RE: Musing Posts
This answer may look familiar, and that's because I recently answered the exact same question except that a house was being used instead of a car.
Owning a car brings a person both an asset and multiple liabilities.
Framing this in financial accounting terms, an asset is anything that is owned and which can be converted into cash by its owner. So if you own a car, that car is your asset because you can (or in some cases, be forced to) sell it for cash at a future point in time.
A liability is an obligation to make an economic sacrifice (usually, but not always paying cash) to another entity. In the case of cars in America, the only mandatory liabilities are usually registration fees for the license plates (how often you must pay will vary depending on where you live) and insurance premiums (because by law the car must be insured; minimum requirements will again vary by state). Just like a house, repairs and maintenance will cost money and will be liabilities when those come up. Fuel would be a regular expense, but if you have an all-electric vehicle then you have no fuel costs, so I don't classify the cost of gasoline as a liability here.
Another thing to consider with cars is depreciation over time. Depreciation is considered an expense, but instead of paying this expense with cash, depreciation is deducted from the value of the car as an asset. Once you buy a car and start driving it, its value will decrease as people are not willing to pay as much for a used car as they would for a new car. The longer you own and drive the car, the more it depreciates.
In the end, just like home ownership, whether or not it's worth it to own a car will vary depending an individual's specific set of circumstances. That person will have to weigh the value of a car (that will depreciate) against the liabilities that they would incur while owning that car.