To think it’s not *that* weird to only have one car?

[OnlyTheLangOfTheTitberg]

At lunchtime today I was chatting to a colleague who asked if I was going to an (optional) event in the office on Wednesday. For context, we’re currently hybrid working, 2 office days/3 WFH days each week and as one of the managers (albeit not too high up the seniority tree) I get to manage which days are which myself, with sensitivity to the needs of the business of course.

I said I would have quite liked to have been there but my car is booked in for a repair on Wednesday so I’ve had to make it a WFH day. She immediately said “can you not just use your husband’s car that day?” I said we only have one car and she said “oh” and looked quite nonplussed, as if I’d suddenly started speaking in tongues, and there was a long pause where it looked like she genuinely didn’t know how to respond to my shocking revelation I asked her if she was going and the conversation moved on, so I thought. But then as she was about to go back to her desk she hesitated, and then said “so what does your husband do if he needs to go somewhere while you’re at work?” so it was obviously playing on her mind. I just said, we manage (as it happens he’s disabled so no longer drives but she doesn’t need to know the ins and outs of his medical history, and even if he were still driving we couldn’t afford to run two cars) but it got me thinking…is it so unusual to only have one car between a couple these days?

We have 4 cars between the two of us

Also just to make my post clear - 2 cars is ridiculous and a stupid extra expensce when it isn't even being used.

I can't think of single couple of know, apart from some older couples that have retired, who share a car.
Where we live though there is no obvious central area of employment, and public transport isn't great.

Out of my friendship group, my family and extended family and work colleagues, we all have our own cars.
Looking up and down my street every couple has there own.
Even my mum and dad who are in their 80s have their own.
I suppose it depends on your location and transport links.
If I lived in a city and wasnt an essential car user ( part of my work contract) I guess I'd just hire a car for my longer trips.

We only have one car at the moment. We've gone through spells over the last 15yrs when we had one car or two depending on our circumstances at the time.

Most recently we had cars when we were both working in different offices full time and then sold one during lockdown as it never left the drive. We're still on one car as we're both predominantly working from home and expectations are likely to be a day a week or a day a fortnight each so we should be able to manage.

There's been the odd time it's been a bit of a pain but not enough to be worth getting a second car again yet. I expect if/when one of us is in the office more often or if my job goes back to in person meetings all over the country instead of the current Teams meetings then we'll have to get a second one again to be able to manage the nursery runs.

I wish one car was more common round here! People all seem to have at least two cars (often more for their teenage kids) plus a work van.

We only have 1. But we both cycle to work and only use the car for trips out of the city (and to do a big weekly shop).

We're fairly rural and only have one car. It works really well now, but I have to admit when DD was a baby and DP was working away from home from 6-6, I really wished we could have afforded another!

We only have one car. It's mine. DH has a licence but chooses not to drive so he gets about by walking or public transport. Dd1 drives and borrows my car when she wants to (and asks politely). When dd1 has enough money to buy her own car then we'll have a second car, but I'm not buying it for her lol

I know quite a few people who seem to be slaves to their 'car payments'. We have only once bought a car we could not pay for in cash - early on when 2nd baby turned out to be 2 babies...

We are retired now and split our time between two countries. We could easily afford 2 expensive cars, but we manage perfectly well with one very old car in one place and just public transport in the other.

Oh, and 3 bikes. One each plus a spare in case one needs some repair.

We only have one extremely old car . Both of us walk to work and only need one for Eliot shopping. We really couldn't afford to have two .

One car we use very seldom
Your colleague's presumption is breathtaking btw not just unreasonable.
Hasn't she heard of climate change??

We only have 1 and it confuses people too. But I'm happy to walk a few miles or catch the train/bus whereas a lot of people I know aren't happy doing that on a regular basis.

I think it's quite odd to have two cars unless you actually need them - eg both partners working and neither can get to work without one. There's no way we could afford two (and thankfully only need one)

We only have one car. We had two for a short period when we lived in together but it became a chore running two cars.

When we got rid of it, friends didn't really understand how we could possibly share, until we pointed out that it would work out a hell of a lot cheaper to just hire cars or take taxis for the odd occasion where we both need the car on the same day.

This thread is the proof that there needs to be better public transport options especially for older people and rural commuters

Nope, although right now I wish we did - DH has to stay over out of town for work for the next 4 months one night a week and I have to get DS to and from after school club, which is all local but as I just discovering feels like a massive pain without the car!

We only got a second car fairly recently when my kids reached the age of learning to drive and we needed a small, cheap to insure, manual car for them to learn in. We weren't keen, but it was by far the most sensible thing to do - and actually we are using less fuel as we use the smaller, more efficient car much of the time ourselves.

We live in a village but it has a train station and we usually travel to work by train. There were times when having just one car was tricky with kids activities etc. but we always managed to work round it and it was a good discipline to stop relying on the car too much, arrange shares etc.

We were a minority though and I know very few people here now with only one car. I think if you live in a village/rurally and at least one of you needs a car to commute. Or you both need a car to commute, then a second car is normal. It's worrying if it becomes a default for people who don't need it though.

When we lived/worked in a city and didn't have children we didn't have a car at all.

We only have one car. We had one each but consolidated when we started working in the same place. Lets us have a posher car doing it like that. It's been a problem once or twice but not enough to make it worth buying an entire other vehicle.

Well there is a climate crisis going on and all that.

I only know one family with one car between 2 adults and it doesn’t really work for them so they’re taking out a loan to get another car. In their case, husband always seemed to have dibs on car use and she was always walking in the pouring rain with 2 dc or turning things down due to no lift. Public transport is terrible here though. The first bus gets to be town centre after 9am.

We are rural (i.e. no taxis and buses come twice a day and would be a 20 min walk to stop) and manage with one car. DH is partially sighted so has never driven. He WFH pretty much all week, and I do three times a week but our offices are on the same block in the same city so we coordinate if we need to go in. He is very senior though so can sort of dictate when he goes in. Luckily we like spending all our free time together or it may be problematic!

I think being a one car household must save us thousands

We went down to one car during lockdown. After the battery kept going flat through lack of use. When tax/insurance was due for renewal we sold it. We both wfh and DH gets the train to London once a week. Haven’t missed it at all!