To ask if you have successfully become a one car family

[TheSecondMrsTanqueray]

DH gets the train to work. I mostly wfh now. DD uses my car when she's home from uni but, although, we live rurally there is public transport and we could put her on DH's insurance.

Anyone given up a car? How did it go and were the savings worth it?

Well I suppose we’ve successfully been a 1 car family for the past 10 years but now finding the need for a second, so about to fail!

3 kids need to be in different places, I ideally take a car to work, so that doesn’t work with club drop offs, also we SO often take the car (7 seater) out with just 1 child in it, or just one adult on their own, feels terrible! Small electric car incoming 🙌

People also need to acknowledge the privilege of being a one car family in many cases.

These threads always get a bit sneery about the 'lazy and profligate' who choose to have a car owners often that's because they don't have space to store bikes securely, can't afford to live in walking or cycling distance of their workplaces, or where there's reliable public transport that they have time to use (if I went to work on the bus, it would add two hours to my day), or are lucky enough to have everything close together so they don't have to do a multistage journey of work via school and childcare drop off and the same on the way home, which would be impossible on public transport, can afford the extra cost of having their grocery shopping delivered rather than dropping into Aldi on the way home etc etc.

We always have been due to disability. You just get on with it? Although knowing 2 cars was never going to be an option means we made certain choices on location (e.g. not living very rurally with no public transport & no pavements)

We manage fine on one car, living in a village outside a larger town. We use bikes a lot to get around, including cycling to the station (when one of us has to work in London), to my weekly running club meetup and to nursery with the youngest (using a trailer). It's a great bit of additional exercise. Very occasionally it would be nice to have a second one but probably less than once a month. I have good rain gear and it's rarely so bad that I don't want to cycle.

My car died at Christmas.
Sometimes our Saturdays take careful planning... DD has a sport in a nearby city which would take 2hrs by public transport so we know the car is needed between 12&4. Everything else needs to happen around that even if it means being dropped off early, waiting around for a pick up etc.
I sometimes need to get up at 5am to drive DH to the train station, and pick him up at 10pm.
I have a meeting tonight ill walk a mile to, even if its pouring with rain, as DH needs the car for other DDs sport.

We have to put up with the bus service that visits every village into town

But overall... its inconvenient every couple of weeks, not every day. Its not worth buying another car over.

Apart from when one of our cars was stolen many years ago and we tried, unsuccessfully, to manage with one car for 4 weeks, we've always had 2 cars. DH has recently retired, and his Pensions Advisor said in a meeting with both of us "don't try and manage with 1 car. It's the biggest regret I hear from clients"
My ageing car was nearing the end of it's life and I've just bought a new (to me) car. We'll reevaluate when that one dies.

We’ve only ever had one. I walk and cycle everywhere in the city. The car is only used for longer trips or carrying heavy things.

We have an electric cargo bike which is our “second car”. That means that despite the crappy public transport in our city, either adult can go anywhere within about a 5 mile radius and also take either or both children. It can also take a large amount of stuff. Because traffic and parking are so bad where we are, we now only use the car once a week or so. We use other bikes too. But this is only doeable if you live in a city and are not cycling on dangerous A roads!

We have but live in a seaside town with good public transport including mainline train service into the city. Summer we walk everywhere, including to the beach , this time of year we use the car more but DH often cycles, we both have offices based a couple of miles from home in the same place which makes it easier, I have to travel morefor work but can get a hire car through work for that.
We dropped to one when DHs old car started to corrode because it was sat still for weeks at a time

ETA the train station is a7 minute walk and there's a bus service at the end of the one Street that runs every ten minutes
And only have one DC to ferry around

We have one car, I got rid of mine after realising I hadn't used it for ages and it was just deteriorating on the drive.

It's been easy for us. But my dc can walk to preschool, I walk to the supermarket (with the old buggy to transport the food), DH often WFH so I can take dc places mid week. There are plenty of buses.

Definitely worth it for us, I hated the hassle of running a car.

