can carry.

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  2. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by imparanoic:
    if you live in remotes parts of nt ( where nearest town is around 4-5miles), a car is almost a necessity, some of the these villages have only mini bus service up to 9.30 and require 15 mins wait for the minibus to start or to enough passengers for the driver to leave, bus service could be 20 mins wait at a time.

    if you catch a taxi every day, this will easily surpass HK$100 parking cost.

    I know as i have lived in ma cheuk ling in sha tau kok for 3.5 years ( it's a remote village, but at least it has very regular minibus service as it's close to the border crossing, but other villages are far less fortunate).
    If you noticed, I said on average not everyone... Most people in HK don't live in remote parts of the NT and they often don't need to pay for parking at home.

    The average person however would need to pay parking at both ends. Add to that petrol, registration, insurance and the cost of a car and you would have to take a lot of cabs very far to spend that amount of money.

    On top of it, when you're stuck in traffic, you can work/sleep/relax in a cab but not in a car. Waste of money and waste of time...

    Interestingly enough people will cringe at spending a few hundred bucks on taxis to go to the NT but not in spending thousands on a car.

  3. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Trance Omega:
    We got our car 3 weeks ago. Its been a godsend. Now I can get to Shatin where I go to a lot in 10 mins where as before I had to take a bus and 3 changes on the MTR. I cycle a lot and again I need to drive to somewhere decent and safe to be able to have a bike ride.
    As for traffic being horrendous......where is this? I have not seen anything remotely like a traffic apart from a 15 min wait to get into the central tunnel.
    Taking a car away from me would be like taking a gun off an American.
    Also the fact I only need to go to the supermarket once a week instead of every day as your limited to the amount you can carry.

    FYI....household gun ownership rate has fallen from an average of 50 percent in the 1970s to 49 percent in the 1980s, 43 percent in the 1990s and 35 percent in the 2000s. Gun ownership is declining in the US. 2/3 of Americans don't own a gun.

    A better analogy might have been,....taking a car away from me would be like taking a car away from an American

    Of course, per capita, no one loves their cars more than the Euros.....

  4. #24

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    You could also say that there are almost as many guns as people in the US... Closest place with about half as many per capita is Yemen. Excellent company

    With cars, the US is third behind tiny territories like Monaco and San Marino so it's pretty safe to say americans love their trucks more that europeans love their cars.


  5. #25

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    Ahhhh Gilles, choosing your statistics carefully. Per capita, Euros have more cars....per capita, American car ownership is among the lowest in the developed world.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...ricans/261108/



    ...and it doesn't change the fact that 2/3 of Anericans don't own a gun.

    Last edited by closedcasket; 05-04-2013 at 06:47 PM.

  6. #26

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    Gilles is a cyclist hence his dislike of cars, They don't pay tax but still think they own the roads

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  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by jimbo:
    Gilles is a cyclist hence his dislike of cars, They don't pay tax but still think they own the roads
    http://ipayroadtax.com/

  8. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by closedcasket:
    Ahhhh Gilles, choosing your statistics carefully. Per capita, Euros have more cars....per capita, American car ownership is among the lowest in the developed world.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...ricans/261108/

    ...and it doesn't change the fact that 2/3 of Anericans don't own a gun.
    Look at motor vehicles per capita makes a lot more sense considering America's hard on for trucks...

  9. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by jimbo:
    Gilles is a cyclist hence his dislike of cars, They don't pay tax but still think they own the roads
    Really? Cyclists don't work or are exempt from salary tax? Wow, I guess the HK government owes me a lot of money then...

    The more common behavior by the way is for motorists to act like they own the road. Try crossing a street at a pedestrian crossing with your eyes closed and see what happens... Let us know when, I'll throw a party

  10. #30

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    post deleted

    Last edited by anothercanuck; 05-04-2013 at 08:27 PM.
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