We currently have two cars, but have been seriously thinking about sharing a car and downsizing to just one. I hardly ever drive, and I can count the amount of times I have driven in 2015 on one hand.
Due to this, we have been thinking about selling one of our cars and becoming a one car family.
There are many reasons for why we are thinking about sharing a car, and it’s not just all about money.
Yes, the money is just being wasted on the second car since we most likely do not need it, but it’s also a waste of time and space. I am always trying to save time in my life by eliminating time wasters, so it makes sense that the next thing we are currently evaluating is our car habit.
Below are some of the reasons for why we are and are not thinking about becoming a one car family. Some of the below can probably be adapted to fit your situation as well if you are thinking about sharing a car.
We both work from home and sharing a car wouldn’t be hard.
As you all know, both of us work from home and hardly ever have to leave.
99.99% of our work can be completed with just a laptop and wifi, so having to leave our house in order to get something done rarely happens.
This means that our cars are mainly used for pleasure and convenience. We use them mainly for getting groceries and traveling. Other than that, we don’t really ever use our cars.
We hardly ever have a reason for why both of our cars would have to be used at the same time since we don’t have to drive to work.
This is a big reason for why sharing a car and becoming a one car family would be very possible for us.
We would save money by downsizing and becoming a one car family.
Cars are expensive and everyone knows that. Between paying for the actual car, maintenance, registration fees, and more, it can easily add up each month.
We would be getting rid of the Subaru if we did decide to get rid of a car. While I love the car and the better fuel mileage, it is low clearance and it would be near impossible for us to do many of the outdoorsy things that we want to do because it wouldn’t make it on the rocky backroads.
We do have a car payment on our Subaru (we received a very low interest rate on it and that is why we didn’t pay for it in cash – we found better use for our cash instead). If we eliminated the Subaru, I believe we would be saving somewhere around $425 a month since we would be able to eliminate the monthly payment, maintenance costs, high personal property taxes, registration fees, and the cost for car insurance.
That’s around $5,100 a year we could be saving!
Of course, downsizing to just our Jeep Wrangler would mean more money spent on gas, but I don’t think it would make too much of a difference since we wouldn’t be able to drive the Subaru to many of the places that we want to go to anyways.
One of our cars is always just sitting there.
As I said earlier, one of our cars is usually just sitting there for days or even weeks at a time without being used. This is a complete waste of space and money, and is a big reason for why we are thinking about getting rid of one of our cars.
It just feels stupid to have one car sitting there all the time. As I am typing this, we haven’t even driven the Subaru since the day we moved into our new house and parked it in the garage.
That was on February 21st.
Obviously due to this, sharing a car and becoming a one car family wouldn’t be too difficult since we never seem to use the car anyways.
Downsizing to one car would make life more simple.
Two things I dislike doing every year is having to deal with personal property taxes and car registration. I haven’t really researched how everything is done in Colorado, but Missouri makes the process very tedious by requiring emissions testing, safety checks, large personal property tax payments, and more each year. Downsizing to one car would mean I only have to do this once each year, instead of twice.
We also wouldn’t have to worry about maintenance on two cars by simplifying.
Lastly, becoming a one car family would make moving more simple as well. Since we still want to move possibly a few more times before we decide on our “forever town,” having just one car would make each move more simple.
The negatives of sharing a car and becoming a one car family.
The main negative I can think of when it comes to becoming a one car family is that occasionally both of us will need a car. This won’t happen too much really, but this summer Wes has some travel plans which means that around once or twice a week he will need the car for a day or two. It’s just a day or two, so I think I could manage.
If I did need a break from our house, the “city” part of our small town that is filled with breweries, coffee shops, a grocery store, and other stores is just a short bike ride away (less than one mile). Everything is just right down the exact street we live on, so I know it wouldn’t be too hard to get something or to go somewhere.
Also, if both of us absolutely need a car one day, we could just rent one for cheap. I often see them going for around $15 to $20 a day, which is much better than $425 a month.
Other possible negatives of becoming a one car family include that the Jeep doesn’t really have enough space for all of us (two humans, two dogs, and all of our stuff – Wranglers are not exactly spacious) whenever we go on a road trip, the Subaru is safer and drives better than the Jeep, the Subaru gets better gas mileage, and we don’t owe much on it.
In the end, I really don’t know what we will decide. While the reasons above in this post make it pretty clear that we should just get rid of the second car, it still seems hard to do. We are so used to having two cars and the luxury/ease that comes with it. While this may make me sound snobby, I am sure others feel the same way.
