The friend with the car who never makes you feel like a passenger is doing more than driving.

Having a car gives somebody a small amount of power in a group, and most people use a little of it. The friend who never reminds you, never holds it over anybody, never turns the seating into a ranking, is doing something more deliberate than driving. They are declining to run a hierarchy that was sitting right there. That is a specific kind of decency and it is worth naming.

Thank them for the rides out loud, and put money toward fuel even when they wave it off. When you are the one with the thing everybody needs, remember how little they made of it.