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

[Lardlizard]

To your life ?

DH and I have always had one car between us.
I’m a SAHM and he works about 8 miles from home. Having one car was a pain in the arse for a long time just because I’d have to plan my week around days that I could have the car if he didn’t need it to get to and from work, or on days where I needed the car (appointments etc) I’d have to get up with the sun and drive him to work with both toddler DCs in tow and pick him up again that evening.
Now he’s invested in a proper road bike, so he cycles to and from work most days unless the weather is particularly hazardous or he has a lot of stuff to take with him that he can’t safely carry in a backpack and cycle at the same time.

An e bike can be a very good alternative to a second car. Cargo e bikes hold loads, are fast and can easily take kids for short trips.

An e bike can be a very good alternative to a second car
I really miss cycling to work.

Depends on where you live - we live in a village so absolutely need both cars to get to separate work.

I don't think it is, l know we need 2 cars. Different start and end times, 7.30am starts, 8.00pm finishes, night shifts, going to see clients, crap public transport where we work etc. All mean 2 cars are a must have and not a luxury

We'd never cope with one car. Multiple DC all in different schools, I work full time out of home, DH works full time also out of home, apx 17 evening activities throughout the week and a disabled DC. Nope, wouldn't cope

1. DH travels for work and I'm a SAHM.

We car share. However we live within a short walk of good public transport, work relatively close to one another (dh picks me up two days a week eg). At the weekends we either do stuff as a family or the one with the dc takes the car (if far) nd the other uses public transport.

We couldn't manage with just one car. DH works shifts and is sometimes driving to work while I'm driving home and annoyingly we both work in an area 15 miles away which would take nearly 2 hours to get their by bus(es) or train(s)

Two cars because both of us need them for work, both out and about visiting clients and for me it's often emergency short notice stuff. If I got promoted, I would be office based and would then take then bus to work and we could probably car share then.

We sat down to work out if we could get rid of one of our cars because it costs so much to run them. I walk to work and DD gets the bus to school, but she can't get to most of her activities on the bus.

DH can get home from work but not there during the week, and get there but not home at the weekends, so that doesn't work, and currently DS is working with him, so the car is cheaper than 2 lots of train/bus fare. If he took our only car to work he doesn't get home in time for us to go out.

The other issue we used to have when we shared 1 car years ago is that he likes to ride around for ages with the petrol light on (despite running out of petrol twice abroad in really scary situations). I get twitchy once the needle hits the red bit. So I would fill up the car, he would drive it for a week, I'd get in it to go somewhere and the fuel light would be on.

If he does fuel it he'll only put in £20, or 20 litres, while I'd fill it right up. So I was always the one filling it up, and always the one caught out if we needed to go somewhere early.

I also used to leave 50p in the front for parking (this was a long time ago!). He would "borrow" it, and not say anything, so I'd get to the shop and find I'd got no money to park. I also have stuff in my car like coats, spare jumpers etc while he likes to clean his out completely. So I'd make sure the car had my emergency supplies, he'd come along and empty it, and I'd only realise when I needed a change for a wet child to be faced with an empty boot.

Have to have two here . He goes to work at 3.45am and I go at 4.30 am some mornings . I have a 100 mile commute and there's no public transport that gets me there in time . Equally if I'm on nights at the weekend , the trains are always non existent and he still has to get to work at 4 . And that's without taxi ing 5 kids

We’ve only ever had one car, for the last 19 years. We’ve always made sure one of us can get to work without it, wherever we’ve lived/worked.

We've had 1 car for a few years now. It's fine, DH works a mile away so cycles when he's on days and takes the car on nights. I feel sorry for him when I'm at work and he's off shift as he's stuck at home but if he needs the car for some reason he take me to work and picks me up.
It's worked out fine for our situation and we have got a nice car we both love to compensate rather than 2 cheaper cars.

We've had one car for 12 years now and in the early days the rule was "whoever has the kids, has the car"! Now the kids are much more self sufficient so that rule doesn't matter as much.

All activities are local (within 20 minute walk) the shops are local. Bus connections aren't great but we can walk to a decent service. The train is fab and gets us into town in 7 minutes!!

We cycle, walk, scoot and use public transport.

There's a new car club so we might join that for the rare occasion we need two cars (once in a decade) in fact, if it wasn't for my darling MIL being terminally ill and us having to respond to emergencies we could almost live without a car at all.

I'll be working from home soon too, so our requirement for a car will drop again.

We've also agreed to use taxis when needed. Last months spend was about £9 and that was only because DH was away with car and I had to dash to school to pick up a migraine-y child.

We have 2 cars.

We could technically share in a morning. We leave at the same time and dh could go a different way, dropping me off en route. Would be a small detour though traffic would be worse that way once he'd dropped me.

However, we finish at different times. I'd have to walk into town (or catch a bus) and either hang around ages, or catch another the bus home.

It'd cost me more day to day to catch the bus - I park for free, and no petrol as my car is electric. Obviously there is the cost of the actual car and insurance upfront though.

DH could go by bus - its not too bad a journey and not far, but then he goes out and about to see clients either around the city or further afield. Not many of those are quickly done by public transport so it would reduce how many clients he could see, and therefore his productivity for the company.

In the holidays I'd be carless if dh used it for work, meaning I couldn't get out and about so much, which I would hate. He'd have to only have set days for seeing clients away from the office, or having work meetings/events those days, so I could have car access.

So it would be doable if we really needed to cut costs for some reason, but it would have a negative impact on the way we go about our daily lives.

We inky have one - neither of use it for work so just do t have the need for two.

Necessary for commutes in opposite directions.

A car and a motorbike here (plus a pedal bike). I can't ride a Motorbike, and wouldn't be able to ride DHs anyway as it's too big.
Most of the time this is fine. We have been caught out a few times though when he's had the car and I've needed it urgently (like the day when we got notification at 8am the School Buses were on strike... He had to leave work to come and drive them to school). We couldn't manage without the motorbike though as a second vehicle at present. Moving next year and we won't need it for school or work.

Yes we both work and he leaves much earlier than me as he has a long e. We each need a car in order to be able to work.

Dh works over an hours drive away and I do the school run on the way to work, 2 cars are essential.

I work 90 miles in an opposite direction to DH so definitely essential!

Don’t know what happened there *he has a long commute

We need 2. We are 25 miles in opposite directions. He also has to travel often.

We need two because we both drive to work in different directions and neither workplace is easily and quickly commutable by car.
Mine is rural. DH would take probably 2 hours on public transport for a 35 minute commute.