Ever consider being a One-Car Family?

Kurtatron said:
Tires go bad with age. Most tires shouldn’t be kept much longer than 6 years. So even if they are not driven, they will go bad. I don’t have a garage, so I can’t keep my tires out of the sun and heat.

Also, many people do change oil on a timely schedule, not miles basis. sure fluids and tires do not amount to much, but how familiar are you with Michigan’s nation’s highest insurance rates? Michigan is a no fault state AND mandatory unlimited insurance rates. Even for my 2001 Honda Civic, I have to pay $90 a month for MINIMUM liability.
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If we put insurance at $100 a month, 100 x 12 = $1200 a year. It'd be surprising to hear of anyone spending an extra (wasted based on age not mileage) $800 every year on tires and fluids.

If someone changes their oil every 3 months even if they only drove 500 miles, that waste of money is unnecessary.

Your first post included the cost of tires and fluids. So I replied about tires and fluids. Your recent post starts out implying they would cost a good bit due to age replacement, but then your post says their cost "do not amount to much." Your post disagreed with me, then it agrees with me.

Regarding insurance, if you haven't already, and I'll put this in bold in case people are skimming this, ask your insurer if there's a discount for not driving a vehicle much. Last I checked, I could get a 35% or whatever discount if the vehicle was driven less than 7k a year. Something like that.
 
For years, my wife and I only had 2 car. Lived in the city, condo with one spot, and right on public transit. Wife hated to drive, so I did 90 percent of the driving, worked out well most of the time.
Now, in a small town with no public transit, and both having jobs we commute to?
Hahahaha!
We do more driving now than we ever have on 2 vehicles!
 
DejaVue said:
If we put insurance at $100 a month, 100 x 12 = $1200 a year. It'd be surprising to hear of anyone spending an extra (wasted based on age not mileage) $800 every year on tires and fluids.

If someone changes their oil every 3 months even if they only drove 500 miles, that waste of money is unnecessary.

Your first post included the cost of tires and fluids. So I replied about tires and fluids. Your recent post starts out implying they would cost a good bit due to age replacement, but then your post says their cost "do not amount to much." Your post disagreed with me, then it agrees with me.

Regarding insurance, if you haven't already, and I'll put this in bold in case people are skimming this, ask your insurer if there's a discount for not driving a vehicle much. Last I checked, I could get a 35% or whatever discount if the vehicle was driven less than 7k a year. Something like that.
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Ok, I overestimated. $1000 a year in savings. Happy now?

I have called the insurers before and asked about low miles like less than 4000 a year. They still said the prices were going to be over $700 every 6 months. I am paying quite a bit less than a colleague of mine who leases a car. He pays over $200 per month in insurance alone! If it weren’t for the exorbitant insurance rates over here, I wouldn’t have asked the question of single car family. Those rates are from Allstate, AAA, and progressive. I am with a smaller company now.
What I can save is what’s called “storage insurance” which means not driving the car. That’s a paltry $21 a year.
 
Kurtatron said:
Ok, I overestimated. $1000 a year in savings. Happy now?
Click to expand...
No. Because you are rude.

You mentioned saving on tires and fluids. I asked how that would be a savings and stated my opinion in order to help you decide if keeping your second car is worth it or not. After what looks like some arguing just for the sake of arguing, you ultimately agree with me about it, which helps you come to a better decision about it, but you are antagonistic about it. You're welcome.
 
I think it depends what car it is though Dejavue, I see cars come in at work that get driven hard that have 4wd systems needing 4x tyres every 7000 to 9000 miles. That’s a £600 cost on its own. Then take into account a yearly oil change at £250 with out other maintenance costs like annual inspection I think it’s easy to get to the sums Kurtatron mentioned.
 
At the LA house - sure. We can walk to restrains, groceries, theatre, shopping, train.......

At the Penn Valley house nope. 2 car min.
 
Been WFH since 2003. Wife and I on and off been 1 decent car and the without, broken or parked car. Currently a boring 2015 Honda Pilot and wife’s car she really likes a 2018 VW Tiguan.
 
Did it for years. My Wife doesn't drive. She was blind before having surgery in 1996. She decided not to after not driving for half her life. I bought a second car to use as a commuter. My Jeep now only gets driven on the weekends.
Having only one car sucks. I hated having to do repairs and getting a ride for parts and such. Never again.
 
I've owned 2 or more vehicles since '78 or '79 and I was single back then. I've owned 3 or more cars now for so long I can't stand to be down to only 2 cars that are road worthy. I'm disabled and my wife doesn't have a driver's license because of medical issues but I still want to know if a car breaks down or needs work I've got a couple more to fall back on until I get around to working on it or getting someone else to repair it. I've got a car down right now that I'm waiting on a part for but I have 2 other cars to rely on until the part comes in and I can get it repaired. When my son was younger and living at home there were 2 drivers and I kept 4 or 5 cars licensed and insured. It took me awhile to get used to being a 3 car family. I don't expect to ever be a single car family again even when my wife retires.
 
We've been a 1 car family a couple of times.

First was when I was going to university and my wife was also working at the university. My wife had a parking space and she used our only car for getting to and from work. I got by when her commutes weren't at a convenient time by walking in the winter and riding a bicycle with a child seat in summer. I swear I could get to the university faster on my bicycle than we could drive and park. And it was about 3 miles.

The second time was when we lived in Winnipeg and had a lovely old house with a 1 car garage. There is no way I would have parked a car outdoors in that weather. I gave our second car to our daughter who was going to school elsewhere. I took the bus to work. I hadn't asked if my workplace would provide parking. If I had asked before taking the job they would have, but since I hadn't asked they wouldn't, and once I was there it was too late. They were that kind of employer.

Yes it's possible. But you have to always think about how you're going to get to places on those days when you both going somewhere. You also save a lot of money and get more exercise.
 
For me it’s “horses for course” as the Brits put it.
The Jeep is driven several times a month but its primary purpose is to give us a way back to civilization if deep snow, deep water, or fallen trees block our driveway.
The Mini is the perfect commuter, we bought it for cheap and it returns north of 38 mpg. I’m keeping it until at least 2024 when I retire(for the second time).
The 318ti is the garage queen, retired from HPDE duty it’s driven strictly for pleasure. I’ve had it since new and I’m keeping it forever.
The M235i is used for pleasure, longer trips and the occasional HPDE. It’s so much fun that the only cars that I think could replace it are the M2 Competition or the Supra 3.0.
The X1 is what my wife picked out. Nice enough to drive around town and on trips, but if I wanted a SAV to drive most all of the time it would have to be a GC Trackhawk, an X3 M Competition, or nothing.
 
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Car expense is a non linear proposition thats way more than a matter of insurance.

I was thinking of putting my RX400 up for sale last summer but waited.

In the meantime a 2nd radiator (Denso part) failed costing another 600 dollars for a car with a finite value, It also needed at least 2 tires and the chrome wheels had begun leaking as the chrome was peeling after 15 years, the steering rack had developed some play...

If I actually used it these are minor expenses but with 2 other vehicle to drive there is just no reason to keep it around and keep feeding deteriorating parts.
 
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