Monthly Parking?
Hey Forumers! My wife and I are considering a car — but wanted some input on parking: both street and monthly. We live on 15th street near the park. While there is street parking, it never seems abundant. So we’d like to consider a monthly parking arrangment — but it could be a little further…
Hey Forumers! My wife and I are considering a car — but wanted some input on parking: both street and monthly. We live on 15th street near the park. While there is street parking, it never seems abundant. So we’d like to consider a monthly parking arrangment — but it could be a little further out into Brooklyn, if that makes it cheaper (we’re on the F). Thoughts? Advice? Horror stories? Looking forward to hearing them all!
I think having a car doesn’t make sense economically. And it almost never will if you live/work in NYC.
For us, it was more of a quality of life issue. Yeah, we could use public transportation to go hiking and do things regionally, but the fact of the matter was that there were lots of things we wanted to do but never attempted to because of the hassle of getting around via public transportation, the pre-defined times/routes that we could travel…etc. Lots of things are doable but you just end up not starting because it’s just too much coordination.
Managing your car has its own hassles and expenses, but we felt that the low-level weekly routine of moving it brings the higher reward of being able to go where we wanted to under our own steam (and bring our dog everywhere..etc). Our neighborhood isn’t too bad for parking. I could see that for other areas, the management of parking might be much more difficult.
What I don’t get is how come it is harder to find off street parking cheaper than simply paying the alternate-side tickets.
Assuming you are in a place that does street cleaning once a week the tickets are only roughly $150 a month, and much cheaper if you move your car sometimes. For this price you get a spot right in front of your house.
If you dont need a car for job commute (like I do), then really question what you’ll be using it for, how often, and what the total cost of those trips becomes (gas, insurance, loan payments, garaging).
As for dings (I’ve only really had the bumper get dinged):
Parking Garage for a Year: $3000 ($250/mo x 12)
New bumpers for a Honda: $600
I say park on the street, its convenient, and replace your bumpers yearly if it really bothers you.
I don’t get why the MTA raising fares is that relevant unless you are only a very occasional commuter. For most people, a car is not a substitute for MTA and where it might be, those people are going to drive even if the MTA is almost free because the convenience factor (say you work in the Bronx but live in Queens).
Otherwise, Maly covered most of the germane points. From a cash outlay POV think of it this way:
Fixed cost of $6-7K for a decent used car
Yearly insurance liability only: $1,200
Annual maintenance costs: variable, but figure at least $400 a year
Parking — $200/month = $2400/year
OR occasional tickets: 5x/year $45 for street cleaning violations = $225 PLUS that one time they tow you: anothe $300.
Gas — variable depeding on how much you drive.
Obviously it’s cheaper to park on the street unless you get tickets more than once a month, but it’s a huge hassle. And you get the very occasional break-in or smashed window that adds additional costs.
I pay about 1200 too and I think it’s nuts. Highest in the country, right? Paid about 50% less when I was in Manhattan
zipcar is cheaper — always. but since I’d have to lug carseats and install them, I put zipcar in the “life is too short” folder.
also, I haven’t had a ticket or a break-in for years.
if I had to do it again tho, i’d lease. leasing is looking really cheap right now.
We pay $85 per month for insurance and park it on the street. Not sure where this ‘sky high’ auto insurance idea comes from. Yes, it’s cheaper in the burbs but it’s hardly crushing to pay less than $1200 per year I would think.
Zipcar is useless unless you have to just make short trips to the near burbs to shop or something. And you can’t be sure how long it will take you to get there and back with traffic, so you end up renting for longer than you usually actually need. We’ve used Zipcar before we bought a car and I’m not sure who actually is well-served by it.
and btw, we had zipcar for a year before having our own used car. we spent more on zipcar. it’s not really suitable for anything other than errands and day trips. if you need a car for 3-5 days, zipcar will cost you an absolute fortune.
i can’t wait to take my car out to long island this weekend to go to target. 🙂
zip car garage is on 12th street so very convenient for you
can’t imagine that zip car would be more than garage+maintenance+gas+insurance+car itself
cars in NYC are albatrosses and just cause stress