Yeah, it's a huge expense to maintain a car. Here in Venezuela is a headache to keep a vehicle in a good condition. Specialy because the shortage of parts, you must buy a popular car and make yourself sure that you won't suffer a robbering of you car or some parts like tires or battery. A good alarm system is not enough, when you go out the garage you must chose different ways to go your work to avoid been harassed in a thief-attack
However, i hope to have a nice car someday. It's not good to pay for a bus or a cab if you need to move from A to B points.