How many cars do you have? How much do you spend on car expenses each month? Have you thought about sharing a car and becoming a one car family?
Michelle L says
Its about convienience nowadays.
Jessica says
We sold my car when we moved and have been a one car family for almost 4 years now. Sometimes it’s a pain, but usually it works out well. The best part is the savings. It certainly makes any coordination required about using the car well worth the effort.
stephanir says
my husband and I shared for a while. The cost of sharing and driving to both places of employment was worth the hassle to not have that extra output of money each month. Now we have two cars and one car payment. I’d ditch one of your cars. It sounds like you could easily function with just one.
Crystal says
We live in a suburb area outside of Houston, TX. We could bike to restaurants and grocery stores, but that’s about it. My husband officiates high school football and softball. I am a professional pet sitter. We both work from home for my online business, but we both also drive more than 12,000 miles a year at different times. We don’t even have the option of being a 1 car couple…it just wouldn’t work at all. But it sounds like you may be in the perfect position for it! 🙂
Andrea Stenberg says
We’ve been a one-car family for several years now. We both work from home so it seems wasteful to have two cars sitting in the driveway everyday. One thing that makes it easier to be a one-car family is having my parents nearby. I often have meetings early in the morning and if we can’t quite juggle our schedules my mom drives my son to school, or we borrow her car for the morning so she doesn’t have to get up.
Having one car also means I end up walking more than I would if we had two cars, but that’s a good thing! Working from home means I have to work extra hard at getting exercise.
Liz says
Yeah for sure I definitely feel your pros and cons. Our secondary car is payed off and I have actually thought of selling it to kind of just get rid of unnecessary access. I’m not going to lie though we both love the convenience of him being able to get to and from work on his on and not having to wake up the baby.
Sandra Watts says
My husband and I share one vehicle. He works, I don’t, so we don’t tend to have any problems. If I need it for anything he hops a ride with a friend. Saves us a lot of money too.
Jack Mabry says
Since it doesn’t sound like you have much of a need for either vehicle, why not go whole hog, and sell both of them. You could always rent a vehicle to go camping with, and walk or bike into town. I haven’t had a vehicle in over 5 years, and it is such a joy not to have to put up with the crap that goes along with owning a vehicle. And, I get a lot more exercise than I used to.
Ronald Gagnon says
I am a single man of 63 who kept a newer car and a newer truck…the insurance alone, and the upkeep maintenance was running more than I could afford, so I sold the car and immedeitly saw the pleasent
effect it had on my monthly income…so your story rings so true to me..thank you
Bea says
We were a one car family for 6 years, and quite frankly I wish we could have continued with just one car. We moved to Chicago for my husband’s graduate studies in 2007 and everything was walking distance, plus we would be living off our savings. We bought a cheap used car since I was pregnant with our first child and thought it best to have one car for paediatrician appointments, grocery shopping, etc. My husband walked to the university (7 minute walk). During his summer internship he car pooled with coworkers and took our car a couple of times a week. I didn’t need it every day so it wasn’t an issue and I could just take a cab if I needed to go somewhere. After graduating he took a job in a consulting firm and we moved to a city with awful public transportation and not walkable at all, but he traveled for work every week so we continued with just one car (a small SUV). On the days when he did work in the city he took a cab (and more recently Uber), it was way cheaper than paying for a second car that would just sit in the garage for 80% of the year. On a couple of occasions we rented a car.
In 2013 he switched jobs and we got a car for him since he commutes daily and I need another car for driving kids to school, after school activities, etc. I’m still in shock every time I have to pay for two car insurances, 2 registrations, double the maintenance costs, double gas. I long to move back to a city where we can be less car dependent. Frankly not having a car and having good public transportation and a walkable neighbourhood is liberating.
If you plan to start a family soon I would recommend keeping the most family friendly car; but truly, living with one car when you very rarely need 2 at the same time, is not hard at all. There’s so many options: public transportation, renting when needed, taxis, users, biking…
Timothy Carter says
My fiance and I are currently in the same boat. She hardly ever drives, and the past 2 years that we’ve been together we mainly have shared 1 vehicle. Seems like an unnecessary expense at this point (even though both cars are paid off). We are in the process of moving to Florida and are going to be pretty close to the beach and conveniences, so more than likely we can walk or bike most of the time, saving us money.
Good Luck on your decision