Others have commented on other points, but I'll note "Extremely high liability insurance is $50 a month or less." – the cheapest liability only insurance I can find is $120/month, and I'm 32 & married with a clean driving record. $100–$150/month seems to be the norm, talking to my friends.
I should have written "liability only insurance", meaning it protects me from everything except paying for my own vehicle, which I opted not to get since I can afford to replace or repair my vehicle out of pocket. I have $250k/$500k liability insurance incl uninsured and underinsured for ~$40/month from Amica on the west coast right now. I had it for $45/month or so from Geico on the east coast. Both my wife and I have clean driving record for past 15+ years.
I'm also talking about liability only insurance – from some other comments, it seems to vary a lot depending on exactly you're located. I did find much cheaper insurance when I was living in Maryland.
Different sources I find give between $1100 and $1600 as the annual average total auto insurance in the US, with about half of that liability. But there is a lot of regional variation. (state averages seem to vary by a factor greater than 2; and rates vary by ZIP code, not just state, and the range between ZIP codes has to be much greater than that between stats averages.) But, nationally, $120/mo. ($1,440/yr) for liability-only is very high.
