Do you and your dh car share, or do you feel l having two car is essential ?

[Lardlizard]

To your life ?

We have one car but we both work from home. On the occasions when i need to go into London for work i drive to the station and take the car but DH can still go on foot to pick up the children. I can't see us needing a separate car so we will stick with the one at the moment.

When we lived in a city with excellent public transport we only needed one. We could walk to work, take the metro or a bus. We now live somewhere we don’t even have a bus, so 2 cars is a must. It also means as our Dc grow they will need cars as teens just to get around. It’s really stupid

Two is necessary for us.

We work in opposite directions that are difficult commutes via public transport and out of the way of DS’s nursery.

In additions DH works at all hours and is often called in for overtime and works late meaning I would virtually have to do without a car and rely on transport as he would need it to get to work.

DW has car and I cycle the 10 miles to work. The whole journey is along the towpath and is a wonderful cycle ride.

A car each.
DH has a 'hobby' with 'equipment' that can't easily be transported without a car.
I want flexibility when DH is out doing said hobby.

(And no, it isn't cycling.)

We went down to one car when I started working from home a lot and worked out that the second car was costing about £90 for every trip it did.

Saves us £300/month I think.

I walk, cycle or taxi if cars not available. About once a year there's a clash that means we rent a second car for a day.

I’ve never owned a car myself. I learned to drive in DHs car and we’ve always just ‘shared’ his cars. Although it’s his car and his insurance I am actually listed as the main driver because I use it to get to and from work while he uses the train. It doesn’t make financial sense for us to run two cars.

Essential we have one each. He needs one for his job and works v long hours and I need one for my job.

2 cars. DH needs a car for work most days. I WFH, but 3 busy preteen kids means I spend most afternoons ferrying people around.
We've tried managing with one car and it can be done, but it makes life more stressful and complicated. And I hated the times I had to ask other people for lifts/favours.

We've done both over the years.
We shared a car until shortly after DD was born. We moved to where we live now partly because it has good public transport locally and to the city centre (suburbs).

We had 2 cars for the next 8 or so years - I used to drive to city centre daily and DD came home with me, DH used to drive or cycle and DD would go in with him in mornings (she's great at signaling when cycling herself now due to all that training on the back of his bike!! ) until DD went into primary, then I needed to collect her from afterschool club by car as it was too far to walk late in the evenings. We also managed to use public transport for periods in there rather than car commuting.

DH was away 50% of the time for a period (2 weeks away, 2 weeks at home) so we dropped to 1 car again. We were able to juggle when he was home, and we agreed up front that we'd use public transport mostly but if there was an urgent or late night out type need or clash of diaries, occasional taxis were part of the budget too. And we also knew there are 2 decent car hire places very locally if we had significant clashes for a weekend or similar. These costs were a lot less than running a second car, and not so much hassle that we couldn't do it.

Then DFIL died, 2.5 hours away, and DH spent weeks down there while he was ill, and weeks and many many weekends more supporting DMIL after he died. Meanwhile, I still had to work and DD still had school here. So we went back to 2 cars. He really needed one down there (public transport really didn't work long term as DPIL live rurally a bit away from the city down there) and I really needed one up here (DD activities scattered locally not all on public transport routes, needing to do grocery shopping as online wasn't great, etc).

It worked ok while we only had 1, but it did require a lot of communication and understanding and a fair amount of flexibility from both of us. But having gone to 1, we also were happy to spend on taxis, where others in the family wouldn't, and we are all happy to use public transport (even with work/activity gear). DH and DD cycle a fair amount (my bike is rusting away unloved) as well, for fun as well as to get places, and DH can commute on his (he can even walk to work half the time - but then he also has to get to the airport at 4am most weeks and gets home the following night at close to midnight - so definitely needs his own car for that!). And we will all walk locally to do errands or meet people.

But DD seems to need a lift to/from school more than ever in secondary (loads of books and loads of sports gear) and it is a good 45 minute walk away, late in the evening in the dark and cold of winter.

And we have got involved in both sailing and in scouting in the past few years, both of which involve significant amounts of gear being hauled around the place, and generally to places with no public transport (small harbours all over the country, and up boreens to go on hikes in the depths of the countryside!).

And I must admit that I have got much more used to the autonomy of having my own car since DH was working away (and didn't need the family car), and now that we got a 2nd one the 2nd time around, so it would be harder for me to give it up a 2nd time.

One car - both try to use public transport as much as possible. When we do need a second car, I'll hire one. Works out a lot cheaper that paying for a vehicle to sit on the drive most of the time.

No children at home so that makes it a lot easier.

We have two cars at the moment but plan on getting rid of one next year when my contract is up. DH works from home much more than he used to, so his ends up sat on the drive all week.

We have one car. My DP uses it and I take public transport. It can be a bit inconvenient at times but it saves us loads of money which means we can always afford a luxury holiday abroad each year instead

We need two cars. My husband works unsociable hours so public transport isn't an option for him for most of his shifts and it's too far to cycle/walk. He also does on-call work.

This means he needs access to a car pretty much 24/7

Whilst I could get creative with public transport/walking and just about manage to get the children around the place and keep my job, it would also mean that the children wouldn't get to participate in their sports because we wouldn't have transport and I wouldn't presume to rely on someone else to transport us.

I'm not happy running a 2 car household, but until the public transport options catch up to the real world it's a necessity.

We have only one car and live rurally where the buses are shit. It only works because our 2 workplaces and DC nursery are all close together. It is a pain at times, but every month we make it work we are putting money away for holidays, bigger house etc

We live rurally and work in opposite directions so two cars are essential. Dh does often drive to the nearest train station rather than all the way to work when he can.

We’ve got one. We both work in the same city so usually commute in together but I’m on mat leave at the moment so DH uses public transport when he can.

This might look a bit different when I’m back at work and we have to factor in nursery drop offs/both of us having one day off a week, we still need to figure out what the most cost effective option is.

We have two at the moment and plan to go down to one when we both retire (hopefully next year) but to be honest I'm not sure why we have two as it is very rare that we are both using a car at the same time probably no more than three or four times so far this year. So with a bit of forward planning and the occasional taxi we could probably manage with one.

Technically we could manage with one car however, we tried it for a few weeks and it nearly caused a divorce.
We are both self employed with jobs that involve going to see clients and other meetings all over the county, elder child whose school is a 20 minutes drive away (this was our choice) and younger child who goes to a childminders.
To avoid clashes a diary would need to managed with military precision and wouldn't allow for traffic delays.

We have 2 cars. We don't live in a city. Public transport is dire here. DH drives about 35-40,000 miles a year for work so has a company car filled with tools and equipment. I have a car for my completely inaccessible by public transport and involving various shifts, place of work.

We live in London, zone 3, we have one car which we use about every 10 days. Husband cycles to work, I walk everywhere or get bus.
Can't imagine this would work as well outside London though.

2 cars here, we have four DC so I’ve is a 7 seater. I think technically we could go down to one but life is easier with two.

We only have one car (my car). DP gets public transport Monday-Thursday so I have the car and take DS to my mums and nursery on them days and then go to work and he has the car Friday and takes DS to his parents and then goes to work and I get public transport. We share the car of the weekend.

It has worked out fine and the money we save from only having one car is so worth it.

We have 1 car between us, DH cycles to work or works from home so I use the car to get to work (part time hours). If DH needs to go out when I'm at work he can walk into town or cycle.

We don't need 2 cars!

1 car but live in London so public transport is better to get to work