Do other couples share both cars rather than having one each?

[OhMyGodItsSoGood]

I saw a post on Instagram that was astonished about a set up where a married couple don't have their “own” cars but instead both just share two cars and take whichever one they want when they need it. Monsters, apparently.

I was astonished at the poster’s astonishment because this is our set up and it genuinely didn’t occur to me that it was weird or unusual. We have two cars between us, one big, one smaller, and we just take whichever is more suitable at the time (usually whoever has the kids takes the bigger car). We don’t have or think of them as belonging to either of us.

Opened up a discussion in the WhatsApp chat with my pals. They all think it’s weird too and I am a bit 🤯

I mean it’s not a big deal, it works for us, I’m not upset or worked up. I’m just curious as to whether any other couples prefer this set up?

Eh? I don’t live anywhere ‘secluded’ at all. I live in a small town. I do, however, work on a business park 12 miles away that isn’t accessible by public transport. My husband mainly commutes into London but also has to visit many sites across the U.K., again a lot of which aren’t accessible by public transport.
And apart from the work thing, I have 3 kids in 3 different schools. One is disabled and gets high rate mobility allowance as he cannot safely walk for any distance. One plays county level sport and trains 4 nights a week in another town, with a match on a Saturday. Another dances 3 nights a week and on a Sunday in another, different town. Our disabled child goes to a respite centre on a Saturday 22 miles away because it was the only place in the county that had space available for him.
Without 2 cars we just wouldn’t be able to manage our lives.
Most families I know in the non secluded small town I live in have 2 cars for similar reasons.

We both have large cars, big engines both diesel, both black. We both brought our own car as we have separate finance's. My husband's car is usually untidy and a bit dirty because he's a mechanic, mine is always clean and tidy, but we seem to use his car more than mine.

Are you joking? You do know that vast swathes of the country are poorly served by public transport? You really don’t need to be somewhere ‘secluded’. Many people live where they were born rather than moving to an expensive city centre for the buses! To get by without a car in my small town you would need to work within walking / cycling distance and you would need to get taxis or rely on others giving you lifts to the train station 8 miles away. The buses to neighbouring towns do exist but they are few and far between.

You need to leave your little bubble to see how most of the country operates on the lack of public transport.

The company I work for is on a trading estate, nowhere near a station. It would take 2 trains and a bus and four times as long as it takes me to drive to get to work. This is assuming my local, hourly service hasn't been cancelled (which happens frequently).

For my DCs to get to school they would have to walk 8 miles to get a school bus. Or 8 miles, a public bus (except they are the wrong time) then a walk and another bus.

I only need one car to get anywhere. DH needs another to get somewhere else. Hence two cars.

If you are alluding to using public transport instead. It is impractical. I couldn’t get to work before 11 am and would need to leave at 3 pm to get home the same day. Some days I need to be in work by 8:30 am and stay until 7:30 pm.

I don’t even live anywhere particularly secluded.

We went down to 1 car for about 4 years from lockdown when I started WFH. Unfortunately, it became something of a feminist issue.

DH works in the office a 30 minute drive away (no public transport to that location) and works really long days.

I WFH 4/5 days a week and due to the long hours do all child/dog/parent emergencies and commitments Monday to Friday. On top of that, not having a car meant taking an hour out of work anytime the DC needed to be collected from school, walking a vomitty child 25 minutes back home, 2 hours when I had IT issues for what is a 15 minute drive to my office. 1.5 hours Dragging a sick dog 20 minutes to the vets.

On such a tight schedule even 20 minutes either end of an office day is just untenable for me and I decided not to do it to myself any longer. So I bought another car for £4K a year ago (DH thought it was unnecessary 🙄) and I bloody love that car, freedom on wheels. Some weeks it is only used 1 day, some more. When the DC or my parents are ill, I can be there in a quarter of the time and take a much shorter break from work. It is crazy to me now that I put up with it for so long.

I live in the suburbs of a large city. Public transport is great but it doesn’t go to my work location or Dh’s. It’s not that unusual at all

I’m astonished that you don’t realise that there’s a different world outside the city.

We live in one of the more rural of the shire counties of England. Nearest train station is 15 miles; nearest petrol station is a similar distance. Nearest primary school is 2.5 miles along rural roads with no pavements; nearest secondary school is about 12 miles. Nearest shop (of any sort) is 7 miles; nearest supermarket is 12-15 miles depending on which direction you drive. There is no public transport within 7 miles.

For obvious reasons we each have a car.

In fact, we have four between two of us (at present, including a motorhome). Four is arguably more than we need, but two certainly isn’t.