Degrade to what extent? I have a 12 year old Nissan Leaf that's lost maybe 25% of its range. Still absolutely usable as a neighborhood car.
Not familiar with that term, what does it mean? Shared ride? A car for walking distances?
If the city was walkable, you would not need such a thing as neighborhood car, you could just use a bike, but apparently as a society at many places we have decided that the cars are the best mode of transportation ever.