This is one of the genuinely split questions among people settling here, because the honest answer depends far more on the postcode than on the person. Between full ownership and going entirely without sits a middle layer of station bikes and car-sharing that arrivals frequently do not know exists.
For city living — Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, The Hague and similar — you can skip a car comfortably; the cycling infrastructure and train/tram/bus network cover daily life fine, and parking is expensive enough, with permit waitlists in some neighborhoods, that owning one often costs more hassle than it saves. Where it starts making sense: a village or rural area with thin OV (public transport) service, a job outside public-transport reach, kids in scattered activities that don't line up with bus schedules, or regular cross-border trips. For everything in between, there's a decent middle ground — OV-fiets, NS's bike-share you unlock at nearly every station with your OV-chipkaart or OVpay for a flat per-trip fee, covers the last mile from station to destination, and car-sharing platforms like Greenwheels or MyWheels handle the occasional IKEA run or weekend trip without the insurance, parking permit and depreciation of actually owning one. ---