Buying a new car is a daunting task, especially if faced with a dilemma after arriving back from European cities with great public transport, there you don’t seem to mind not owning one at all.

I find myself pondering on the need to buy another car that will further increase the congestion of the city’s traffic, for most part it’s about finding the ideal car to fit your lifestyle and budget, but during the search I realize that perhaps there is a bigger conspiracy between the car manufacturers and the lawmakers to further delay a solution for our public transportation, back in the 1950’s Los Angeles experienced the demise of its public railway system to the lobbyist of the car-manufacturing giants.

There’s an apparent similarity in a city without good public transport, the car becomes a lifestyle rather than a functional transportation to get you from point A to point B, because it certainly is not “cool“ to stroll in the sidewalk especially in a city like Jakarta, where many are willing to purchase a car worth a lot more than it should for the sake of maintaining a lifestyle. For sure I’m one of those people who would rather buy a pre-owned European car rather than pay a ridiculous amount purchasing it new only to lose a third or more of its value the next year.

But there are some good choices for car lovers out there (read W_selection ), mostly Japanese brands, and of course the undisputed ultimate car for Jakarta, the Toyota Kijang Innova made it to the top of the list.

Perhaps by having less of a need to embrace the car related lifestyle, we would have a congestion solution to our traffic problem, aside from the obvious solution of a good public transportation for our dear city that we eagerly await to be materialized.