Without a car, im unable to leave the house because of both physical and mental illness. I can't walk even the half mile to the shopping precinct near my house. As for anything further afield, due to severe urgency issues with both my bladder and my bowel, i can't rely on the waiting time for a taxi or bus to show up, nor the actual journey time with regard to buses. When i need to get home, it has to be NOW. I'm also very wary of public transport for all the stories i've heard of people wetting/shitting themselves when in them drunk. Plus people having incontinence issues in general, i don't like sitting on seats strangers have sat on.
So yes, a car can be absolutely essential, even if you live in the middle of a city with everything within walking distance for a regular person.
It's just me, my dad, and my also mentally ill sister who lives in assisted living flats elsehwere but also needs my dad to take her everywhere. My dad has been my full time carer for 11 years and my mum, who was the sole earner, was diagnosed terminally ill out of the blue 7 1/2 years ago and died 2 months later. We live off my disability benefit, and my dad gets carers. We're on less than minimum wage for one person between us, and have to fund a car.
We were actually at the point earlier this year our car was old, had done over 90,000 miles, and big fixes were starting to be needed, like a new clutch (cost over £1000) and we were starting to get very worried how we would replace it, when we actually got in to a car crash, completely other drivers fault, and our car got written off. I was left completely housebound by the accident and was physically quite injured, as were both my dad and sister. We were "lucky" in the way we got enough from the actual cars value and personal injury claims (genuine ones) to be able to buy a brand new car, as second hand was not an option due to not knowing the hygiene practices of previous owners or if they had any "accidents" in it etc.
There's absolutely no way we could have ever afforded to replace it if we hadn't had the accident. As such, i would never judge someone crowd funding for a car, because i understand how vital it can be for some people to have one. A holiday no way would i donate, but if i was close to payday and could afford a fiver and the person genuinely needed the car, i'd donate.