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?

late beloved DH did suggest once that when we both were retired, we could go down to one car. He had motorbikes too so on the face of it it seemed sensible. I said that I would absolutely agree with it provided that I chose it.... he laughed and said "fair cop" and never mentioned it again! I miss that man.

DH had a company car, it’s against company policy for anyone not in the company to drive it.
I’ve got my own car, DH is on the insurance but it’s my car.
Most couples I know have their own car but one is the designated family car that either of them will drive.

Everyone i know with 2 cars, each has their own. But I honestly i can't get over how much it costs just for one. How do you afford two? Or what has to be sacrificed for the second?

We are lucky. Dh cycles. But then that played a huge part in choice of house and his job. It is very much my car. I love it and as the driver/payer, I call the shots!

For me, "getting on" with a car is very personal. If I was in a two-car relationship, I would imagine it would be mine and his.

We have our own as in registered to each of us and separately cover the running costs. (We do have semi separate finances though.) We also usually only drive our own cars although we are insured on both.

But husband has to drive to work on the motorway and I commute to London on the train. If we all go somewhere as a family we go in his bigger car and he usually drives (we both prefer). So mine is more of a little local runaround. We do drive each other's when there is a need to i.e. one is being repaired, or i need to do a motorway trip on my own (my car roars like an angry hairdryer) etc. If we need to drop anyone at Heathrow then it's my car as it is small enough engine not to need to pay the zone charge.

I'm not astonished by people who genuinely share if that suits them. I'm too set in my ways though and naturally prefer my own car even though it's the crapper one.

We don't consider it a sacrifice but an essential to have two, neither of us could do our jobs without one (neither work from home, no employment in our field locally, public transport not a viable alternative). We have each had a car all our adult lives including before we met and are fortunate to have never had to consider going down to one. But we have a smallish house, don't spend lavishly on holidays and other luxuries, choose economical and reliable brands of car, buy secondhand etc.

DH has a company car so he always uses that for work & I have a car that I use for work. However in general day to day we don’t worry too much about who has what car. We always use “my” car for hols as it’s bigger.

we have different cars but we drive which ever one we feel like or is last off the drive…
Lately I have been driving his car as it is electric, to save fuel.

We have a family car and a runaround. As the cars are single file on our drive, it's just whichever car is in front usually unless we're doing some motorway driving or something then we will use the family car.

I would be seriously put out if my husband exclusively drove the lovely automatic, Bluetooth to Spotify, comfortable car and I had to always make do with the very old manual rust bucket when we have both paid for both cars

There’s probably a reason why everyone bought the car they bought, such as preference and practicality, therefore it makes sense to drive the own car as a default, unless there are circumstances where taking the other persons’ car is better (I don’t like driving big cars, DH does, but I’d drive a big car if I have to transport something).

That assumes people had individual and different car preferences - for us it was about “one large family car and one small runaround” and we chose both together to suit each of those criteria. I think it helps that neither of us are particularly fussed about cars beyond one that works for the need we have!

We're like that, one big, one small, choose together, pay together but we both prefer to default to our own, neither are fancy enough to have auto seat setting or similar so we have them set how we like, keep our own things in them etc. Just switch if someone needs the other for a particular reason. We probably drive each other's about once a month each (both drive virtually every day).

We share a biggish 4WD for the country and a small hatchback for town. Makes much more sense than each having our own and having to drive it wherever we were going.

The people who never drive the other person's car, do you never do long drives where you need to share the driving? Or does one of you just take it all? Even if we're doing an under 2 hour day out drive one of us will usually drive there and one back to share the burden. We quite often do long drives to see relatives as well and although one of us could do the 5/6 hour drive it's much nicer not to have to.

Not much choice for jobs if you don't drive where I live. Buses are shocking and only go on two directions. Kids learn to drive ASAP. Not rural in the slightest.

We basically have a 2nd car each, but then try to save for 10 years to pay for the next one. We pay for our own. I'm hoping mine (65 plate) lasts forever, because I love it to bits.

We have our ‘own’ cars because when we bought them we didn’t have children and worked in opposite directions so we did genuinely only need to drive our ‘own’ car and took turns when we were going somewhere together. Now we work in the same town and have kids we take whichever car is more suitable, so I take his bigger car if I’m taking the kids or he’ll take my smaller car if he’s going to the local shopping centre where the parking spaces are tiny and it’s easier to get a small car in without scratching a concrete post when you open the door.

Before DS we had his and hers cars but since then we’ve had a big car and a small car and we both just use whichever we need to.

We have similar although I tend to prefer the bigger car and dh likes the smaller one. We just take which we need at the time or which has more fuel depending on where we are going.

i think if we had two “equal” cars- same size, similar models etc then yes, it would be a more defined one each. If we both had a Vauxhall Astra yes I would think it weird if he took mine when his own was sat idle.

but as most post here have shown, I think that’s unusual. Most couples have a bigger and a smaller, an ev and a petrol- basically different purposes.

nominally we each own a car and are lead driver on one. But the smaller car is “family” teens drive it, small errands etc. the bigger car is used more for longer journeys, when more space is needed…

so not so much a car per person as each car has a purpose.

Well, we have 'our' cars in that one is in my name, two are in his, but practically we use/drive whichever suits our needs best that day - we have a large SUV (practical for dogs, tip runs, bikes etc), an EV (4 seats if the passengers aren't too tall, not a lot of luggage space but costs us very little to run as a company car) and a sports car (2 seats, no space, not for bad weather, only parked in naice car parks).

We just have red car and white car and both drive them interchangeably. I can't imagine one of them being just mine or his.

It is an absolutely bizarre concept to me because in my personal circumstances, it would be pretty much unworkable. I have the kids 99.9% of the time and so my car has the pram, a scooter, helmet, nappy bag, snack stash, spare clothes, waterproofs, wellies, beach bag etc etc etc in it and moving all that over would be a bloody nightmare 😅 i guess from my husbands perspective, it would be inconvenient for me to take his ute and forget to switch over his tools etc.
I think if we both did office jobs, say, so didn’t need extra stuff in the car and if we had the kids an equal amount, it would possibly be different!

We have 2 (actually, technically we have 3, but 2 everyday cars). 1 is dh’s, a work van, and the other is mine, a family car. Dh drives mine if it’s free and he needs just a normal car instead of a van, tax and fuel for my car, which we share come from our joint account. Dh’s van is only driven by Dh. It’s disgusting and I would not want to drive it. 😂 And I have no need to because I have my own car. Dh’s costs for his van come from his personal account as not a family car.

The third car is a vintage vehicle. It’s dh’s though I’ve driven it around the field a bit, it’s not one I drive either. It often isn’t working and doesn’t currently have an MOT. But it’s there, taking up space. 😂

Normal here too. We have an electric lease car for day to day use and a big diesel SUV for long journeys and caravan-towing.

As it happens, it’s usually DH that drives the SUV (because he really likes driving and I don’t, so if we are doing a long trip, he offers to drive). And it’s usually me that drives the electric because I do lots of local daily journeys while DH works at home. Other people probably think the SUV is his and the electric is mine but they’re both just ours.

We have 2 cars and if a large boot is needed to carry 3 teens huge cricket bags and camping chairs we take electric larger car. If one of us is nipping to supermarket or to post a birthday card we'd take small petrol one. Long journeys wed take electric one as souch cheaper.

We have a large car for towing, the tip, and anything else that needs a lot of space and a small car which we often go out for the day in so we take which is most suitable