IS A CAR A LUXURY?

What can be the answer to that. Carfree family have some good comments to make about cars and how they manage without it. The question has come up simply because my 4 year old car has come up with a problem that will take a lot of money to fix it. I have decided to go ahead and have it fixed but transport is on my mind. We live in the country and my DH argues that we 'need' 2 cars to get around and yet, I would be quite happy to share a car or do without one. The running costs of a car are quite high. How did we get to have 2 cars in a family anyhow? Is it simply a matter of choices we make. How much does a car cost to run? Calculating it using this table the cost of running my car for the last year have been about £ 92 per week ( that takes into account all taxes, depreciation etc). That is quite a bit I have to say for owning a car. What alternatives are available. You could register with liftshare to see what transport can be shared or how to get along using public transport. It also has a handy link for door to door planning and timetables. This could make an alternative work. A suggested trip could either be shared and would take 1 hour, but the cost of public transport could be about £ 15.00. Still I wonder how far you could go with the £ 92.00 running costs per week and how that could be saved. Any suggestions anyone?