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?

I am a sahm and need my car to get the kids from a to b, school and playgroup are a 20 minute drive apart so if I had to use public transport we'd never be there on time.
dh works away and needs a car so has his own car.
we've always had our own cars since we could drive though so it would be a big adjustment to have to give one up, I suppose if you'd only ever managed with one car then it wouldn't be such an adjustment.

We have two cars even though we are retired. We live in the countryside and have a number of very separate hobbies which we need to get to. My car is a bigger 4x4 and DHs is a smaller Golf and we can swap them about depending on what we are doing.

We have 3 - me, DH and adult son.

We probably could make it work to share (DH and I anyway), as I only go out to work two days a week, and DH three days a week, but our schedules don’t match up that smoothly. My days aren’t flexible and DH’s need to be

DH needs his for work (he's driving around most the day) I need mine to get to work, can't get there via public transport. Pretty simple really.

My husband and I both work irregular hours when public transport isn’t available. I’d love to have one car but I’d have to ditch my career.

DH needs his for work - literally could not work in his field without it, often working away for weeks on end. I home educate the kids and need to travel to tutor sessions, meet ups, museums, do shopping etc.

We used to share a car as dh would rather get the train than sot in the awful traffic in the city. We live really rural but are fortunate enough to have a train station. But, over the past few years the train prices have got up so much, he was spending £200 a month on the train, and there were the odd occasions life would have been easier with two, so we decided to get a second electric car, as he gets free charging at work, and the monthly payment is half what the train was costing. It's actually souch easier having two cars, and not having to juggle the one between us, and constantly moving the drivers seat into the right position 😄. But, realistically I COULD live without one. I work really locally, and could make do with just walking, but I think I would get bored on my days off if I was just stranded here. Buses are none existent, and Dh wouldn't go back to getting the train now he's got the freedom to drive to work. Although he moans about the traffic daily!

We will have two once we relocate. My Yaris isn't quite big enough for family life and is 15yo. It will hopefully make 20 as a little runaround with the main vehicle being a better family size.

I don't live in London. My life doesn't fit into a neat line along the bus route into town and around DH's work hours/ site visits/ travel.

I do a lot of functional walking including often walking to work, but the car is useful for days when I'm ill, knackered or limited on time. I need a car to do tasks like the family food shop and manage mine/ DCs' other commitments that aren't in our neighbourhood.

We both need a car/vehicle for work.

He works in different locations and has kit to transport and I have to go out on site visits for my job.

If we lived in London, I could see me managing without a car.

The public transport here is dire though and expensive, if we all want to go into town (and not drive) it’s currently cheaper to go by taxi than public transport! It’s about 3 miles/7 minute car journey

We have 5 cars and 2 tractors. Mine my husband, 2 sons and one practical daughter in law. We all work different times and different areas. Due to the cost of houses theres no chance of any of them having their own home soon. My husband is also a former farmer and tractor enthusiast so he has 1 hes done up and 1 hes in the process of doing.
We live in a 3 bed semi as well so hardly a huge farm house with acres of land 🙄

We had one when we started living together but as my OH drove to work and worked late nights and weekends I was stuck with public transport, which was shit. I then got a job where I needed to drive to work, so we’ve had 2 since then. He keeps wondering when we can go down to 1, but even though kids are more independent now, I don’t think it’s imminent. Bluntly I don’t want to be using public transport when he’s out with the car.

We live in a rural village that 5+ miles from the nearest town and there is ZERO public transport. I mean - zero, including the fact that Ubers don’t cover the area either. We both work outside the home, one of us works shifts and we both need to ferry teens around to different places at the same time in the time we’re not at work as well.

We have both had our own cars from early ages, long before meeting each other. We are fortunate that we have always been able to afford this (although we don't have expensive tastes in cars). We live in a small market town with poor public transport, both work 10 miles away in opposite directions, neither of us can or would want to WFH. Our entire lifestyle is built around both having cars, both are in use 7 days a week for work, hobbies, visiting friends and family, shopping, socialising, taking the DCs to places. We both do at least 15k miles a year. I would make a lot of other sacrifices before giving up my car.

Most of us live in places without the benefit of London’s public transport system.

3 cars. I work 8 miles in one direction and use my car in the course of my work a few times a week. DH works 10 miles in the opposite direction. He can't use public transport as the first bus goes after he is supposed to be at work. DS works in yet another direction and again public transport doesn't start early enough as it would be into the city to change buses and then out again. From next month he is going to be working at another site with an hour long commute (40 miles).

We have one each. I don’t need to use mine every day but we’re in quite a rural area and I’d be relying on infrequent public transport if I didn’t have my own car. Our son also has one, thankfully we have room for three on the drive.

Exactly our set up too

I have two just for me, for different needs

could not be doing with sharing a car

I’ve had my own car since I was 20 and would never give it up to “share” with a partner. I go where I want, when I want. Would hate to have to negotiate WFH days etc around another persons schedule.

We have 5 🙈. Main one is mine, electric & new -needed for school run & work. DP has his work van. We have a camper van, & DP has 2 tinkering cars: they're older, modern classics & it's his hobby.

Don't get me started on how many bikes there are in the garage! 🙈 But he's not in the pub, or out constantly, so I'm happy.

We live 20 km from town with two buses a day, I work shift work in town, he works nearly 40km away. We have one in primary, two secondary and one working and none driving so we're a taxi service for them! At times I regret not living in town as I’d get rid of both cars! We both used to get trains before we moved out to where we are and changed jobs

We have 3 . I work 50 miles from home with no public transport other than one bus out of the village , and one bus back , per day . Husband is retired but active , so if he wants to leave home even for just milk , that’s a 8 mile trip . And the third , because I can’t fit my horse in a Yaris .

We have 5, my daily drive, DH daily drive DS daily drive and 2 are vintage VW campers - all well loved and used frequently

Similar here, both have daily cars, work in different places so need one each. Also have a camper van for weekends, sports car for track days, off road buggy for fun stuff and a boring little hatchback for the DC to share!
All are taxed MOTd and insured!