Parent of a current Bates junior here. DS did not have a car at college until midway into sophomore year. We are of the view that having a car freshman year detracts from the initial college experience, and although DS had no real need for his car after freshman year, he just wanted it. So his grandparents kindly drove it cross country, dropping it off with him after using it to explore New England in the fall.
While DS wanted to have his car there and uses it occasionally, it became an albatross when last summer arrived. He had remained on campus until end of June doing lab research and didn’t want to spend two weeks of what summer break remained driving to Seattle and back. (Plus being under 21 makes finding road trip lodging more challenging.) So DS had to scramble to find summer storage for the car.
Because the car sits unused for prolonged periods, we’ve since replaced the battery and purchased DS a WeeGo portable jump starter.
The thing is, Bates used to have Zipcars on campus but those were pulled during the pandemic rental car crunch. We are long time Zipcar members and if only Zipcar had returned to Bates, DS wouldn’t have elected to have his own car there.
Long story short: at Bates anyway a car is definitely not a necessity, and having one can be both handy and a PITA.