A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The average new car in the United States costs $50,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. NPR has been exploring how people are coping with inflation in our series, Cost Of Living: The Price We Pay. Now, today, NPR's Camila Domonoske takes a look at the price we all pay for cars, both the obvious and overlooked.
CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: When you buy a car, you're also signing up to pay for car insurance, maintenance, gasoline. And since 2020, all those costs have soared, one after another.
HEATHER LONG: Every year, something seems to go berserk.
DOMONOSKE: Heather Long is the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. She's been tracking these costs. Gasoline is actually cheap at the moment, but even so, the total cost of car ownership has outstripped inflation.
LONG: I kept waiting for when are things going to level off, and there's been really no relief for car ownership costs.
DOMONOSKE: And then there's the hidden cost of cars, paid by drivers and by society. Sarah Goodyear is the co-host of the cheekily named War On Cars podcast and the co-author of the new book, "Life After Cars," which tallies the many different costs.
SARAH GOODYEAR: You have your health care costs, which you might not realize are car-related.
DOMONOSKE: Tail pipe pollution and car noise hurt our health, but how do you tally how much that costs? Well, Goodyear cites a Japanese study of a town that got a train station, suddenly reducing their reliance on cars.
GOODYEAR: And the change was really dramatic. Their health care costs went down by an average of 600 U.S. dollars per year.
DOMONOSKE: Other invisible costs include the tax dollars that fund roads, the cost of parking lots.
GOODYEAR: The cost of the time that we spend in cars.
DOMONOSKE: And the list goes on. But so much of America is designed around cars that it's hard to live without them, except in a few places - pricey places.
GOODYEAR: A walkable, bikeable, transit-rich neighborhood, like the one I live in in Brooklyn, New York, is a luxury good. It is not affordable for the vast number of Americans.
DOMONOSKE: Goodyear's new book argues that American cities and towns can become less car-centric, especially as more Americans realize how much cars actually cost us all. But for now, cars are essential in most places. So as costs rise, families are keeping old cars longer or taking on more debt to buy a vehicle.
Or they're sharing, like Claudia Pineda, who lives in El Paso, where public transit is limited. Pineda lives with three grown kids as well as one teenager. One of her 20-somethings has her own car, but the others rely on Pineda and her mom-car to get to and from work.
CLAUDIA PINEDA: I feel like an Uber driver who is very underpaid right now (laughter).
DOMONOSKE: She would love to get another vehicle to share, but it's just too expensive, so they make do. But Pineda is determined to find a silver lining in all the time they spend together in the car.
PINEDA: Even listening to music, listening to the things my kids listen to and keeping an open mind, hearing them hum some of these oldies that I listen to because they're learning them.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "END OF THE ROAD")
BOYZ II MEN: (Singing) Although we've come...
DOMONOSKE: Her Gen Z daughter knows all the words to, "End Of The Road," Boyz II Men, 1992.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "END OF THE ROAD")
BOYZ II MEN: (Singing) Still I can't let go. Can't let go, baby.
DOMONOSKE: That makes Pineda smile. And that's worth something while they save up for another vehicle. Camila Domonoske, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "END OF THE ROAD")
BOYZ II MEN: Girl, I'm here for you. All those times at night when you just hurt me, and just ran out with that other fella. Baby... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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