VHF (2m) is going to be vastly more useful for emergency communications than HF in most urban areas, and for people who live in apartment buildings, etc., VHF is going to be a lot easier to actually use. I'm using a Yaesu 8800 mobile in my car now so I can cross-band repeat UHF to VHF as well, which would probably work pretty well for disaster communications.
(I'm personally most interested in UHF/EHF, myself, mainly satellite and point to point. I ran an iDirect TCP/IP Ku-band commercial/government/military network for a few years, and would love to buy some space segment on Ka band or possibly X and get back into it at some point. But I don't have a home/office with space for a dish farm right now, nor the $1-5k/MHz to lease transponders.)
If I had the ability to put up a tower or even a patio for antennas, I'd probably get a home HF station, true.
google for "hf mobile" or just ask at a nearby club meeting, there's enough people doing HF mobile that surely someone will give you a demonstration.
I have a "trailer hitch mount". So I can install or remove whatever I want, relatively easily and quickly. Its a slight step up from the magnet mount technique. Using the quick disconnect on the antenna I can stick a 5/8th wave 2M vertical on if I want, or a shortened 20M hamstick-alike, or whatever I want.
My favorite part is my neighborhood has enough RF smog to make HF operation basically impossible (even weak signal 6M sometimes), but a RF silent park parking lot is only a short drive away. This tends to make up for the inherent disadvantages of a small mobile HF installation.
You don't need to start with a $500 all weather autotuner or $700 screwdriver antenna and elaborate mounting plans... a simple $20 stick-type on a temporary magnet is good enough to see what its like, or basically "free" if a local will loan you some gear to see what its like (weaksignal VHF+ rovers are like that, but some HFers are like that too).
Also its a lot harder and more expensive to build an installation that will survive snow and thunderstorms at 85 MPH down the interstate and survive for years outside 24x365 than to park somewhere and slap a magnet mount on the roof and run the cable thru an open window... you'd never drive around like that, but you don't have to, so .. don't. It also cures the ignition noise puzzle... shutting off the engine in a parking lot tends to eliminate ignition noise pretty effectively LOL. Only operating while parked tends to eliminate the "distracted driving" problem too.
Like all things in ham radio, if motivated and knowledgeable you can do quite a bit quickly for free, or you can spend years and thousands if you want. Both are fun.
I found this all very entertaining when I was living in the apartment building.
The other advice I have is keep everything in a big plastic bin, so you don't forget the radio 12 volt power cable at home, or forget your logbook, or whatever else you need. And when you come home, throw the full bin in a corner of the apartment until next time.
