Well, Oliver, it's sort of a joke, but in many ways true. The very wealthy can afford cars (and often a driver for them. In Manhattan, parking, insurance, taxes, etc. are rather high, so unless one is making a pretty darn good salary, they often don't have a car. Public transportation goes everywhere, and Manhattan itself isn't all that big--I could probably skate from Harlem, which is at the North end of Manhattan Island to South Street Ferry, which is, oddly enough, at the South end, within an hour and a half.
However, sometimes folks without much money get cars too. They will buy on credit, and do things like put off getting insurance. That's the joke part of it--it's sort of implied.
In reality of course, many people find a car to be a necessity, and even when they don't make that much money, they work and do without other things in order to have one. My line about the very rich and very poor is more of a joke line.
However, many in the lower to upper-middle middle class, whatever that is, don't own cars--they're very expensive to own in Manhattan and there's very little need for them.
It's sort of a standard NYC throwaway line (for non English speakers, in this case, a throw away line means a line said without thinking much about it, a joke or statement that is old and worn out and almost said in reflex.
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