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?

4 people 4 cars
we all have jobs and need to get there and back

One car, DH uses it to go to work. I use public transport, sometimes I walk.

So we can be at work in different places at the same time…

We didn’t bother with cars when we lived in cities.

We have 2. Live rurally and we both need a car for work

The thing that annoys me is when people have nowhere to park them all, so they block up the street, and cause a load of issues. Some do have ample parking but they can't be arsed to shuffle their cars so still block up the visitors bays while leaving driveway free.

I dream of living somewhere with reliable transport!
3 cars here...dhs, mine and dd1s.
2 are 7 years old, 1 is 9 years old.
Dd2 may start learning to drive this summer, but we can't fit 4 cars on the drive, so I think dd1 will upgrade to my current car, and I'll get an new (used) car and share with dd2.
We keep cars for 10+ years, and 2nd hand cars are really keeping their value atm.

We live in Devon, not super isolated (300yds from an A road!) but next to no public transport. And what there is, is unreliable as hell.

Dh works 40 mins away on a variable shift pattern. I work from home 3 days a week, but I need to get dd2 to and from the station every day for college (variable times), and to work 2 days a week.

We would have to move to a city centre to manage with one car, and even then I'd barely ever be able to visit my elderly parents 2.5 hours away as it would be £185 on the train plus taxis each end. Also couldn't go out often in the evenings (and neither could dd) as dh's shifts are a pain.

I'd love to manage with one car but will find it hard even in retirement unless we move.

I need mine for work and if DH didn't have his he would effectively be housebound as he's waiting for a hip replacement and wouldn't be able to use public transport.

We have four in our family of four 😬

My DH works at home so doesn’t need access to a car as much as I do but we have a big Diesel SUV which we use for long journeys and for pulling our caravan a few times a year. The other car is a leased electric car which I use daily for work/shopping/social visits.

DD is 20 and is a care worker travelling between clients’ homes so needs her own vehicle. DS is 17 and goes to college in the middle of the countryside about 15 miles away. He also has a PT job in a town about 10 miles from home so he also needs his car.

The main reason we got a second car initially was because of all the DCs’ weekend activities in different directions. Then we moved more rurally and public transport is rubbish so it’s more necessity than choice to get to work.

Yes two cars. Partly because we both had a car when we moved in together, so there was never really a conversation about it, and partly because we live semi rurally with virtually no public transport. My job requires me to drive all over the county and DH has a 45min commute that would take 2 hours on the bus.

We have one family car and one 3 door Corsa. Technically the family car is mine and the Corsa belongs to DH but really the family car belongs to DS and whoever is driving him about takes that car. Our nursery is onsite at DHs work so he often ends up driving “my” car more than I do these days.

How old are the children? I have found as they got older the further they need to go. My son’s football team is playing 30 mins away on Saturday and it’d take hours on the bus. We’re travelling about 2 hours for a climbing comp on Sunday too.

Have 2 but could get by with 1 if we had to. Husband doesn’t need a car but life is easier with the 2 as if he needs to be somewhere and I’m l at work we don’t need to juggle

As for parking- we have a big driveway and all four cars fit on it, plus the caravan.

Also - freedom and independent. Can’t be doing with being reliant on others/poor public services.

Then if you can only drive one at once, why the hell has anyone got 3 cars when only 2 people in the household can drive?

The reason I would tax them an extra £3000 for every additional (not needed) car is because in the vast majority of cases, the extra car would be on the road. In some cases, 2 cars would be on the road!

Of course, a bunch of posters are going to come on now and claim they have a massive 6 car drive! 😆

I meant to say as well I actually know very few couples who only have one vehicle - I think only one and that’s because she works full time from home and they have no children so she doesn’t need one in the week. They live in town so she isn’t isolated.

2 cars - one full EV for daily use, school runs, commute etc. and one elderly petrol estate used for holidays and hauling things around.

I keep thinking we need to get rid of the petrol car, but it cost us £5k cash about 10 years ago and the running costs and insurance are about the same as if we rented a car once a year for longer holidays. So we'll just keep it until it dies, I think.

I live in a coastal town in Devon. My partner uses his car to go to work, I use my car for school runs and food shops. Days out etc we use the ‘big’ car. The other one is a simple little run around

Yep, I would put a £6000 tax on you!

We don’t live in London. So we need 2 cars to manage the business of life.

If we lived in London we probably wouldn’t bother with a car at all.

why do you have one car OP?

Two.
My husband has to do house visits as part of his work and I'm a tutor so I travel a lot every day as part of my job (I tutor at the homes of the students I teach).

5 cars here for 2 of us. Why? We like cars! Land Rover for muddy off road and severe weather. Old Merc sports tourer - because it’s lovely and had it from new. DH has every day sports, Porsche Cayman and Porsche Macan for longer distances and I have an electric bmw for my everyday car. We are happy with this and only 2 are ever driven at the same time!

We live semi rurally so my husband needs one for work and I need one to take our children places, go to the shops, attend medical appointment etc. I’d feel panicky if I didn’t have one while he was at work in case I needed to get a child to the hospital etc, also our world would be quite small as buses aren’t frequent/reliable where we are. I’ve always had my own car so know no different.

Because I am a home carer and use it for work.
DH is semi retired, but still needs to be able to get out.
Our public transport is woeful. Last bus from town leaves at 5.30