I was going to say the same thing: if you want to do something interesting, like go to Haleakala or O'heo on Maui or various volcanic excursions on the Big island, you'll get nowhere without a car. Granted, that's probably a minority (thankfully) of the people...
Driving the road to Hana was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
Cars have ruined where I grew up in Dallas, though — so much sprawl. I live in Austin, which is sort of fighting it, but establishing the infrastructure after the fact is so difficult.
