You must live yonks from Monash then if you gotta take citylink and all that. My choice is quite simple. 10-15 minute drive vs. 90 min public transport (no direct bus line from home to uni, gotta take like a bus + train + bus).
I don't know how you figured $5000 a year... iirc you drive some fancy convertible. Say you fill one tank a week (approx $60), let's take a year as 50 weeks for simplicity, that's $3000 for petrol. Insurance for P platers is through the roof, say $4-5000 ish for that incl. rego. Now let's put aside $1000 for servicing. Take parking permit as 350. $650 reserve for fixing shit in your car in the unlikely event that they break. That's the 10000 
May be 1-2k less depending on what car you drive.
If you're driving that far to uni, the petrol costs would be even higher... so i don't see how it can be $5000 a year unless you're uninsured and don't regularly service your car.
Oh, and then there are those like Mao who have the "mod-bug"... spends every penny on making his exhaust fartier, lowering closer to the point of immobility and 'reemz'.
Yeah, I drive a convertible. It's not fancy. Tank of petrol costs $45, and lasts all week (I always fill up on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when it's cheapest). My Dad's mates service my car cheap. I get a 25% discount on rego, because I've never received a fine (speaking of guys, the rego stickers are a really gross orange colour this year... just a heads up). It costs me exactly $433.49 ($577.98 - 25% discount)... I had the rego bill in front of me yesterday, because it was due. Comprehensive vehicle insurance for my family is $2200 a year for *four* cars... I still dunno where you pulled that ridiculous $5k figure from. Despite the fact that I'm the listed driver on my car, the fact that we have eight vehicles insured with the same company gets us a discount (in addition to the four cars, there's also three boats and a motorbike insured with the same company). My portion of the family motor vehicle insurance is about $800 iirc... a bit above a clean quarter of the total family motor vehicles cost. Also bear in mind that premiums for female P-platers are less expensive than those for male P-platers. Citylink costs me $11.76 for each return trip I make to uni. I do not use Citylink when I travel to exams, because I find Kings Way to be better when traveling to Caulfield Racecourse... the few minutes I save aren't enough to offset the tolls. Parking permit $350. Parking at the exam venue is free for blue permit holders. Whenever I spend a night out in the city, I use free parking.
Expenses:Petrol: $45 x 52 = $2340
Servicing: Three bottles of scotch, a box of chocolates, a new spark plug and a new brake light = ~$300
Rego: $433.49
Insurance: ~$800
Citylink: $11.78 x 3 (times a week) x 13 (weeks a semester) x 2 (semesters) = $918.84
Parking Permit: $350 (previously $320... my first set of expenditure estimates used the old $320 figure)
Total: $5142.33If you want to get more technical, my petrol expenses are next to nothing over summer, since I only live 5 minutes away from two of my three employers, and 10 minutes away from the third. Also, I don't use Citylink all the time for uni (though I assumed in my calculations that I do).
So... if we're done dissecting my car expenses (which I do monitor very closely, hence how I could very easily quote all these figures)... I would like to point out that I said it was *my* cost v. benefits... everyone's expenditures are different... for the most part, I wanted to point out the fact that public transport isn't always the most viable option for everyone. You just said it yourself that driving saves you about 80min a trip... surely you can appreciate that this counts for something? People should try and account for non-financial costs or benefits too.
P.S. If you're really paying $5k a year on your car insurance, you should start shopping around for something cheaper... >.>
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