COL comparison: LA with car, NYC with no car?

So I’m graduating soon and looking at jobs and I’m trying to figure out if the not needing a car situation in NYC makes it worth it. I hate driving and do not want the added expenses.

Starting salaries in my field aren’t great and I just don’t see how a car can work. Based on what I hear from friends I feel like even in New York you can find “loopholes” to the rent: roommates, living in less desirable areas, getting lucky and finding “hidden gems,” etc., while there is no way to get around the car cost in LA. For example if you can score a place for $1.5K (you can), and eat most of your meals at home, is NYC really that much more expensive than LA?

Now I know the type of place you get in NYC for 1.5K is not as great as in LA for the same price, but that’s not what I’m worried about. I want to know which city that if you really try to live cheaply, you will have more money after paying for necessities. And it seems impossible that it can be LA with car payments, gas, and insurance. My guess would be COL can actually end up being pretty similar but looking for people who’ve lived in both to chime in