Do you have two cars in your family? And if so, why?

[Homeiswherethedogsare]

Would love my own car one day once I get over fear of driving (another topic) but realise it woukd be a waste of money as I work in central London and don’t need it much apart from the odd days in the weekend.
DH uses the car every day to go to work.
Curious to know, do most families have multiple cars and if so why?
We don’t have a big budget for cars so maybe it would be better to have one nicer one than 2 old and average?

Why? Because we both need them for work and to be in different places at the same time. We actually have 3 as our teens share one too.

So we can both get to work.

We have two and need one each to get to work. They are used pretty much daily.

Nope. Never needed 2. Fortunately. I get that some families/couples do need 2 though.

Any couple/family/household that has more vehicles in the household then they have people who can drive, should have to pay £3000 a year tax on the additional vehicles. (IMO.)

Because one 'belongs' to my little one on the Motability scheme. It's a huge wheelchair accessible vehicle and doesn't fit easily into regular parking spaces as it's wide and too long (a long wheelbase VW Crafter), so on the days when I am not using it to transport him I have a regular car that fits into regular parking bays and is more suited to everyday driving.

We have two. Dh uses the car a lot with our eldest for a hobby and they travel far so I have the other car for if/when I need it

It sounds like you'd be fine with 1 car between you.

We have 2 as we work in different places and it would take us both ages to get to work uding public transport. Probably take my husbsmd around 3 hours without a car. Our son is at school a 20 minute drive from our home.

When I was a SAHM, there was no way I was restricting my life using public transport only while my husband was at work. It would have been possible but where we could reasonably and enjoyably go would have been limited.

So those are our reasons. Totally different set up to you so probably not relevant. Only people with a similar situation to you will be i guess!

Because we both work in very different places and need to be able to get there.

I have two. One is for crime fighting and the other is for the school run. Clearly I can't go into too much detail...

Yes, have to get to work in opposite directions and different hours. DH needs to be 30 miles away to the west for 7am, I need to be 7 miles away to the south for 9:00 after dropping child at 08:45, and leave work at 3 to collect child at 3.20.

Yes but we live in a place with poor public transport. It makes life much easier and means we can share the family responsibilities more equally.

We have 5 cars but only 2 adults. My husband works partly in the office and partly at home. His office is 60 miles away, so he needs a reliable car. I have a 4x4 to get the kids to school because we are in rural south somerset and are often flooded etc. We have a special event car which we keep for fun things, a little kit car that we take to track days, and an old 1980s Ford Escort that my husband is doing up because we both had one in our teens so its nostalgic. All cars are taxed, MOTed and insured.

We could live without both cars, but it makes life so much easier to have 2. Dh commutes to work in his car 2 days a week, the dc have various after school activities they need to be driven to, etc. I guess with one or no cars we'd adjust, but as its not causing financial hardship we opt for 2 because it makes life simple

3 cars here. Husband works away during week - cant get train, needs to get to customers. I work in the community so need to travel around. DD has a job, start time is 6am no public transport to site. She would love to not drive. I would to but I couldnt do my job without it.

When I wasnt working with young children at home we did walk everywhere or use public transport. Life changes though.

What’s the rationale behind taxing people who have more cars than drivers an extra amount? It’s not as if they are going to increase congestion, because they can’t all be driven at the same time. It’s not as if they’ll cause more wear and tear on the roads, because the miles driven will be the same, just fewer in each vehicle. They already pay more road tax and insurance, on which the Government takes a cut through IPT. They also generate more economic activity through maintenance, servicing and repairs, again on which the government takes a cut through VAT. So I’m struggling to see why you’d want to tax them more… If the perceived issue is parking, then generally those with multiple cars will have off road parking, and if not local authorities should control it through residents parking schemes :)

Most people don't have access to London standard public transport.

Unless you work in a city or town centre on a direct route, public transport is likely very slow.

People also like to be able to do different activities than the rest of the household so could probably make use of more than one car.

We’ve got three vehicles;
my car, an xc60, the main family car
husbands truck, an l200, needed for towing but is also handy if he needs to collect any/all of the kids if I cant
husbands van, transit connect, rough as a badgers arse but incredibly cheap to run and just used for work running around

We could live with two quite happily but not with one as it would inevitably mean I would be without a vehicle and living somewhere with nowhere within walking distance and no public transport, I would go quite stir crazy!

We have 2 because 2 or 3 times per week we (or the kids) need to be in different places and the public transport where we live isn't great. When we were younger and lived in a city where there was better public transport and we cycled more we only had 1 car and sometimes it was only used once or twice per week.

I'm the only adult in my house so only one car

But a mumsnetter the other day thought it was perfectly normal to buy, tax and insure a second car (for herself only) so that her neighbours couldn't park outside her house

We have 2.Dd bought herself one a few months ago, despite not having a license yet . The other car is mine and Dh's. Used to get us to where we need to be.

We do. I use mine for work everyday. DH was given his car when his grandad died. It’s old runaround but is handy for him to use for quick trips in the day, dropping DC to clubs etc. he also hates driving my car (it’s very bulky with a big boot for camping trips).

Dh and I are carers for his mum who lives 10 min drive away but 45 mins on foot and public transport. I need to commute to work some days. We have kids that might need various lifts. We like to go out. My family live 2hrs away. I like to visit them.

2 adults 2 children live in countryside and all need to be in different locations at the same time.

We both have to own a car for work as we both need to do site visits/get called out to incidents.

We have always had 2 cars because we each had a car when we got together, and have always had one that was "ours". Neither of us use them for work, most of the week they are both on the drive. We cope fine if one car needs servicing or repairs.
But we have separate hobbies, and often use both at the same time at weekends. There are fast trains to London and can visit limited other towns by train, but other public transport is fairly limited. The one remaining GP is 2hrs away by car and DH visits most weekends, so it means if he is gone all day I still have a car to use.
However our oldest car has literally just died this week, so we are about to find out how feasible it is to just have one, temporarily. (We plan to get another car, because our teens will learn to drive in the next few years)