DH and I managed with one car for many years. Then DH inherited his father’s car when MIL died (she didn ‘t drive it but kept it for DH’s use when he visited her - she lived 200 miles away). We found it made such a difference having two cars my mum had to go into a care home and I could go and visit her straight from work. Now we are both retired/working mainly from home and don’t really need two cars but we have kept them. Both cars are over 10 years old and not flash. It’s just really handy.

As a pp said, having one, or no car is a privilege for some. We were fortunate to be able to buy reasonably centrally in the city where we live, and that means we only have one car (and don't use it much). So instead of buying, maintaining and fueling a second car, we effectively sank those costs into the house, an appreciating asset. Having said that, neither DH nor I can park at work, and paying for daily parking in the city centre would be extortionate - that would apply wherever we lived. We can cycle to all of our/DD's activities, though I confess we don't when the weather is poor.

I think every single reply has acknowledged the reasons/circumstances why 1/no car works for them.Or in some cases has HAD to work for them.
I don't think anyone has been sneery about it, I thought this was actually a pleasant, genuine discussion of ideas surrounding the OP's question.

We did for one car for about 4 years and it was great. We both got the train work on different days while the other WFH. What changed is our small children are dropped off and picked up at daycare 3 days in a different town and we have no family support. If our car was out (service, we got crashed into) we couldn't drop them at daycare or do the weekend supermarket shopping. I think, when they're at school in a couple of years, we could go back to one but it would have to be very reliable.

To me my car represents my independence and I would hate to give it up x

I think I am the only no car poster and I haven't sneered at anyone who can't or doesn't want to do that. We are also a family who decided to live in a flat with no garden.
Those are our choices. May not work for everyone.

If you calculate the annual cost of your car ownership- inc fuel insurance etc etc you have a kitty that can be used for taxis, trains and hire cars.

if there is a natural break in a car lease or car replacement is coming up, you could hold off, and see what the financial and logistical difference is over the year.
and then make a decision about if you need a second car based on facts instead of but thoughts

We have only ever had 1 car. Husband only recently learned to drive after our son was born and we moved outside of London and to a semi rural area.
So for the longest time we had excellent public transport for most things and DH worked in central London so there was just no need.
I did do a fair bit of running him around when he needed it but I was happy to.

Since moving we have considered a 2nd car as it is much easier to feel 'trapped' here, but so far just like pp have said on the odd occasion we have a need for it we use a taxi or find another workaround.
We both work from home, purposefully bought a house in a village with a range of amenities and all of the schools are walking distance.

If we had a 2nd child that would probably be what tips us over to needing another car though, so i totally recognise my particular circumstances make it easier to have 1 car.

Ho on earth is it cheaper? I can only take 6 uber trips into town or the nearest train station a month for the same money it costs me to run my car.

We manage. Semi-rural with a decent bus service to the nearest town. I walk or cycle most places, kids walk or bus to school. Bus to town for swimming etc. Car pool once a week for hobby - I never drive but have the other kids over loads at the weekend to make up for it. Hire a car once or twice a year for visitors via a local car-sharing app.

Neither me or my ex husband has a car. Public transport or Ubers all the way!

We have talked about it, but we need 2 cars, really. We live in suburban Hampshire, but public transport is sparse. I need a car (Mazda 2 runabout) to go to my ad hoc work as my workplace is unreachable otherwise, and DH needs a car (the estate) to do the family admin (he's retired). Also, we go to the dump twice a month, and we need an estate car for that.

If there existed a cheap local hire scheme, that would be great, but like most, when we need 2 cars, we need them.

We still have 2, despite being retired and having very good public transport. However I hardly use mine (I get the bus/train) - dh uses it a lot more. His is quite a bit older, bigger and more comfortable, plus economical with fuel, and used only for long journeys - of more than say 100 miles.

It incurs the ULEZ charge now so that’s a further reason for long journeys only, like the 7 hour drive to France we’ll be doing next week.

DH and I both need our cars for our jobs so it would be impossible for us. We're also in an area where public transport is incredibly unreliable.

We’re in our 50s and only had on car until 4 years ago when DS turned 17. It was only then we got a second old run around that he could learn to drive in and we could use as a 2nd car. It should be noted that DH has always been happy to cycle to work though so I guess it depends how far your commute is.