...When I think about the nice used car I could buy for the cost of one [Scorpion FS] that put me back into reality...
Not to be too mean, but that sounds like your reality is pretty limited to yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
<rant>seriously, folks- comparing an expensive recumbent trike to a used car in terms of price is not only silly but downright in-accurate: you
can not just look at the buying price of the respective vehicles!
TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) applies here as well as to office supplies and computers.
Cost of a decently set up *new* Scorpion FS (minus shipping): ~$5000-$6000
- decent body fairing to give you similar weather protection and improved aerodynamics as a car: ~$1,000
- fuel usage: roughly $35-$40 per week (food intake) (yes, I'm being a bit conservative) if you cycle every day. more or less depending on your diet, of course. I generally would not include this number in TCO because you will eat *anyway*, whether you cycle or not, but i put it here as a given estimate of 'fuel' consumed,
- insurance: roughly a few dollars per week, if not less,
- bike maintenance costs (adjustments, new tires, new parts): ~$100-$500 per year or less depending on your cycling habits.
Cost of a decently road-safe used car: ~$5000-$6000
- fuel usage: ~$30-$50 per week,
- insurance: ~$35 per week (based on 2009 numbers for US national car insurance),
- car maintenance costs (adjustments, new tires, new parts, oil changes every 3-6 months): ~$100-$1000 per year (+/- depending on your driving habits of course and the condition of the car)
If your primary reasons for cycling are exercise and commuting to work daily up to 30 miles round-trip, or for distances up to, let's say, 15-20 miles one way, a recumbent trike is more cost effective than a car will ever be. It's only disadvantage is in time spent cycling- about an hour for a 15 mile commute, as opposed to 10-15 minutes over the same distance by car (or even longer than a cycle if city traffic-jams are the norm in your area).
A daily used recumbent trike will typically recoup your investment far faster by being cheaper to run and maintain than a car, plus improve your health a bit.
It's not a simple "oy vey! I can buy a car for dat money!" logic.</rant>