Oh, I don't know about the bit where trains are cheaper!
A lot depends on what your hobby is with cars. Although the traditional show/restoration crowd don't seem to realise there is a world outside of the show field, there are very different aspects to this.
Beyond the Barrett Jackson toffs and the over-restorations, there is proper motorsport. You can get a license and prep a car and do vintage racing (which is at least as expensive if you want to be competitive), or you can do autocross (solo trips around a tight track for time; riotous good fun and not too pricey for the laughs) and rallyes (road courses with each leg set to a time; lose points the faster or slower you are than the set time). I remember doing rallyes on a real shoestring budget; my car was in bits and I used my parents Volkswagen bus! It looked dam silly doing the "special stage", a leg of the route where you get points for the speed you can cover rather than the accuracy to a pre-established speed.
Another is one aspect that is actually growing. Where the national clubs like AACA and the Model A Ford Club of America, with their rather blinkered outlook on the car hobby as restoration competition, are losing membership as the nostalgiacs die off, the people interested in history rather than nostalgia are more interested in taking on a survivor. They can be found, and the pastime is to maintain them and drive them as part of their life's journeys. The only younger guys I see are these history-driven folk, and they groove on feeling a living vehicle through their fingers, whether holding wrench or steering wheel, and becoming one with a piece of history. They have little interest in taking them apart, restoring them to better than factory, and losing the life's story in the process. These people are interested in the car itself, not the techniques and finesse of hand-building any handy car to Rolls Royce standard like the restorer/concours/trophy hobby.
It amases me how absolutely out of touch the carshow guys are with survivors and the survivor hobby. In any discussion they can't get out of the competition judging mindset, so they obsess with how do you judge survivors (you can't) on the show-field, when we don't intend to bring them to the show-field and have them judged. It isn't the point of the survivor hobby, but the show-people can't grasp that we just don't care.
In my case, with the two MG's I have here, (getting back to the point) I've got perhaps $7500 in the both initially, insurance costs me about $200 a year, and maintenance and parts are quite swallow-able, depending on what car you might want to "adopt". The goal is to pick a good solid vehicle that has been cared for, has a few dings and scratches and niggles and shows it's age well, and has good basic mechanics. Fix up the things that need to be done to catch up the periodic maintenance (the Midget I just roped in needs a good survey of the running gear, bushings, shocks, perhaps springs, just the attention it is due and hasn't gotten) then drive it. Enjoy it. Best of all, a good project doesn't need to cost five or six figures to play, and the return from the car is unlimited.
We're seeing more of this in the car world. Meets instead of shows, groups of guys meeting at the garage and getting a little dirty, and then going out for a B-road buzz either singly, in groups, or in clubs is back. Meanwhile, the don't-touch trailer crowd is dialling back and dying off.
There is a fundamental shift going on in the car world, and it's great fun to play. Pick a subject that is pretty common and well supported, like BMCs and Brit-Leyland, Mustangs (amazingly enough!), Model A, quite a few of the Corvettes, and you don't have to put your retirement at risk in the process. Best of all, you can actually enjoy the car for what it is, not be afraid of it for what it cost you to show.
Two sayings sum up the survivor hobby, "It's only original once", and "You ain't havin' fun unless you're steering."
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