Do the benefits of buying a car outweigh the costs - in terms of time, money, care, and

[psychologist]

well-being? I am a single young adult man who has never owned a car. I would like to get an idea of the costs of buying and keeping a car as opposed to the benefits in independence and ease. Is owning a car worth it in the final analysis, bearing in mind the cost vs. benefit balance in terms of benefits like the time saved, ease afforded and psychological and social benefits afforded (like reinforcement of personal independence, feeling of having become firmly an adult and become mature, the ability to take out a girl-friend, etc) versus the costs like time and money spent in buying and keeping a car and the moral cost in terms of worry involved in looking after it?
Perhaps there are also social and psychological costs to owning a car?